Lovely Christmas

We kicked off our Christmas Eve by meeting my parents at our church. Blake and I estimate there were about 8,000 people at that service, singing Silent Night in unison. That was awesome. We came home to have dinner, and the kids got to open a couple presents each.

Lucas got Georgia a Fur Real pet kitty, and Lulu has become our favorite pet. :) She meows and licks her paws and rolls over for you to pet her belly, but you don't have to feed her or clean a litter box! 

My parents got Nate a real guitar, which he calls a Ki-Tar.

"Dis! Dis!" She wanted her new baby!

Granna read the Night Before Christmas.

And then Santa came! Georgia got a PowerQuad, rocking horse, blocks, pull along puppy, Kai Lan bath toy, rolling ball toy, Fisher Price puppy, a couple books, and a pink poodle harness (aka leash)!

Nate got a drum set, a race track, some Legos and a lego case, binoculars/viewfinder, a book, a movie (Lionel Nation 5), a train (Bash), and an AmTryke (adaptive trike).

The kids must have been pretty good this year!

Here's Maggie spooning with Lulu.

Ahh, Georgia sleeping. That blanket wrapped around her waist is one of her little baby swaddle blankets. :) She still likes to be wrapped up, then she wiggles her arms out, rolls over, and goes to sleep, with her Glow Seahorse.

When Nate came downstairs and saw everything under the tree, he just looked for a minute, then said, "Lionel Nation Number Five?! Look! I got Lionel Nation Number Five!" We were pointing out the drum set and the race track and even the train, and he just kept going back to the train movie. That was probably his favorite gift, of all things, but his second favorite is his drums!

We've taught him to yell "I WANNA ROCK!" and "THANK YOU, LOUISVILLE!"

Georgia just doesn't really get it yet. She picked up various pieces of her Kai Lan bath toy and carried them around. Later, when she opened her stocking, she was obsessed with a spoon and fork.

Look, Lulu! I got Lionel Nation Number Five!

Now he has BOTH "logging locos." (I don't know what that means, but that's what he tells me.)

We had to put Lionel Nation 5 in the DVD player right away.

There's Goldfish in my stocking!

Sunglasses for Georgia ...

and for Nate!

When Granna and Pops came over, the present opening madness continued! What could it be?

Both kids LOVE this trampoline! And Nate shows us how he can jump with no hands! Take THAT, Spina Bifida!

Georgia got a little Dora desk to match Nate's "Car Chair."

This is the AmTryke. It's super cool, but it's going to take some convincing to get Nate to actually ride it. I'll try to get video when he does.

That night, instead of cooking a big dinner, we went out to Buca di Beppo for dinner! We love that place, and we were so happy they were open on Christmas! Nate had such a hard time going to bed last night. He kept saying, "But I'm missing all the games downstairs!" I assured him that Granna and Pops were back at their hotel, and Daddy was cleaning the kitchen and there were absolutely no games, but he didn't believe me. He wanted to talk about our fun Christmas over and over again. In fact, even last night--5 days later--he was telling me little details about our dinner at Buca, like how when the waitress brought our food, he was going to touch the plate but she told him not to because it was hot, so he didn't. Ha! I find it hilarious how little kids remember little unimportant details like that just as much as the important details ... everything is of the same importance.

I have had all week off work, which has been wonderful after such a crazy month. On Tuesday, we went to French Lick, Indiana to an indoor water park/hotel. This was our "family gift." That evening we got to ... Are you ready for this? ... ride on a REAL TRAIN!!! ... WITH SANTA!!!!! (who was on vacation after his big busy season) AND eat cookies and drink hot chocolate. That is like Nate heaven! (except the hot chocolate--he won't touch the stuff) It was really so much fun. And that night it was, of course, exciting to order pizza and stay in a hotel. Nate just talked and talked and talked and asked endless questions! At one point after he asked me like the 100th question, I said, "You sure do have a lot of questions!" He said, "Daddy, I talk a lot!" That's his latest thing he always says, "Mama, I have a question." Even if he doesn't really have a question. After I put him to bed, he always calls me back up because he has a question, and then he asks me something like if I remember that the waitress at Buca di Beppo told him the plate was hot and then he didn't touch it. :) 

Anyway, the next day we got to the water park by about 9:30 am, and the kids played HARD until after 2. Nate really liked playing with his life jacket on in the big pool with Blake. But there was also a baby/little kid area that had a fun little water slide. He sort of wanted to do it and was sort of scared to (last time he got on a water slide, he busted his chin), but I made forced him to do it with much protest, and of course he loved it! He went down that slide probably 100 times. He waited in line with the other kids, learning to take turns, not skip in front of each other (and not overcompensate like Nate did at one point by letting every go in front of him continuously), then he climbed up the steps, waited for the kid in front of him to go down the slide and get out of the way, and then slide himself down and swim away quick. It took a lot of coaching at first, but I was really proud of him. There have been times when we didn't know if he would be able to just play independently like all the other kids on something like a water slide. But no one would have been able to tell anything was different, unless they saw the scar on his back. That's the thing--no matter how big Nate gets, and how "able" he is, we will never take it for granted. We watch him in awe.

Tonight is a low key New Year's Eve, just watching a movie (or blogging while half-watching the movie Blake is watching). We have a lot of work to do this weekend to get our house put back together and everything organized for me to head back to work and for the kids to start at their new babysitter! Blake will continue to stay home in the mornings, and Mon-Thur, Georgia will go to the babysitter's house for 4 hours while Nate goes to school. On Friday's, they will both go. I'm really excited about this and think it's going to be a good fit for all of us. We actually knew the sitter--she worked at our pediatrician's office! And I found out in a really round about way that she was leaving that job to start an in-home daycare. She is very sweet and wonderful with kids. She has a 4 year old girl of her own who is so excited about playing with Georgia every day (and an older son who Nate thinks is really cool). She's also going to be watching another family's kids. I think Georgia is going to love being around other kids for a few hours a day, and I am so confident in the sitter's ability to care for both kids. Georgia starts on Monday!

Well, I hear Nate is back up, at 11 pm, talking a mile a minute. He came down with Blake, saying, "Hello, mama. I just came down for a little snack and a little drink." Looks like we'll be ringing in the new year with the 4 year old! Happy New Year's to everyone from the Payne family!

Seven Christmas Parties and a partridge in a pear tree

I have to admit that I was not looking forward to the holidays this year. The calendar looked a little too wild, and among all the Christmas parties, I didn't see any room for Christmas joy. Every December is a bit of a scheduling issue because of course we want to have special celebrations with all three sets of our parents, plus grandparents and other special traditions. This year got a bit more difficult because for SBAK, I was responsible for hosting five Christmas parties. It just so happened that all of these celebrations fell on different days--amazing, really. But as crazy as this month has been, I have enjoyed it so much and have realized how blessed I am to be surrounded by family and friends and to actually get paid for stuffing stockings for little kids and spending time with other SB families.

Our first party, the first Friday in December, was the Lexington SBAK party at GattiTown. Don't tell anybody, but I think this was my favorite SBAK party because it was so much fun and the least amount of work. :)

Nate was reunited with his buddy Nathaniel.

This was the beginning of the month, so Santa hadn't had time to bulk up on cookies and such yet. He was looking a little on the skinny side.

Georgia is just at the beginning of her "afraid of Santa" phase that will probably last for the next two years.

We were supposed to go to southeastern Kentucky the next day for another SBAK holiday party, but had to cancel it due to lack of RSVPs and weather. I was disappointed about that, but I sure did enjoy the rest. That Sunday I took the kids to the SBAK "Decorate your own Gingerbread House" event--I didn't even have to work! I just enjoyed it. In fact, Nate did most of the decorating with the chef, and I just took pictures and helped Georgia snack on candy.

The next weekend I hosted two SBAK parties in Louisville--one for adults on Fridayand one for children on Saturday. It was A LOT of work, but both were fun parties and very successful. I love it when everyone leaves saying, "This was so much fun!" Unfortunately, I have no pictures of me and the kids from these parties. But here are a couple pictures of other people. :)

Then on Sunday of that second weekend, we went to Indiana to celebrate Christmas with Papaw and Grandma and family. The kids had a blast and got lots of presents.

Unfortunately on the way home, we got stuck in a snow storm, and there was a bad wreck that had us stopped for two hours. Brian and Sunny were stuck right in front of us. A two hour trip took us five hours! But thankfully we got home safely.

That brings us to this past weekend. On Friday was our last SBAK holiday party in Bowling Green. I think it was this day that I decided that I was silly for being stressed about planning these parties. It's a joy to make the preparations and spend time with these families.

My kids got a lot of Santa's lap time this December.

Okay, this is where it started getting really crazy! We got home from Bowling Green around midnight Friday, and at noon on Saturday we left for a 4 hour trip to Martin County! But I was so excited to get to spend Christmas with my Granny and Papal and aunts and uncles and cousins. Last year when we decided we were going to spend Christmas at home, that meant missing my Granny's Christmas Eve celebration that I had been to every year of my life. This year, they moved it to the Saturday before so we could come. Awww and Yay!

Nate was so busy playing ball that I don't have any pictures of him. But check out Georgia in her Christmas gown! My mom found this for her and says it is exactly like the one she had for me when I was Georgia's age. What a cutie!

We spent the night, and the next day headed back to Louisville for Christmas with Memaw, GrandBob, Brian, Sunny and Koko! Janie kept asking if we were exhausted, but really we were fine and having a great time! Sunny made an excellent dinner, and every now and then I find myself wondering if they still have leftovers. :)

Haha, she does not look thrilled in this picture to be getting clothes, but she actually loved them and carried each little outfit over to me to show me.

Then commenced the flipping upside down. Be forewarned: If Nate asks to sit in your lap, he's going to want to flip backwards. And he's going to want to do it for the next hour. And then Georgia is going to want to as well.

Georgia is getting friendlier and doesn't always have to be on my hip! Progress!

So instead of being as stressful as I thought, this month has been filled with so many blessings and so much fun. Every day Nate asks which Christmas party we're going to today. :) When we get in the car, he says we're going on a "credible adventure" or having a "tastical day."

And after all the busyness, my shopping is done, and we get to just stay at home this week and next week. Nate is out of school, I have a relaxed schedule at work, and we have nowhere to go. My parents are coming this Friday to spend Christmas with us, and we're so looking forward to this family time.

One damper on our season is that we have lost our nanny Alisa. :( Luckily it happened at a time when I could arrange my work schedule to be at home, and we have some good prospects for new childcare, which will need to be decided by January 3rd. We are certain that all this is happening for the best and that God will open another door for us. Please pray that we'll find someone we trust.

So this was a whole lot of Christmas-ness, and our family wishes you a Christmas full of joy and love!