Christmas at the White House

Merry Christmas!  The White House Christmas was great and we hope yours was, as well.  Emily must have been very good, because she got everything on her list, plus a few extras.  She's now strumming around the house on her new acoustic guitar and looking forward to starting lessons in the new year.  We've spent lots of time in front of the fire reading great books and watching great movies and are excited to have a bit more vacation time before we head back to school in January. I am ashamed to say that I never got around to sending Christmas cards this year, so please consider this a belated greeting to all of our readers.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!  Enjoy the rest of your holiday break!

Christmas recorder concert at school

Modeling her new UWG shirt after the performance

Polar Express Day!

Check out our cool reindeer hair!

Having some dinner and watching the Santa tracker on TV at Mimi and Papa's house

Performing a skit they did at church about the animals at the birth of Jesus.  That dove mask left feathers everywhere!

Sweet Ringo

John's in jail

Will and Kate dolls from Aunt Liz!  Love these!

Modeling their Christmas PJs and new gloves

Funny table decoration at Mim's - This is me in kindergarten!

Another performance.  I think this was Gangnam Style.

Loving on Nanny...

and Aunt Liz!

Candy for Santa!

Santa came!

He always leaves a pomegranate.

He ate up all of her homemade candy and left her a  note.

Very Johnny Cash with her guitar on her back

Special (smelly) breakfast for the boys

Love this picture with the cats!

I made a Christmas cake!

Abby loves her new  (old) shawl.

They have worn out Uncle David's gift - Just Dance for the Wii!

Future Taylor Swift!

Jingle Bell Trail

Our school's annual Jingle Bell Trail 5K run had a record number of runners this year - over 900!  I'm proud to say that two of those runners live at the White House.  Don't get too excited - Donald and Emily ran the 1 mile race while I stayed inside and handed out race packets to runners.  I did get to slip out to see them take off at the finish line. In the ten years that I've worked at my school, I've never actually run the race because I'm inside working - and because I don't run.  Emily had a great time running her first race and actually wants to train for the 5K next year.  The weather was great, Santa stopped by for a visit, and a good race was had by all.  Come run with us next year!

Wolfie came to the race, too!

Emily and her sweet teacher

Ready to run!

All finished and ready for breakfast!

Christmas Tree Lighting

I got tapped to take Santa pictures at the Palmetto Christmas tree lighting this year and came away with some great family pictures, which we almost never get!  Palmetto recently opened their renovated Train Depot and Museum and it looks incredible.  Hosting the tree lighting and Santa pictures there was a lovely way to introduce the town to this new landmark.  You can read more about the renovation project here:  Train Depot Renovation Project  Enjoy our Christmas pictures!

Future MVP

Emily has taken a great liking to football.  Her Christmas list to Santa includes, among other things, a Falcons football.  She and Donald spent some time playing catch at the park lately and I stayed behind the camera, because I enjoy photography and am also inept at catching.  Love these pictures  of my little girl!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We were so excited to have overnight guests at the White House for Thanksgiving this year!  Our friends, the Zoellers, came down to have lunch and spend the night with their family.  The kids had a fantastic time playing together.  Emily loved having kids her age to play with and spent a major part of the time idolizing their teenage daughter.  We had fun making smores and spending the day after Thanksgiving at the movies.  Fun way to spend the holiday!

Always a good helper!

We put Uncle David at the kid's table.

Is it possible that I made this?  It came out of the pan in one piece AND tasted good!

Smores Time

Football Tournament!

Turkey Jam 2012

Turkey Jam is one of my favorite White House traditions.  Everyone comes over for an anti-Thanksgiving meal (no turkey allowed!) and over the years, everyone started bringing a guitar for a group performance later.  This is kind of funny, because neither Donald nor I can play!  Emily loves rocking out with everyone on her hot pink electric guitar and decided after this year's jam session that Santa needs to bring her an acoustic so that she can play along with Skinner and Adrian at next year's party.  Sounds like a good idea to me!

Yard Work

It's an annual tradition - we stage a big yard work day before Thanksgiving so that the yard is (relatively) neat before guests arrive.  The trees out front drop a huge number of leaves and Emily loves to rake up a massive pile and then go leaf diving.  She has so much fun but I'm always so worried that she's going to be covered in ticks and redbugs later!

Veterans Day

Our school did a fantastic Veterans Day program this year.  We had an incredible turnout for a breakfast in the library, followed by a program that was started off with a local high school JROTC.  The program was followed by the landing of a Black Hawk helicopter on the school track.  The pilots stayed all day and each class was allowed to go out and tour the helicopter - and by tour, I mean they allowed every kid to climb in the pilot seat, press any button, or work any lever that their little heart desired.  They had so much fun!  It was very moving to see so many veterans present at our school and see all the love that the students poured out for them on this special day. Em had a special guest - Granddaddy Don and Cici were able to come and spend the morning with her. Big thanks to all of our veterans for helping to make our country great! More pictures of our big day are available online here: Veterans Day Program

Falcons Fan

I took this picture on the way home from Publix the other day.  I love the reading, but seriously, the subject matter baffles me.

Fall Photo Shoot

Our Japanese maple tree has turned a beautiful shade of red, so Emily and I decided to take a few pictures with it after school this week.  Pretty tree, pretty girl!

Something was skittering around in the bushes. She was a little freaked out! It was just a chipmunk, right?

She chose this pose and location.  Tree hugger!

Thanksgiving Feast

Donald was unable to attend Thanksgiving Feast this year, but Emily still had five visitors at the table with her - both sets of grandparents and me!  That's a lot of turkey.  Our school serves up a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner.  I've actually requested some of their recipes for our own White House Thanksgiving!