Jingle Bell Trail 2013

Our little school has hosted Jingle Bell Trail, a 5K/1M fundraiser fun run for the past 17 years. JBT was the first of the Fayette County school runs and remains, by far, the largest with an average of 800 runners each year.  We are very proud of our run and love to hear tales of runners coming from other cities, counties, and even states (we had runners from Florida, Alabama, and Wisconsin this year!) to run our 5K; we're also very proud that many people register each year simply to obtain one of our very popular t-shirts.  We have an enormous sponsor base and incredible community support.  Donald and I are very proud that Emily was one of the hundreds of runners jingling along the paths last Saturday as she completed her first 5K.  They had a blast and I was able to get some great pictures of them starting out on the course and then crossing the finish line.  We're very proud of our running girl!

Look who stopped by to visit!

Fabulous head gear.

Cici came alone to show her support.

Getting ready to head out - it was REALLY cold on Saturday morning!

Check out the snowman to the right of Emily.  We love our JBT runners who come in costume! There was a whole group of Frosties running together this year.

About to cross the finish line.  Notice that the reindeer antlers have changed heads somewhere along the course!

Christmas Tree Lighting

I was asked to take photographs with Santa at my hometown's Christmas tree lighting again this year and had a blast seeing all the little children's faces light up when they met the big guy - many for the first time.  I got a few pictures of Emily, Abby, and even a mother/daughter shot, which can sometimes be a rarity.  Even though it was a rainy night, we had a great turnout.  Great way to kick off the holiday season!

Snow in Georgia!

That's right - we got a dusting and I photographed the whole thing.  We had enough snow on the patio for a snowball fight.  Emily woke us up bright and early to let us know it had snowed - she was already wearing boots and a puffy coat.  We already had bread and milk on hand, so we didn't need to make an emergency run to the store, but I'm anxiously watching the news for more reports of flurries so that I can make the trip for posterity.

Nightcrawler Visit to the Zoo

Donald and I were recently asked by a teacher friend to help chaperone an overnight trip to the zoo.  We said yes and took  Emily along for the ride.  What a great experience!  We spent a (cold) evening wandering the zoo, looking behind the scenes, meeting various animals up close and personal, and then bunked down for the night in one of the zoo's educational buildings with a bunch of teenagers.  They were very sweet to Emily and our group leader, Miles, couldn't have been more wonderful.  He was full of all kinds of interesting information  for example, did you know the zoo only feeds the animals white food?  ie - white mice, white rabbits, etc.  This way, if they see a zoo animal eating a non-white animal, they know the zoo animal caught something and had an unapproved snack, and so must be watched for illness for a bit.  Who knew?  I know now because I've seen all the frozen white animals stacked up in the zoo fridge - bleh!  The next morning after breakfast, we toured the zoo by daylight and got to see lots of animals having breakfast and getting ready to begin their day.  We're hoping to try an overnight at the aquarium next!

Getting ready to turn in for the night - I love to see her reading!

Panda cam - I could watch this all day. I bet someone actually does.

Live animal encounter!

Random Assortment of Pictures

No real theme to this post - just a bunch of pictures that I though merited sharing!

Helping Mommy try to learn to make biscuits.  Emphasis on the "try" party.

My animal loving girl

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Ladybugs and Beaus playing together on Halloween

Fall photo shoot

Practicing her new favorite past time - whittling.  Seriously.

Fun mail care package from Amy B.

Chillaxing in the sun at Panera

Thanksgiving Feast with the whole entourage

Feast Day

Auntie Yam's XXth birthday cake.  I actually made this!

Goofing around at the Mill.

Happy Halloween!

We celebrated Halloween White-House style again this year with a big tent in the yard and ten zillion trick or treaters.  Our neighborhood is really busy on Halloween and we have our whole family over to have dinner and help manage the crowd.  Emily and Donald put in many long hours creating a fantastic Minecraft creeper costume - it was a little tough to walk in but looked great and was the ency of many a trick or treater over the course of the evening.  For Book Character Day at school, we went as Skippyjon Jones and Little Red Riding Hood.  I'm sure you can tell which is which by looking at the picture.  Hope your Halloween was full of good treats!

Two doctors at the White House!

I'm proud to announce that I defended my dissertation last month and there are now officially two doctors at the White House.  Hooray!  Ringo and John gave me lots of support in getting my paperwork finished up, as you can see from the pictures below.  Emily and Donald supplied me with some fabulous doctoral swag in the form of a Michael Kors purse to give me a little extra confidence during my defense.  I'll actually graduate on December 14th, but it was awfully satisfying to go ahead and change my email signature line to Dr. Amanda White!

I feel like a wizard in this getup.

Georgia vs. Kentucky

Donald and my ladybug girlfriends took me for my first college football tailgate to the Georgia/Kentucky game in Athens.  We had a fantastic time spending the day eating delicious tailgate foot, reverting to our high school selves, and trying not to freeze.  Can't wait to do this again next year!  Who would have ever thought that I would say that about a football game?  It's true - I didn't really know what was going on on the field, but the experience was fun, all the same! Good company always makes for a good time. The were even sweet enough to bring me my favorite, cookie cake and champagne, to celebrate my dissertation defense!