Christmas in Clayton

We left for Georgia in the morning on December 23rd about half a day after Layne arrived home from his work trip.  We left later than we had planned (we were up until 2am trying to pack) but luckily our drive was fairly uneventful.  The only unexpected stop was to clean up Alayna and the back seat after a bout of motion sickness.  While I was helping Alayna get changed into her spare clothes (be prepared!) she told me that she didn't throw up because she was sick but rather because her inner ear got confused.  She explained to me that it was because she was looking at something stationary (her word) for too long while we were moving.  She promised to look up from her book if she started to feel bad again.  :)  Finally we arrived at my dad's house in Clayton.  I didn't take any pictures the first night because we were busy with dinner, visiting and bedtime.  I did snap plenty of pictures the next day though.

Jacob and Grandpa

Jacob playing with my favorite nativity.  My dad got this in Africa when he was in the Peace Corps. 

James was so excited about his bulldozer.  I have NEVER seen a toy that was more securely attached to the packaging.  I'm not kidding folks, we needed a screwdriver to take out 8 screws!  Insanity.  He eventually got to play with it though! 

Ada was so funny with her presents.  She wasn't all that interested in unwrapping them but once she saw each one of the two beautiful dresses she got the sort of lunged towards them and pulled them to her.  You would have thought they were teddy bears!  She was a very happy little girl.  

Enjoying her snowman dress...

I guess I didn't get pictures of Alayna and Jacob opening their presents but now I'm thinking that may have had something to do with Operation Dozer Freedom.  Alayna got a wonderful, warm coat which she really needed.  (The zipper on her coat had broken a couple of weeks before and it was really too small anyway.)   She recently told me that when she is wearing her new coat she "can't even tell if it's cold or not!"  Jacob got a Conch shell shaped drawing tool made of graphite and he also got a nice pad of drawing paper for his masterpieces.

The weather was wonderful and we spent a good bit of time outside.  I love this picture of Layne and Ada.  Do you think they are related???

Grandpa taught Alayna how to climb a tree in the Magnolia tree in his front yard.  She was very adventurous and made me a bit nervous but I told myself that she was making memories and resisted the urge to tell her to come down.   

So High!

My Big Girl

She is getting so big. 

And so pretty.

The necklace she is holding is from Mimi.

Mimi is my dad's special someone.  

I would say girlfriend but that doesn't seem sufficient.

Layne and the kids reading about magnets.

I tried to get a picture of the kids under the tree before we left for Athens but this is what I got.  This is the first shot and they only get worse.  

When we headed out to the van to go to Athens the kids ran to the bench under the tree again.  I decided to try pictures one more time.  Look at that little cutie!

They were still pretty goofy...

...and we were missing Mimi!

 She came and realized that Ada's little chin was trembling. 

(We hadn't put jackets on because we thought we were getting in the van which warms up pretty quickly and is equipped with blankets too.)

Mimi is telling us how cold Ada is...

 ...so we just took one more.

Goofballs.

We went down to Athens for most of the week but before heading back to Maryland we stopped in Clayton for another overnight stay.  It was colder the second time around but still wonderful.  Jacob worked up the courage to tackle the Magnolia tree with help from Grandpa.

He went up a couple of branches and that was plenty for him!  Jacob has always been my careful, cautious child and I'm thankful for it. 

Look at me!

 Alayna Up Again

All of our adventures really wore Alayna out. 

It was a perfect ending to a perfect trip.