Christmas... Parts 2 & 3

Charlotte woke up to lots of great toys from Santa Christmas morning, and by far her favorite is "Bink's Diner", a kitchen / diner complete with bubbling coffee pot, sizzling griddle, & juke box. Her favorite part is the ice cream and the service bell. When she turned the corner Christmas morning, she looked at it, immediately crawled into the booth seat, & set to work. She has played with it pretty much non-stop since. Aunt Amanda spent the night so she could celebrate with us. She and Matt had fun playing with the diner too. Their favorite game is "The Health Dept. Visits the Diner". Bink's has been shut down once, but I was assured that all violations have been addressed and she is back open for business.

Following Christmas morning at home, we went to Uncle Arnold & Aunt Nancy's for the Roberts family Christmas & then we spent the evening at Matt's parents for our smaller family celebration. Charlotte must have been good this year because she sure did clean up in the gift department! Books, clothes, musical instruments, dolls, and more.

Christmas in Alabama

We headed down to see my family for a few days before Christmas & had quite an eventful trip. We got there just in time for the family portrait with Jeff Tesney, a great photographer who shot mine as well as several of my sisters' weddings. He did a great job & juggled all the kids well. We had our big family dinner & a very special visit from Santa!! Charlotte was not so thrilled about that, but she did enjoy her book he brought. Nonnie & Papa then passed out all the presents and mayhem ruled. Charlotte got a Fropper - a very cool cross between a bike & a bouncy toy. She isn't quite tall enough to make it bounce, but she loves to ride it up & down the hallway. I even got to have a girls night out & get together for a Christmas party with all my high school girlfriends. It was a great time until the stomach bug hit (I will spare you the dirty details), but we all survived & made it home Christmas Eve just in time for rounds 2, 3, 4, & 5. I will post pics of that later!

Christmas Preparations

Since I haven't blogged in quite a while, I have some catching up to do. Christmas prep around the Freeman household is fairly low-key. I always have grand ideas of all the fabulous ways I could decorate, but then I just get tired, lazy, and/ or run out of time. So we managed to get a tree & get some cards out this year. Not bad, I think. Here are some pics of picking out the tree, decorating, and trying on Christmas clothes. Also, Charlotte had her musical debut in her school Christmas pageant as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Her biggest accomplishment was keeping the antlers on, as the rest of the time was spent chewing her hand and staring at the audience :)

1st Haircut

Over Thanksgiving, everyone in my family kept asking Charlotte when she was going to get a haircut. Poor baby was looking a little shaggy. We finally went for her 1st haircut today. We went to see Mrs. Amy, a very close friend of Matt's family who has been cutting Donna, Aunt Emily, & Matt's hair for years. Momma Donna was very nice to share her appointment time with Charlotte. Little Miss was pretty good - she sat in Momma Donna's lap reading a book & eating cookies while she got her haircut. It was quite the production: Momma Donna held her, Amy cut, Aunt Emily gathered the locks of hair to keep, Daddy video taped, & I took pictures! Amy was so great with Charlotte, & she even gave us a little certificate for her baby book. The day was a definite success, but I have to say that Charlotte's favorite part was playing with all the singing Christmas decorations in the salon. She created a "choir" of singing snowmen & entertained us all. Thank you Amy for a great 1st haircut experience!

Hot Stuff

You don't get a body like this without some serious exercise folks.....

Disney!!

The entire Hughes family traveled to Disney World for Thanksgiving to celebrate my mom & dad's 40th wedding anniversary. We had a great time & Charlotte was a trooper. She slept on the go, put up with late nights & waited patiently in line to ride the rides. We spent 2 days in the Magic Kingdom & 1 day in Animal Kingdom. Charlotte's favorite rides were Small World & Winnie the Pooh. We saw 2 parades & went to a character breakfast with the whole family. Charlotte was a big fan of the characters from a distance, but when they approached her she freaked out. It was a vacation to remember & Matt is already talking about when we will go back. Thanks mom & dad!!