The Growing Caldwell Family

After weeks of anticipation, it was finally Christmas Eve! Ours was a day packed with church and preparations.  The elves made sure we knew their plans after Christmas! Looks like a cruise is the next plan.  We started with a prayer brunch to celebrate the 4th Sunday in Advent.  This was a lovely time seeing friends at church, enjoying breakfast, singing, and praying for peace, particularly for those in Palestine and Israel.  We came home and pulled together to get final preparations for Christmas Eve dinner finished. Sissy and Charlie are really capable and had good attitudes about helping! Having a checklist for everyone to see what needs doing really helped us all pull together and get it done! Looking so festive for the next church service. Charlie sang with Tomorrow's Promise at the three o'clock family service. We were there early to save seats. Cousins. After church, we came back to our house for dinner.  Maw Maw wasn't feeling up to dinner and we missed ...

We thoroughly enjoyed some time to relax and get ready for Christmas fun!  Rainbow Bobby was sugar loading from Charlie's candy dispenser acquired at his gift exchange.  We baked some of our cookies to enjoy   before we watched Christmas Vacation! Forming the dough and freezing to bake whenever we want cookies is one of the best things I have tried! Fresh cookies when we want them without needing to keep mixing dough all the time! Saturday, we enjoyed FaceTiming with Grancy and Ger Ger as we opened our gifts together! It almost felt like we were really all together.  Lots of baseball accessories for Charlie - spring season will be here soon! New running shoes and slippers were some of the favorites for Sissy. She will be ready for the hurdles in track! In honor of "A Christmas Story," we ordered Chinese food then settled in to enjoy the movie that has become a classic for us! The elves did some ziplining in my office and left a note for the kids to do 3 good dee...

Charlie played at Ziggy's one day and Ziggy came to our house to play the next! They had a great time playing lots of football and took time out to mix up a drink using crushed warhead candies! Sarah Graves went for a sleepover, so Charlie and I took some time for baking! He really wanted to make buckeyes and chocolate chip cookies! Daddy jumped in to help roll peanut butter balls for buckeyes.  We made 9 dozen chocolate chip cookies! Meanwhile, the elves were out reindeer riding and Elfa Claire fell off. Next thing you know, Barbie pulled up in an ambulance and Rainbow Bobby is at her side!  

Charlie and I had a fun time at a gift exchange for his friends.  Moms have a text thread always going swapping information and woes as our boys grow up. I have enjoyed the friendship with the as much as Charlie enjoys the friendship with the boys.  Fun to have something that we can do together!  

It has become a tradition for us to go to The Battery to see Santa and have dinner with Livy and Nay. It is low key, lots of lights, and feels festive.  First, a pic with Blooper as a snowman.  Livy was so excited to see Santa and go over her list with him. He was thoughtful and had lots of questions about her requests! A fun dinner. Even though it was cold and windy, we went to Jenny's Ice Cream! White chocolate peppermint sure was tasty. Before we went Charlie was sure he wouldn’t want ice cream, but a look at the flavors and he had a waffle cone loaded up with several!  Livy is a chocolate ice cream connoisseur, but decided the dark chocolate was too dark for her.  All sugared up, we headed out to enjoy the lights and music as we walked around. Lots of fun and smiles as we enjoyed the festive feeling!