We Like to Party!
I can’t believe another year has passed us by! Where does the time go? December always brings about the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and this month was no different. The girls were occupied with gymnastics, tennis, slumber parties, field trips (James K. Polk home), and birthday parties. Heaven gained another angel with the passing of our best friends’ brother, who left us all too soon. We drove to Chapel-Hill for the funeral and it was so warming to see how many people showed up to give their support and love to the family. Although it was very somber, there was a great deal of laughter in remembering how wonderful of a person he was.
We entered another “rite of passage” stage with Brayden now in that we started visiting orthodontists for consults about her getting braces. The decision was to wait another six months or so until her permanent teeth settle in more before they can do (round one) of braces. Gotta love when the implications are that there will be more than one round of them. We made gingerbread houses with the girls, attended Trent’s F3 holiday party and had a fabulous brunch with the Hall family. It’s so great to see all of us come together, but most importantly, to see the expressions on GG & Dadaw’s faces to know that there are four generations of us all living in the same city, able to convene and celebrate one another!
Trent and Brayden had their monthly Y Guides meeting and we enjoyed a date night with our neighbors to see Amy Schumer. She is absolutely hilarious and definitely not for those who are easily offended. Needless to say, we don’t fit that bill, so we thoroughly appreciated her raunchy humor. The stuff that comes out of her mouth. Wow. One evening, we surprised the kids by taking them to ride the Polar Express (donned in their pajamas, of course!). They really do a great job of putting on a production for children…all complete with hot cocoa, a visit to the North Pole, the infamous jingle bell and stamped train ticket. The girls were in awe and loved it!
Trent’s parents drove down from DC to visit us for about six days, along with Uncle David, who drove all the way across the country (from LA)! We treated his family to a showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and everyone loved it (although, there was some discussion afterward as to the numerous references to the older movies and if they were nostalgic or unnecessary). It was Cooper’s first movie and he had a blast. Hanleigh has also notified us that she no longer likes Frozen and has converted over to being a devoted Star Wars fan.
Hanleigh’s best friend from school (who recently moved away), Brody (and his dad), paid us a visit one afternoon and the two hit it off as if he had never left. We had a great dinner at the Dunlap’s house and also went to the Belk Bowl, where NCSU played Mississippi State. Even though the weather was rainy, our friends from out of town made the trek to Charlotte and we had a blast tailgating beforehand. We wrapped up the month with a fabulous New Year’s Eve party in Greensboro at the Bryan’s house, where we discovered this incredible invention called Face Coasters. Check them out. They will make you laugh until you pee your pants. No joke.
Brayden-ism:
- Hanleigh burped while eating lunch at Carolina Place mall. It was a very loud burp and I said, “If you were at home, we would have all laughed, but you need to say ‘I’m sorry’”. Brayden then says, “Hey, at least we aren’t at Southpark Mall.” (This is funny because Southpark Mall is Charlotte’s very upscale mall. Brayden has already figured this out and concluded that no apologies are needed if you burp at Carolina Place, but you should definitely apologize if you burp at Southpark.)
