A little bit of this and a little bit of that

We stayed in town for Thanksgiving so that we could meet cousin Jordan's soon-to-be bride, Emily, at a shower at Lovie's and I'm so glad we did....not only did we meet her, but we got to meet our new nephew, Joseph Wells Patterson!

We celebrated the approaching holidays with lots of our usual favorite traditions....

Carriage rides through luminaries in Kimbrough Woods

Bass Pro Shops Winter Wonderland

Enchanted Forest at Pink Palace 

Alpine Village

Snowflake Daddy Daughter Dance at Farmington Elementary

as well as a few new ones!

Caroling with St. Patrick friends in Kimbrough Woods 

Girl Scouts in the Germantown Parade

Polar Express Train Ride

And as always, P and Pop came in town for Christmas and we spent most of Christmas Eve putting together their gifts for the kids.

After church and our annual spaghetti supper, Pop read "The Cajun Night Before Christmas" and the adults stayed up for a round of "Cards Against Humanity".  I don't think I've seen P laugh that hard EVER!

I asked him to bring one bottle of wine.....

Christmas morning was filled with lots of excitement for the kids.

We celebrated with the Pattersons at Lauren and Andrew's, as is our tradition.....

And then headed over to Lovie and Papa's that night for Christmas dinner. The kids put on a sweet Christmas Story pageant for all of us and I think we all enjoyed the reminder of the importance of the day. I felt very blessed to have been surrounded by all of those that I love.

We rang in 2016 by hosting an open house. There was lots of food, plenty of champagne, and great memories with even better friends!

January was a pretty busy month all in all, but it was a great start to the new year!

Gray learned to play futsol

 

and went on his first duck hunt!

The kids enjoyed a snow day with neighborhood friends

I pulled off my 7th successful Staxtacular event!

I was glad to be done with my big event after all of my hard work. But instead of relaxing, I got a wild hair and booked a ski trip to French Lick, Indiana for our family. I figured that it was a much more low-key way to try out the whole skiing thing and it turned out great!  The town of French Lick was precious, the kids did great skiing, and we had a blast hanging out with our friends!

We also showed our support for the Paige Robbins home by attending their annual gala in February. We had a great time dancing and bidding with friends and of course, a night away from the kiddos was a bonus!

Until next time,

The Pattersons