Christmas, Part III: Carterville

We hit the road Christmas Day and headed to my hometown for our third and final holiday celebration. It was a fun weekend of eating, sleeping, and grandchild-spoiling.

Surprisingly, I was without a camera for a few events (shocking, I know). Allow me to reenact them for you.

Our longtime neighbors welcomed a new addition, and I got to sneak across the street to hold the sweetest little 2-day-old baby girl.


I spent Saturday afternoon hanging out with childhood friends Beth and Tara. I love having friends you’ve known for so long you can’t remember not knowing them.


Andy and I took advantage of free babysitting and went to see Avatar in 3D. Holy crap, you guys, it was the coolest-looking thing I’ve ever seen. Okay, so Andy said the plot was basically Dances with Wolves, and some of the dialogue was so cheesy I laughed aloud at inappropriate times, but the special effects were incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it.


Luckily for you I had my camera out for the majority of the weekend. Here’s what else we did.

Henry and Eleanor were very excited to see more presents waiting for them at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. We told the kids we had to clean up after supper before we opened them. Henry stood right by the table and the minute the last dish was cleared he yelled, “It’s clean, Grandma! Let’s open presents!”


We decorated Christmas cookies, adding way too many sprinkles and then eating our creations.




Andy and I ate a lot and slept a lot and mainly stayed out of the way of the lovefest that is Henry, Eleanor, Grandma and Grandpa being together. Honestly, I think we could have disappeared and the four of them wouldn’t have noticed. It makes me so happy to see the grandparent/grandchild bond in action. Especially when that bond allows me to sleep in and sneak off to movies.