Christmas with my side of the family always consists of lots of family time and lots of food. There must be some genetic trait we share that makes us incapable of exercising willpower around food. For example, my sister made a pie that requires 2 hours to chill before serving. Did the pie even make it into the fridge to chill? No, not once in the 3 times the pie was attempted. We polished it off still warm and oozy in about 30 minutes every time. Other then eating we did get several 1-hour massages (for $15 mind you at local massage school) and did lots of shopping.
Have you ever seen a barn like this? Rock City is a local scenic attraction where I'm from. At one time there were over 900 barns painted to advertise this atttraction from Michigan to Texas and in between. The barns themselves are an icon, at least in the south. However, I had never actually been to Rock City, so we made it a priority this trip. It's funny how the locals in an area usually haven't seen what others travel from far away to see.
I'm loving my circa 1970s outfit. I figured wrong that the south would be warm still and had to borrow my mom's college cold weather gear.
Me and my sister and her daughter
After waiting 20 some odd years to go to this tourist attraction, I wasn't sure what to expect. I certainly wasn't expecting these friendly faces. Is this what nightmares are made of or what? Notice Gretle and the pig thief have been dismembered and Goldilocks is in need of an exorcism. Rock City had a whole cave full of the twisted fairy tales. Kinda weird huh?
My sister sneakily caught these pictures of me in some of my finer parenting moments. Me asleep, Aubrey watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on her dvd player.
But I redeemed myself here right? Cuddling my sick little girl. All of the kiddos had a really rough time and freely passed around their illnesses. Even though Aubrey looks so beat here, I was so happy in this moment to actually have a moment to hold her, she usually doesn't allow that.
Everyone, meet Adam, my nephew. He is 4 months old, but he and Aubrey wear the same size clothing and weigh the same. Here he's modeling Aubrey's pajamas. Instead of being complimented that he liked her style, she attacked him.
The relevance of this picture? None, I just love her little outfit here. I'm very glad we got to celebrate Christmas with my family. Another highlight was that we got to talk to my brother, who is currently serving a mission in California. Stay tuned for another creatively titled post called "Happy New Year".
When will it end? Winter hasn't officially started yet (not til December 21) and already I'm DONE! I've had too many white-knuckled, skidding, anti-lock brakes engaged, praying and yet somehow saying bad words in the same breath moments for winter to still be 7 days away. Aubrey at least is enjoying it. The other day she brought all sorts of clothing to me to get bundled up to go outside (see below). I knew she wanted to go outside because she was trying to put her socks on her hands (again see below). She thinks they're mittens.
