One Little Word.

Every year Ali Edward's encourages her blog followers to choose "one little word" for the new year ...


This year I'm choosing the word simplify.

Life can be easier, run more smoothly and be less cluttered.

It's time to simplify things in 2011.

What's your one little word?

Christmas 2010.

Griffin ran into our bedroom on Christmas morning ... it was time to go down stairs to see if Santa Claus had visited!


He waited patiently on the stairs ...


He discovered Santa Claus had been here!


Checking out everything Santa brought ...


Opening his first gift ...


The present he asked for over and over ... a rollercoaster toy!


Love this picture of Griffin giving Grandma her special gift from him.


Griffin with some of his loot ... see the trampoline? He LOVES it!


And we enjoyed pecan pancakes ... a Christmas morning tradition. Mike always cooks them and they are so good.

We had a such a fantastic Christams!

Snow Sledding.

Not only did we enjoy a snowball fight on this wonderful winter day ...


Griffin also enjoyed sledding down the hill in our backyard


He's gotten really good at positioning himself on the sled and then pushing off to head down the hill


Just look at him go ... happy sledding!

Snowball Fight!

How can you enjoy a snow day without having a snowball fight?


Griffin decided to ponder his snowball attack mission over by the hemlocks in the backyard


The snow was perfect for snowball making ... just wet enough to help them stick together


Mmmmmm ... wonder who he's going after?


He's quite good at this covert mission ... he runs to the side of the house and them BAM! throws his snowball at his target (me!).

We love playing in the snow together ... it's one of our favorite winter activities.

Snow Angels.

Certainly one of the joys of snow is making snow angels ...


First you lay down in the snow ...


And then you move your arms up and down ...


And then you gently get up to reveal a SNOW ANGEL!

Gently Fallen Snow.

We enjoyed a nice gentle snow the other day ...


I love how our house looks at night with the Christmas lights on and the snow sparking.


See that blob on the ground on the right? It's our blow up airplane flying Santa Claus. It wasn't turned on in the picture so it kind of looks like Santa crash landed in our yard.

Our Christmas Tree.

Christmas is by far one of my favorite times of the year.

One of my favorite parts is decorating our Christmas tree. I look forward to this every year. I so enjoy opening up the boxes of Christmas decorations and remembering something about each one.

A friend likened our tree to something that was professionally decorated. That warmed my heart because I truly spend alot of time displaying each decoration.


Over the past 15+ years I have collected all different kinds of decorations. Many of them are handmade by family and friends. Those are the ones I hold closest to my heart.


As you can see in this close up view, many of our ornaments are handmade. See the light blue hand knitted stocking? Aunt Bonnie made that for Griffin. The red heart ornament that looks cross stitched is actually a Hallmark ornament and it reads "1985 Our First Christmas". Love that one too! Of course we have to brighten up the tree with a few fancy, schmancy red glittered balls as well.


From this view you can see many of the handmade dolls and teddy bears I add to the tree each year. These are very special to be because it's the only time of year they are on display. The dolls were handmade by friends many years ago. Most of the teddy bears are either Ty or Boyd's. You will also see many ornaments I've picked up from our travels. Everytime we visit somewhere I pick up a Christmas ornament to add to our tree. I have ornaments from Canada, Seattle, Savannah, Florida, San Francisco, Washington DC, Texas and more places. You will also find alot of ornaments Griffin has made. They are my absolute favorites! I also love displaying little pictures in frames on our tree.


Each year I add two white doves to the very top of our Christmas tree. For me they add the finishing touch that we need. They are placed there in memory of my Momma & Daddy. I love looking up to see them looking down upon us. Truly symbolic I would say.

Operation: Imagination Contraption

Right now "Phineus & Ferb" is Griffin's favorite tv show.

He enjoys trying to create some of the same kind of projects the boys create on the program.


This is his latest "contraption" as he calls it.

It's totally a Phineus & Ferb inspired contraption, mind you.

On one of the episodes P&F created a rollercoaster in their backyard. Although Griffin and I built one out of popsicle sticks (can't believe I never took a picture of it) he wants to build a "real" one. Good thing Santa Claus located a rollercoaster kit to leave for Griffin this Christmas.

Oh! Gingerbread {Boy}

We are all decorated up for Christmas ... gosh, I love this time of year!


While Griffin was at school the other day the "Tractor Fairy" stopped by and delivered this sweet gingerbread cookie to him. He enjoyed every single morsel of it.

Griffin has no idea but we are thinking about getting him a trampoline for Christmas. His Nana said if any kid in the world needs a trampoline it's Griffin. I agree with her. We have a specific one in mind, not too big ... not too little. Keeping my fingers crossed we find the one we are looking for.

We are going to enjoy playing in the snow today and baking Christmas cookies with friends. So looking forward to that!

Snow!

We've enjoyed two snowfalls so far this year ...


The first was Monday and Griffin enjoyed his first "snow day" off of school.

Today we've had another snowfall. As of now it's been snowing consistantly for 6 hours. Wonder how much will accumulate this time around? Almost a year ago we had a severe snowstorm and it lasted for days.

mmmmm ... maybe I should have brought in more firewood.

My Handsome Hunter.

Seems like ages since I last blogged ... we've been keeping busy and getting ready for Christmas.


Mike went hunting in Texas the week after we returned home from Florida.

He bagged a 10-point buck. Our freezer is now full of deer sausage and meat.

I'm so glad he was able to get out to Fred's farm and enjoy some male bonding time with his best friend.

It's another snow day today ... Griffin and I are just hanging out watching Christmas movies, drawing Christmas pictures and staying warm by the fire.

I so enjoy this time of the year!

His First Lost Tooth.

When we were in Florida Griffin woke up with a loose tooth. He was hoping to lose it while we were there, but it held on even though he wiggled and wiggled it.


Yesterday when I went to volunteer at his school for lunch he was very excited because he had lost his first tooth while playing at PE!

All of his classmates kept telling me "Mrs. G, Mrs. G, Griffin lost his first tooth". I think they were all almost excited as much as he was!

Last night he put the tiny little tooth under his pillow in hopes the toothfairy would stop by. He kept saying the tractor fairy was coming, but I assured him the toothfairy would be the one to visit this time around.

That sweet little Toothfairy fluttered her way under Griffin's pillow last night to retrieve his first lost tooth. He woke up and found a little note, a five dollar bill and one of those dollar gold coins. He was SO excited!!

I so enjoy experiecing all the first with our sweet little boy.

I've said it before and I will say it again (and again & again) ... it is a joy being his Mommy. I love him so much!

The Train Ride.

As I mentioned in my last post we took the Amtrak train home to Florida for Thanksgiving.

Griffin has always wanted to ride a train so my wonderful husband decided to book us a large private room on the Amtrak headed south.


This is south bound 91 train ... Whoo Whoo! This is actually a picture of it after we arrived in Florida. It was dark when we left Richmond so I didn't get a picture before we left.


Our room was nice. It had a nice long couch and an additional chair for sitting. We also had a private bathroom, sink and shower area. The couch pulled out into a double bed and there was a pull down unit over that like a bunk bed. Griffin slept in the bunk bed area. Mike and I "slept" in the double bed. Slept is such a relative term ... it was actually VERY hard to sleep on the train. Even for someone like me that can sleep anywhere.


Mike enjoyed having the chair and table area for his computer.


Love this picture of Griffin in the dining car. The train was rounding a curve and I took a picture so you can see him with the train in the background.


We enjoyed several meals on the train. Our trip actually took 20 hours to get there and 20 hours to get back home on the return trip. Our meals were included in the ticket/room price. They have excellent food. The first evening we enjoyed a nice thick, hearty steak. The dinner on the way home was mahi-mahi with etouffe. Delicious!


This is a picture of us at the Winter Haven train station. Waiting for our train to pick us up and head back home. Seems like the train is always running "20 minutes late". While we were waiting a freight train came through. Griffin thought that was AWESOME!


Bett took us to the train station and we were surprised that Bonnie and Jerome came to see us off too!

That citrus plant you see in the background is W.G. Rowe ... they make Noble orange juice. It smelled so good!

A funny thing happened while we were on the train. Pop & Nana asked us to call them when we were close to the Davenport crossing. They wanted to come down to wave goodbye to us. They arrived and pulled over near the crossing. While they were sitting there a police car pulled up behind them to find out what they were doing. They explained to the officer what was happening and he laughed and thought it was neat. He waited until he heard the train coming and then turned on his blue flashing lights so we could see them better. Wasn't that nice? It was great "seeing" you Pop & Nana as we passed through your neck of the woods.

We did enjoy our train adventure ... it was quite the experience!