December was such a fun time for the Strange family! This will be a combined Emma:December 2011/Christmas post. Emma and Daddy had some time to themselves the first weekend of the month while I was away on a trip with the Fine Arts department from school. They had lots of fun adventures and ate out a lot! Emma was really in to all of the Christmas decorations this year. Her favorite ornament was a little nutcracker. She loved to pull him off the tree every night and play with him. Everywhere we went this year, she was totally mesmerized with Nutcrackers…especially the one that was the same size as her at the Enchanted Forest in Memphis at the Pink Palace. We had two different fun family nights just driving around checking out Christmas lights and drinking hot chocolate.
Emma is really big in to cutting and taping these days. She loves to do her crafts in the kitchen…actually all over the kitchen. It is amazing how much Emma has grown up in the past few weeks. We really treasured our family time over the holidays and spent a lot of time together. Emma sat down at the dinner table one evening a few weeks ago and said…”Mommy, thank you for making this for me.” Melt your heart! I would have gladly let her eat M&M’s and ice cream for dinner after that!
Clint taught a Financial Peace University Class at Cedarcrest Church this past fall and finished up in mid-December. Each Sunday morning, Emma would hang out in our classroom before I took her to her class. Our family really enjoyed the opportunity to help some families find out what it takes to truly gain victory in the area of finances. I think it really made Emma feel cool to hang out in “Daddy and Mommy’s class”. Emma had a great December in school. She visited with Santa and had a fun class Christmas party. She also formally applied to become a student at North Cobb Christian School next year. I helped her with that a little…but she is so excited!
Emma has always been a snuggler, but the holidays provided lots of opportunities for snuggling on the couch and reading lots of books and watching lots of movies. The Monday before Christmas, we woke up early and headed to the Dawsonville outlets and then walked around the square in Dahlonega. The three of us did that last year and had such a great time that we decided to do it again. The weather was beautiful and we picked up two new Georgia Tech ornaments for our Christmas Tree. We had a bunch of friends over one night right when school got out and it was so fun to catch up and enjoy each other’s company. Normally Clint’s family does Christmas on Christmas Eve and then we drive to Memphis sometime Christmas Day. This year, the Summerville Christmas ended up being on the 23rd. We had a great time at Clint’s mom’s house with all of his family. Normally Christmas Eve is really rushed with all the places everyone has to go. Christmas Eve Eve was a fun new tradition and we all had a great time. We came home that night just in time to go to a party some new friends/neighbors were having. We really enjoyed hanging out with our friends from the neighborhood.
We got up on Christmas Eve morning and went ahead and drove to Memphis. We loved being at my sister and bro-in-law’s for Christmas morning. It was so much more relaxing than trying to hop in the car and drive 400 miles on Christmas. Christmas morning was a lot of fun as Emma and I worked together to make monkeybread for the first time. She had a great time with that! Emma loved spending time with Aunt Katie, Uncle Deedle, Mimi, and Uncle Kevin. Emma absolutely adores Aunt Katie. Katie loves to bake and cook and entertain. She made lots of cookies and fun treats while we were at their house. I didn’t realize what all Katie and Emma had going on behind the scenes until I realized how much Emma was whispering to Katie “Can I have another cookie?” I asked Katie what Emma meant by another? Then…just about that time, Emma asked for a bigger cookie than last time. Busted! We also got to visit Uncle Deedle’s new office. He is so creative and had an amazing vision for the space. It turned out awesome!
We spent the next several days in Memphis visiting with family and friends. We stayed in Memphis longer than we normally do, but it was a refreshing time because we all just needed to have a change of pace for a little bit. On the way back, we stopped in Corinth, MS to hang out with my youth pastor and his family…a fun tradition each year. From there, we drove to Nashville to visit my brother and check out his new apartment. He lives right in downtown Nashville and we had a blast hanging out with him and checking out his new surroundings. We got home on December 30 just in time to take down our Christmas decorations and get ready for the New Year.
Emma is becoming more and more independent as the days roll along. Over Christmas, she decided that baths are for babies and has started taking showers. Her main interest these days seems to be fixing people’s hair. Thank you so much to everyone who has let Emma do their hair. She really is pretty good at it and has started doing her own hair on occasion. As always, we displayed all of our Christmas cards all over the kitchen. Emma loved looking at all the pictures of everyone. Emma continues to be such a joy. Over Christmas break, she was so excited to go with me to Lifeway one day to pick out a new Bible for her and a family devotional. She has fallen asleep several times clutching her new Bible and insisted on bringing it along for all of our Christmas travels. My prayer is that Emma would always treasure God’s word.
Here are some pictures from December 2011 and Christmas…
