{"id":10556,"date":"2017-01-21T16:32:37","date_gmt":"2017-01-21T21:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=10556"},"modified":"2017-01-21T16:32:37","modified_gmt":"2017-01-21T21:32:37","slug":"emma-and-eli-december-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=10556","title":{"rendered":"Emma and Eli: December 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

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December brings the season of excitement! \u00a0If you aren\u2019t careful it can quickly become overwhelming busyness\u2026but I\u2019m so grateful for the perspective of enjoying the excitement! \u00a0The season of Advent is meant to be a time of preparing for the coming King. \u00a0In the Strange house, we made the most of all 31 days of December!<\/div>\n
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Emma was helping me with groceries at Aldi one day and spotted a sugar cookie decorating kit. \u00a0She promised to do all the work and we bought it for her and Eli to enjoy. \u00a0They had a great time! \u00a0It even worked out because they spent so long decorating, that they really only wanted a bite or two of the sugar soaked creations!<\/div>\n
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The first weekend of December, I headed to Auburn with our NCCS Robotics team. \u00a0Clint took the kids on that Saturday to visit his mom and his family up in Summerville. \u00a0They had a great time catching up with everyone! \u00a0That was the official kickoff to Eli\u2019s birthday week. \u00a0Eli turned 4 on December 8th\u2026what a treasure to celebrate our little guy! \u00a0On Eli\u2019s birthday, we took him Chick-fil-A to celebrate for lunch at school and he picked Poblano\u2019s for dinner. \u00a0He doesn\u2019t really even care where we eat usually, but Emma talked him into Poblano\u2019s because they sign to you while you where a sombrero and give you a free dessert. \u00a0What\u2019s not to love??!! \u00a0We got Eli his first big boy bike and he was so excited. \u00a0It was pretty cold that night, but he rode it around and around in the garage for almost an hour!<\/div>\n
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The following weekend, Clint continued an annual tradition by taking the kids to downtown Dallas (GA) to the theater to see the Classic Christmas cartoons that they show every year. \u00a0Emma and Eli look forward to this every year and I\u2019m so glad they have that special time with their awesome Dad! \u00a0That Sunday\u00a0we went up to Summerville to ride the Summerville Santa Train. \u00a0The Bitners and Wallaces went with us to join in on the fun! \u00a0The Santa himself was an interesting fella, but we always have a great time with that group!<\/div>\n
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Emma had her Christmas piano recital at school. \u00a0I\u2019m so glad that we have these recitals about every 6 months, it\u2019s a great way to hear how much progress Emma is making in learning to play the piano. \u00a0She really enjoys music and loves learning more about playing some of her favorite songs. \u00a0School activities started winding down as we approached the end of the semester, but that meant the fun was ramping up! \u00a0We spent an evening at the new (Emerson, GA) LakePoint Station with the rest of the faculty, staff, and families of NCCS. \u00a0What a fun evening! \u00a0Our Strange family favorite was the Clip and Climb area. \u00a0All four of us tried the climbing walls and other challenges\u2026we can\u2019t wait to go back!<\/div>\n
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We wrapped up the semester with the Christmas concert at school and class parties. \u00a0The kids did great in the program and we loved the activities with their classmates. \u00a0After that, we were officially on Christmas Break that Tuesday! \u00a0Eli always does well sticking as close as possible to his routine, so we had him to go the daycare he used to go to the first two days we were out of school. \u00a0He was glad to see all his old friends and play with all of them! \u00a0On Wednesday, Emma and I continued our tradition of a mother\/daughter Christmas date. \u00a0Emma picks all the spots. \u00a0We did some shopping and went out to lunch together. \u00a0On Thursday Clint took the day off and joined us so we went ice skating, ate lunch on the Marietta Square, and ran a few more errands. \u00a0On Friday, the whole Strange party of Four started our day at the free NCG Theater showing of Polar Express which was a lot of fun and then we just hung out and enjoyed each other\u2019s company. \u00a0The weather was beautiful, so we took the kids and their bikes up to school to ride around in the big empty parking lot. \u00a0They loved it!<\/div>\n
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We spent Christmas Eve in Summerville with Clint\u2019s family and had a great time catching up with everyone! \u00a0That is always a fun time with lots of cousins and a lot of great food! \u00a0We came back home in time in time to help serve at the 5pm Candlelight service at church. \u00a0Clint and I were greeters and Emma was super excited to help hand out things for the kids at the services. \u00a0As you can imagine, she took her duties very seriously! \u00a0We love the Christmas Candlelight services at Cedarcrest and enjoy it even more when we can enjoy it with sweet friends! \u00a0It\u2019s been a long time since we\u2019ve been home for Christmas, so this year we started a new tradition of Christmas Eve Waffle House for dinner after church. \u00a0We loved it!<\/div>\n
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Christmas morning was lots of fun as the kids were so excited just to be home and play with their stuff. \u00a0It was one of the most laid back days and we loved it! \u00a0The weather was beautiful and we stayed outside most of the day. \u00a0Emma\u2019s big gift was a guitar and Eli\u2019s was a VTech Leapfrog Desk for his room. \u00a0They loved their gifts and dug right in. \u00a0Eli also got lots of football things\u2026a kicking tee, padded pants, and mouthpieces for his helmet. \u00a0I surprised the family with a drone for everyone to enjoy. \u00a0Clint surprised us with two indoor skydiving tickets for Emma and I to go and have fun! \u00a0What a day! \u00a0We wrapped up by having a wonderful turkey dinner at home and then we made gingerbread houses to close out the day.<\/div>\n
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We headed to Memphis on December 27th and immediately caught up with family and friends. \u00a0When we stay at my sister\u2019s house, it\u2019s always super lively with her 3 year old daughter and twin 2 year old sons in addition to our two\u2026and we wouldn\u2019t have it any other way! It\u2019s total chaos while they are all awake, and then super quiet once bedtime comes. \u00a0Emma loves being the oldest because she gets to stay up with the adults and talk. \u00a0My mom spent the day with us as we did some Memphis touristy things\u2026Huey\u2019s downtown, the Peabody, Bass Pro Shop, etc. \u00a0We had so much fun with her and will look forward to doing that again! \u00a0The highlight of that day for Emma and Nora was a sleepover with Mimi! \u00a0Not much sleeping\u2026but it was definitely a treat for the girls! \u00a0Thursday morning we took all the kids to play on a train out in Collierville and then Clint and Emma spent the afternoon at Graceland\u2026Emma\u2019s Christmas gift to Clint. \u00a0They had so much fun! \u00a0On Friday, Clint and I took Eli to the Liberty Bowl where we cheered for Georgia since that is our home state. \u00a0It was a beautiful day and our football crazy boy loved it! \u00a0It was also super fun to catch up with lots of friends from home that had come in town to cheer for UGA!<\/div>\n
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On New Year\u2019s Eve we drove to Mississippi for Andrew\u2019s wedding. \u00a0The Harbors have been dear friends for 25 years since Dyer was my High School Youth Pastor. \u00a0We had a great time at the wedding and catching up with the Harbors. \u00a0After the wedding we drove to Birmingham for the last fun family activity of 2016\u2026a night at a hotel with an indoor pool. \u00a0Our kids just love that! \u00a0We ordered pizza and ate it at the pool while they swam for a few hours. \u00a0Then\u2026we rung in New Year\u2019s with our East coast friends via the TV and then called it a night. \u00a0Happy New Year! \u00a02016 was such a treasure in so many ways and we can\u2019t wait to see what God has in store for 2017!<\/div>\n
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December brings the season of excitement! \u00a0If you aren\u2019t careful it can quickly become overwhelming busyness\u2026but I\u2019m so grateful for the perspective of enjoying the excitement! \u00a0The season of Advent is meant to be a time of preparing for the coming King. \u00a0In the Strange house, we made the most of all 31 days of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,37,12,16,32,18,33,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cedarcrest-church","category-eli","category-emma","category-family","category-marriage","category-north-cobb-christian","category-restaurants","category-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}