{"id":4760,"date":"2012-01-08T16:56:40","date_gmt":"2012-01-08T21:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=4760"},"modified":"2012-01-08T16:56:40","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T21:56:40","slug":"emma-december-2011-and-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=4760","title":{"rendered":"Emma: December 2011 and Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

December was such a fun time for the Strange family!\u00a0 This will be a combined Emma:December 2011\/Christmas post.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They had lots of fun adventures and ate out a lot!\u00a0 Emma was really in to all of the Christmas decorations this year.\u00a0 Her favorite ornament was a little nutcracker.\u00a0 She loved to pull him off the tree every night and play with him.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We had two different fun family nights just driving around checking out Christmas lights and drinking hot chocolate.<\/p>\n

Emma is really big in to cutting and taping these days.\u00a0 She loves to do her crafts in the kitchen…actually all over the kitchen.\u00a0 It is amazing how much Emma has grown up in the past few weeks.\u00a0 We really treasured our family time over the holidays and spent a lot of time together.\u00a0 Emma sat down at the dinner table one evening a few weeks ago and said…”Mommy, thank you for making this for me.”\u00a0 Melt your heart!\u00a0 I would have gladly let her eat M&M’s and ice cream for dinner after that!<\/p>\n

Clint taught a Financial Peace University Class at Cedarcrest Church this past fall and finished up in mid-December.\u00a0 Each Sunday morning, Emma would hang out in our classroom before I took her to her class.\u00a0 Our family really enjoyed the opportunity to help some families find out what it takes to truly gain victory in the area of finances.\u00a0 I think it really made Emma feel cool to hang out in “Daddy and Mommy’s class”.\u00a0 Emma had a great December in school.\u00a0 She visited with Santa and had a fun class Christmas party.\u00a0 She also formally applied to become a student at North Cobb Christian School next year.\u00a0 I helped her with that a little…but she is so excited!<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 The Monday before Christmas, we woke up early and headed to the Dawsonville outlets and then walked around the square in Dahlonega.\u00a0 The three of us did that last year and had such a great time that we decided to do it again.\u00a0 The weather was beautiful and we picked up two new Georgia Tech ornaments for our Christmas Tree.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Normally Clint’s family does Christmas on Christmas Eve and then we drive to Memphis sometime Christmas Day.\u00a0 This year, the Summerville Christmas ended up being on the 23rd.\u00a0 We had a great time at Clint’s mom’s house with all of his family.\u00a0 Normally Christmas Eve is really rushed with all the places everyone has to go.\u00a0 Christmas Eve Eve was a fun new tradition and we all had a great time.\u00a0 We came home that night just in time to go to a party some new friends\/neighbors were having.\u00a0 We really enjoyed hanging out with our friends from the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

We got up on Christmas Eve morning and went ahead and drove to Memphis.\u00a0 We loved being at my sister and bro-in-law’s for Christmas morning.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 She had a great time with that!\u00a0 Emma loved spending time with Aunt Katie, Uncle Deedle, Mimi, and Uncle Kevin. Emma absolutely adores Aunt Katie.\u00a0 Katie loves to bake and cook and entertain.\u00a0 She made lots of cookies and fun treats while we were at their house.\u00a0 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<\/em> cookie?”\u00a0 I asked Katie what Emma meant by another?\u00a0 Then…just about that time, Emma asked for a bigger<\/em> cookie than last time<\/em>.\u00a0 Busted!\u00a0 We also got to visit Uncle Deedle’s new office.\u00a0 He is so creative and had an amazing vision for the space.\u00a0 It turned out awesome!<\/p>\n

We spent the next several days in Memphis visiting with family and friends.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 On the way back, we stopped in Corinth, MS to hang out with my youth pastor and his family…a fun tradition each year.\u00a0 From there, we drove to Nashville to visit my brother and check out his new apartment.\u00a0 He lives right in downtown Nashville and we had a blast hanging out with him and checking out his new surroundings.\u00a0 We got home on December 30 just in time to take down our Christmas decorations and get ready for the New Year.<\/p>\n

Emma is becoming more and more independent as the days roll along.\u00a0 Over Christmas, she decided that baths are for babies and has started taking showers.\u00a0 Her main interest these days seems to be fixing people’s hair.\u00a0 Thank you so much to everyone who has let Emma do their hair.\u00a0 She really is pretty good at it and has started doing her own hair on occasion.\u00a0 As always, we displayed all of our Christmas cards all over the kitchen.\u00a0 Emma loved looking at all the pictures of everyone.\u00a0 Emma continues to be such a joy.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 She has fallen asleep several times clutching her new Bible and insisted on bringing it along for all of our Christmas travels.\u00a0 My prayer is that Emma would always treasure God’s word.<\/p>\n

Here are some pictures from December 2011 and Christmas…<\/p>\n