We began the festivities at Nana and Papa Chuck's house for brunch. Uncle Chris and Aunt Mandy came, too, with their three kiddies and we had a grand ole time. Nana and Papa Chuck are caterers, so there's ALWAYS some delicious food around. Jack found favor in the shrimp and grits, Max enjoyed the bacon (as usual), those potatoes were my fave, and Joe? Well, he liked EVERYTHING. Mary's favorite? Well, girlfriend discovered ORANGE JUICE for the first time. That's right. Apparently, we've been depriving the girl of orange juice. She drank about 9 glasses. This is how she feels about orange juice......
Why haven't you people ever given me this stuff before???
Let's eat!
Joe and Nana!
I love this stuff.....
Cousin Laken was VERY patient with Mary's bossy pointy finger. They played VERY well together!
Mary and Papa Chuck.
I think Max liked what he saw in that package!
You know they are an official teenager when they want CLOTHES and CASH.
What? This bow isn't the gift?
Girlfriend loves her jewelry!
Later that night, we enjoyed food, fun, and fellowship with PawPaw and Mimi. There wasn't any orange juice this time, but Joe made his mandatory lime sherbet punch. Apparently, we've been depriving Mary of THAT, too. She drank about 700 glasses of that punch. Girl is a heavy drinker.
Little punch tea-party with Aunt Mandy and Brentleigh. And those are Riley's legs in the boots. Hi, Riley's legs!
After a quick costume change for Mary, she and Laken got out some of the boys old cars and had some more cousin fun.
Mimi's showing us how this present-opening thing works.
Her very own "iPad"....... cause she MUST play on everyone's phones.... now she has her own electronic device! Thank goodness!
Here, Mimi, throw this away.
Yep. Happy boy. Told him he could take me out to dinner.....
That looks like a Visa gift card, but later this week, it's gonna look like a new phone case. Pretty sure my people were tired of the camera by this point.
Oh, PawPaw and Mimi.... how you've blessed us with a drum set that includes a tambourine, a flute, a set of maracas, and some little clappy things that make noise. Our eardrums are so very appreciative! But, it's actually perfect..... baby girl needed a musical instrument to play at the next family sing-a-long!
Three men.....
and a little lady!
Sitting on and playing with the Minnie Mouse magnet set!
So, Saturday was a GOOD day...... a wonderful start to our holiday week!
NOW..... TO ABRUPTLY CHANGE GEARS HERE>>>>>>>>>>
Cause this next part? Not. Merry.
And honestly, I had to take a hot bath, brew a cup of my new oolong tea, and watch a little bit of the ORIGINAL Sound of Music in order to relax enough to share this saga with you.
You see, this afternoon, I told Joe IT WAS TIME.
IMPORTANT NOTE: To any and all kiddies under the age of whatever..... I must explain..... SOMETIMES, Santa plans on bringing things to children that are too large to fit in his sleigh. So, we, as parents, are happy to help him out. His elves deliver larger items (which sometimes have to be put together) to your house early and your parents HIDE THEM. Then, when Santa comes on Christmas Eve, he gets the present out and sets it up for you. And REALLY, REALLY helpful parents (like Joe and me, of course) even offer to help Santa PUT THE ITEMS TOGETHER. This saves Santa valuable time and, honestly, it's the least we can do. K. Back to my story.....
I told Joe IT WAS TIME. Santa had delivered Mary's KITCHEN (!!!!) and it needed to be assembled.
It took us three and a half hours of our LIVES to do it, but it's done. So, here's a photo documentation of this event.
Furniture in the dining room has been shoved aside and the deboxing begins......
Sweet Pea immediately finds her way into the middle of the STUFF and offers her help. Isn't that nice?
Joe is already starting to self-soothe I think..... Still deboxing....
Lots of parts. LOTS. And Mary is RIGHT in the middle of them at ALL TIMES.
Making a bit of progress.....
At this point, I might have already said one little bad word and Joe had asked if there isn't a You-Tube video showing how to put this God-forasken thing together??? (Step ONE took us 35 minutes. Bad sign.) And you can't see it (or maybe you can), but the deboxing process brought out these little styrofoam, clingy things.... ALL OVER THE PLACE. It looks like it SNOWED in the dining room. And it was sticking to US and the FLOOR and the DOG and MARY and the KITCHEN and the PIANO and the CHINA CABINET. So, at various stages of the process, we'd go after the vacuum to clean up some of that AWFUL mess.... THEN WE'D REMEMBER THAT OUR VACUUM IS OF THE DEVIL.... and just move on.....
And it's funny.... I'm just remembering that when I read the reviews on this product (for Santa, of course), some lady mentioned the styrofoam clingy things.... and I thought she must be a lunatic, cause who puts THAT in a review of a product? "It sheds A LOT of styrofoam." Dumb.
I understand now.
This is pretty much how it went down the whole time. Mary, uh.... helped.
Mary crawled up in the cubbies.....
......and wouldn't get out.....
As soon as it resembled an actual kitchen, that girl knew just what to do..... While we worked on the front side, she played on the back side.
She. Was. Busy.
We're getting there......
All of a sudden, Mary RAN over to the shelves in the dining room and began pulling my pewter bowls off the shelf. Girlfriend saw that stove and needed some pots and pans. I sure hope Santa brings some REAL ones...... or.... real PLAY ones.....
Wonder what she was cooking......
There's my Arthur Court in the oven AND the dishwasher.....
She played HARD in her kitchen for a good solid hour. Too bad it got hidden in the boys' "Man Cave" while she was in the bath. Reckon she'll forget about it? At least until Christmas morning???
And just when Joe and I were TIRED OF IT, she started a rousing game of "Where's Mary?"
We love her.
We do NOT love putting things together, but we LOVE the resulting happiness.
And Santa..... you owe us.
Hope you all are having a great holiday week!
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