Holiday Happenings

We have been such jolly people during this Christmas season.  The month of December was full of fun events.  Genevieve went to stay with YaYa and Bob during the first weekend of the month for the annual Christmas parade in Terre Haute.  They did not do this parade when I was growing up, or even when I was a young adult.  Forgo all the fun until after I leave, TH.  

G wore her antlers and according to her Aunt Katie, "behaved like a total lunatic in hopes of getting lots of candy."  

I received texts and videos of how sugared up she was. 

She calmed down enough for a Christmas performance by the TH symphony.  I'm hoping she was inspired to practice her violin.  

YaYa had the twin beds in my old bedroom dolled up for Christmas and the girls had matching pajamas.

G is not pictured because at that point she was totally unwilling to cooperate.  

Trinity and I had a most festive dinner at The Loft at Trader's Point.  I do love that restaurant.  They had the most glorious tree that was so beautifully illuminated that it turned us into faceless shadow creatures.  

Our food was divine and the restaurant just looked so enchanting.  Trader's Point is a working farm, so I found the resident cat and scooped it up for an impromptu and totally one-sided makeout session.  

The 2nd weekend of December I attended my annual ornament exchange and Christmas party with my fellow teacher besties.  This is the time of year when we are able to avenge others' selfish use of the copier during the last 3 minutes of prep time by unabashedly swiping ornaments from one another.  

Ha! 

We gorged, drank lots of wine, and plotted to take one another out of the running for Teacher of the Year.

Another funny!

Mom and Dad took the entire crew to the Santa Brunch at The Columbia Club that Sunday.  

We got this beautiful family picture and I did my part by closing my eyes.  

I mean, seriously!!!!

Caroline is now old enough to tote Robby, thus putting herself in the contest for which family member will first need chiropractic intervention for hauling that sack of potatoes around. 

I mean he is the most precious baby boy in the history of ever, but he is HUGE.   

Santa arrived at the brunch with much fanfare.  He chose the girls to sing with him as he entered and G was granted access to a microphone and a set of jingle bells.  The rest is history.

Robby was a bit apprehensive about Mrs. Claus.  Brother had to hoist him up there.  

Now you may be asking, why is that giant baby wearing shorts in December?

Because his grandmother is Jane and he was born in 1952.  

The best part of this whole scene was that dumb Mrs. Claus clearly mistook our barely 13 month old for a walking talking bonafide toddler.  She put him on his feet as if he would just walk right off of the stage.  He toppled forward into the arms of his equally gigantic father, who is accustomed to being unfairly judged as older, wiser and more capable based on his height.  

Big Robby for the save!

He was returned to the safe arms of his mother so his father could engage in some eye closing akin to his twin sister, me.

That evening we attended Christmas at the Zoo with Trinity's work.  They gave us tickets and also hot chocolate and cookies to enjoy while we explored.  

We had to bundle up because it was cold!

We rode the zoo train to see more lights.  

Genevieve had her Christmas program at school on the 17th.  That morning, she told me she was super nervous.  I was a bit surprised and then she told me she had to stand by herself, hold the flag, and lead the pledge by talking into a microphone.  

She did a fabulous job and I got a bit teary eyed.

I texted this to all of my family and my snarky brother asked, "did you take a knee?"  

Lord.

G wore her 12 days of Christmas dress from Abby to many of our holiday events.  When G protested the 2nd time, I reminded her that it was the ___th day of Christmas at that point, so she had to wear her dress.  

Not to be outdone, I took to the stage to narrate the Abraham Lincoln Elementary Christmas program with my friend Mindy.  

The next day Uncle Robby and mother took G to the Carmel Christmas market, where they lasted all of 10 minutes before retreating to the warm car.  

Robby and Meghan went to her company Christmas party one evening, so we were more than happy for a sleepover with Robby.

He is the most perfect baby ever.  

We rounded out our pre-break festivities with The Nutcracker at the Toby theatre at the IMA.  

Pal Kirby's girls were dancing.  

G loved it and was impressed with both Peri and Phoebe's performances.  Phoebe was a mouse in the 2nd act.

We got to mingle with her during intermission. Please note that Phoebe is in 2nd grade and G is in pre-K.  Phoebe turned 7 in July, approximately one week before my wedding anniversary.  I recall this because Kirby wore her in a Moby wrap to my wedding and she did not make a peep!  

My final day with my kiddos was the 19th and I got lots of goodies!  

Thanksgiving and a 40th Birthday (Not Mine)

We celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving with Trinity's parents and Aunt Shirley.  We dined in French Lick at the resort there.  

G wore her turkey dress, given to her by Aunt Shirley.

The weather in Owensboro was beautiful, but cold.  G bundled up to walk with Abby, and that lasted about 5 minutes.  

We had a good time napping, eating, and putzing outside in the sunshine.  

Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo...

Her father was there to answer her call-

Pat's tree was decorated in all of its glory.

This year's theme is "Boxes of possibilities."  Her tree was festooned with pretty wrapped packages that she was quick to tell me were empty.

She knows how I operate.

We scurried back to Indianapolis on Saturday afternoon in time to celebrate my bestie Marinda.

She had the audacity to be born at the busiest time of the year.

I mean the nerve of that girl:)

Her husband and I were in cahoots and planned a small birthday soiree  at The Lemon Bar in Zionsville.  Mark and I decided to pretend Marinda was in 5th grade and made it a GIRLS ONLY party.  Not even Mark was in attendance.  

We are all Southern ladies (Southern Indianapolis, that is), so we met at my house and took two cars to the land in the North. 

Dani gave Marinda some sunglasses for the ride.

We were glad we were in two cars when we drove right downtown into the mayhem of the Zionsville Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting ceremony.  

Again, thanks for the convenient birthday, Marinda.  

We parked after dodging many a suburban family member.

We attempted a selfie with all of our girls.  

We were seated in the private room next to the fireplace.  As with all of The Flying Cupcake locations, the decor was shabby chic.  Or as I like to term it, someone needs to spackle and paint the walls.  

Queen Marinda borrowed a golden sparkly crown from one of the bucks behind her.  

We were thrilled that our friend Karen was strategically placed in front of the other deer.

She appears to have sprouted antlers out of her head.

Dear sweet Karen.

See what I did there?

Mark ordered his beautiful bride a special strawberry shortcake to commemorate her 40th year.  

Little known fact about my bestie Marinda:

She's been married longer than I've been able to drink.

Mark and Mindy were married when she was 19.

Mindy was once Marinda's nickname, not the name of another woman that Mark married.

You following me?

Those two toddlers clearly knew what they were doing because they are still happily married and in love.

I do love my sweet Marinda and we had such a fun evening.

Just for sh*ts and giggles, here we are on the equally inconvenient date of her 30th birthday.

We were wearing matching plastic best friend necklaces from the Strawberry Shortcake cake from Mark.  Strawberry Shortcake is not typically a proper noun that I might capitalize (see reference in earlier picture) but I did here because it was the actual cartoon character from the 80s that Marinda loved when she was a kid.

10 years later we are still toasting to her fabulousness!  

Love you, Grover!

Robby is One!

We celebrated Robby's birthday with a Where the Wild Things Are themed party.

My brother bought a tap for the keg that was shaped like a Wild Thing.

That's right, a keg at a one year old's party.

This event was orchestrated by my brother.

He is a social person.

He enjoys a theme.

He was highly disappointed when the tap didn't actually fit on the keg.  

He rallied though and handed gold glitter crowns to all of the guests.

Our precious boy had a Max crown.

He liked the icing! 

He did so well at his first party.

He smiled, laughed, and let everyone else do the heavy lifting by carrying him around.

Last Saturday we braved the mall so Jane could get her beloved Santa picture.  

Robby had a total meltdown and my mother was running in circles behind the camera guy screaming, "Just take it!  Take the picture!!! Quickly...Now!!!"

I saw one of my oldest friends, J.D.

He is a good 5 inches shorter than me, and we went to our first dance together in 9th grade.  The photographer brought out a ladder for me to sit on and he stood behind me.

We were teased like you wouldn't believe over that picture.  It was hysterical.

We were fairly confident 14 year olds and just rolled with it.

24 years later and we decided to recreate it for giggles.

On Sunday we took Genevieve to see the Winterlights display at the IMA.  

It was so pretty and fun.  

We started at 5, and G brought a stuffed flamingo.

I brought a stroller mostly because I thought she would be cold and cranky.

I bundled her up and laughed at how big she looked in that thing.

They had spiked hot chocolate (Peppermint Schnapps) and hot apple cider (Bulleit bourbon).  Trinity raved over it and said he really did not understand how he had been drinking cider for so long without bourbon.  

It was so charming and they had the Lilly house all decorated.  

G toured it without drama.  I tried to take her in about 2 summers ago and she got too handsy and the docent asked us to leave.

I was super proud that day.

We are ready for Thanksgiving and then the Christmas season.