More Fun and More Robinsons

On the day after Christmas, we picked up my mom at Crystal and Grant's early that morning to take her back to Nashville.  As she was giving hugs and telling everyone good-bye, Avery told GiGi that she could come back and stay with them anytime she wanted to.  :)

The rains had stopped and we had a good drive back to Nashville getting mama back home right around noon; but our return trip back to Atlanta got stalled in Chattanooga again.  After looking it up on the internet, I found out that Chattanooga is #1 in the nation for truck traffic going through its city.  No wonder the traffic always slows down to a crawl through Chattanooga!

We got back to Atlanta around 5 pm and went straight back to Crystal and Grant's so we could visit Larry and Laura Robinson, Grant's parents, who had just flown in from California.  They had just ordered pizza and we had a delicious dinner of Fellini's Pizza and salad.  And I think Avery and Hannah were in grandparent heaven with two sets of grandparents to play with them!

After church on Sunday, Chuck and I went back to the motorhome to get it ready for leaving early Monday morning and then we spent the rest of the afternoon back at Crystal and Grant's.

Since it was another nice day with temps in the 70's, we all walked over to the playground near their house.  Avery and Hannah have no trouble swinging on the big swings now!

And with a little help from her mom, Avery can even swing from the monkey bars.

After playing on the playground about 45 minutes, we walked back to their house.

Avery really likes her new scooter!

Grant and Larry cooked another delicious meal of Italian sausage and rotini.  After dinner, we gave our last hugs and kisses to Hannah and Avery before they went up to bed.

After the girls were in bed, all 6 big kids played two games of SkipBo with the guys playing the girls. The guys won both games!  What's up with that????  Oh well, I guess we girls had to let them win with all the cooking, gift-wrapping, and toy assembling they have been doing!

We had such a good time talking and visiting with Larry and Laura again.  We hadn't seen them since right after Hannah was born last year and we had a lot of catching up to do.

Our eleven nights of Christmas in Atlanta absolutely flew by but they were filled with the best presents of all for Chuck and me:  our family!

Christmas Day and a New Tradition?

Christmas morning began with what may be a new tradition in the Robinson household:  breakfast at Waffle House.

For the past three years, the Busby family, friends of Crystal and Grant's, have gone to Waffle House for breakfast in their Christmas PJs.  Well, the Busbys got new Christmas PJs this year...

...and loaned their last year's Christmas PJs to the Robinsons.  :)

We weren't the only ones taking pictures of these Christmas-spirited families this morning!  Most of the customers and servers were taking their pictures too.

Somehow, we managed to seat 7 adults and 5 little girls in two booths at Waffle House.

And with some coordinated eating and plate-stacking, we all enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Waffle House and with no spills!

Coordinated eating was required too!

Merry Christmas from Waffle House #1000!

After breakfast, we went back to Crystal and Grant's where Avery and Hannah had no problem whatsoever opening all their Christmas presents.  :)

Later that afternoon while Grant was busy fixing Christmas dinner, Crystal and I took the girls for a walk around the neighborhood.

Barefoot on Christmas Eve???  You've got to be kidding!

We walked so long that Avery fell asleep.
Hannah gave her a kiss to wake her up when we got back home.

After we got back to the house, Crystal decided to let the girls try out their new rain boots.

They REALLY like their new rain boots.  Watch!

Click here if you are unable to open the video.

On the way back to the house, Hannah went head first into a rather muddy puddle.

Needless to say, Avery and Hannah got their baths early on Christmas day.  :)

For dinner, Grant had cooked a delicious rib roast, creamed potatos and fresh green beans.  It was so delicious and we ate way too much.  And then for dessert, we had some of mama's homemade chocolate cake that I'm convinced was the best one she has ever made.  :)

What a wonderful Christmas day!  And I think I like the new traditions:  breakfast at Waffle House and Grant cooking Christmas dinner.  :)

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve morning, we went over to Crystal and Grant's and enjoyed a delicious big hot breakfast before the playing with Avery and Hannah began.

GiGi with silly Avery!

Avery and Hannah really like drawing on their new easel from Aunt Tafanie and Uncle Cory.

Mommy likes drawing on it too!

This Christmas has been unseasonably warm with lots and lots of rain.  Avery wished it would stop raining.  Turn up your volume and watch:

Click here if you cannot open the video.

On Christmas Eve afternoon, Pa was really tired from all his driving the day before and laid down on the couch to take a little nap.  Isn't he cute sleeping in his little tutu?  :)  (I sneaked up and laid Avery's princess dress on top of him while he was sleeping.)

It was raining so much, that Crystal had to open one of her Christmas presents early:  new rain boots!

We attended a beautiful Christmas Eve service at All Souls Fellowship where both the Robinsons and the Van Wyngardens worship and enjoyed singing lots of Christmas carols with  everyone there celebrating Jesus' birth.  Thankfully, the rain had let up by the time the service was over and we were walking back to our cars.

My favorite mama and my favorite man!  :)

When we returned to Crystal and Grant's, we enjoyed some Christmas Eve snacking and watching one of our favorite Christmas movies:  Elf.  After Avery and Hannah had been tucked in their beds, the elves came out to begin wrapping Christmas presents...

Elf Chuck, Master Giftwrapper

...and assembling dollhouses.  Hmmm.  I don't know if Elf Grant will be able to get this dollhouse assembled before Christmas morning.

Elf Grant was still working on the dollhouse as we left to go back to the motorhome but he had it completed well in time for Christmas morning.  

Elf Grant, Master Dollhouse Builder

'Twas the Busy Days Before Christmas

On Tuesday afternoon, Chuck took me shopping at Kohls where I got some new boots, jeans and tops.  What a guy!  Then, later that evening, we went to Krogers and Publix to get groceries for the next few days of Christmas at the Robinsons.

We left Stone Mountain around 4 am on Wednesday morning and drove to Nashville in the car to pick up my mom and bring her back to Atlanta to spend Christmas with all of us.  Except for some rain, the drive to Nashville went very smoothly.  We ran a couple of errands in Nashville, picked up my mom and then headed back to Atlanta.  The drive back to Atlanta was much slower going.  The traffic around Chattanooga was horrible and not any better in Atlanta.

We drove to Tafanie and Cory's first so mama (GiGi) could spend some time with them before they would be heading out to visit Cory's family.

After Cory got home from work, Bell, Emmaline and Ruby opened their Christmas presents from GiGi and from us.

Ruby really liked the rain boots her sisters got for Christmas.  They were just a little big for her!

After the girls finished opening their presents, we enjoyed a delicious spaghetti dinner that Tafanie had cooked and some of those sweet Christmas cookies for dessert.  :)

We said our good-byes to Tafanie, Cory, Bell, Emmaline and Ruby and asked them to be sure and tell the rest of the Van Wyngardens we said Merry Christmas.  Then we took GiGi over to Crystal and Grant's where she would be staying over the Christmas holidays.

Christmas Cookiemaking

On Monday, Tafanie invited us over to their house to make Christmas cookies.  When Tafanie and Crystal were little girls, Grandma Velma would have them come over to her house to spend the night and they would spend all night making (and eating) Christmas cookies.  Tafanie is continuing this Christmas cookiemaking tradition with her girls and then they give the cookies to the mail lady and the garbage men and keep a few for themselves.  :)

Tafanie tried out what was supposed to be the best recipe for sugar cookies that she had found on Pinterest.  Unfortunately, the dough was very sticky.  

When we tried to pat and roll the dough out, we got dough all over our hands and flour everywhere from trying to make the dough not be so sticky.

So, we decided to not cut out cookies except for a few star cookies.  

After baking the cookies, we made the icing and of course had to lick the beaters!  

We divided the icing into four bowls and the girls mixed up red, blue, and green icing and we kept one bowl for white icing.  Then, we began decorating the cookies.

And Voila!  Aren't these the prettiest Christmas cookies you ever saw?  And they tasted so good!

In between cookiemaking, we had a fun afternoon playiing with Bell, Emmaline and Ruby.

That evening, all the Robinsons, Van Wyngardens, and Gregorys went to Los Bravos for dinner to celebrate my birthday.  I can't think of a better way to have spent my birthday!  Being with our family, making cookies with the girls, and having Mexican food for dinner.  :)

A Very Special Day with Bell and Rudolph

On Sunday morning, we got Avery and Hannah ready and headed to church.  It had gotten so cold that Chuck had to scrape the frost off the car windows...something he has not had to do in a very long time.

We had originally thought we were going to be babysitting the Van Wyngarden granddaughters after church on Sunday but Tafanie had surprised us with tickets for Chuck and I to take Bell to see the puppet show, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, at Atlanta's Center for Puppetry Arts.  We were so excited!

Before going to the show, we asked Bell where she would like to go for lunch and she picked one of our favorites:  Subway.

We arrived at the Center early and were able to get very good seats.

The puppet show was very good.  The puppets looked just like the characters on the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer TV show that airs every year at Christmas.

I think Chuck and I enjoyed the puppet show as much or more than Bell!  :)

After the show, we went upstairs to the puppet workshop where we made Hermie puppets...

...and then we walked around the puppet museum where they had many of Jim Henson's Muppets displayed.

Bell also experienced working the strings on some marionette puppets.

I think one of her favorite parts was picking out puppets at the gift shop for herself, her sisters, and her cousins.  :)

Our final treat of the afternoon was a stop for ice cream in Decatur.  I think this may have been Pa and Bell's favorite part of our afternoon together!  :)

When we got back to Crystal and Grant's, we all enjoyed a delicious dinner of their New Brunswick Stew.  And then the real fun began when Bell, Emmaline, Ruby, Avery and Hannah began opening their Christmas presents from each other.

These girls are pros at opening presents now!

Aunt Crystal helping Emmaline with
her Sheriff Callie dress.

Aunt Tafanie helping Avery with her baby carrier.

After all the unwrapping, we enjoyed some brownies and ice cream for dessert.

That was Ruby's favorite part of the evening!

Crystal and Grant had bought a new mattress over the weekend and it was delivered late Sunday evening right before everyone was leaving to go home.  Pa and his little granddaughters just had to try it out.  Watch:

Click here if you are unable to open the video.  

The above video is just a sample of the wonderful wiggly-giggly Christmas days we enjoyed with all our granddaughters.  :)