Hanging Out

Tuesday morning we headed down to visit Grandma Gribble. We enjoyed playing a few rounds of UNO before enjoying lunch and heading back home. The rest of the day and all day Wednesday were spent soaking in the moments of being a family.

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Oh Snow Fun!

After opening presents, we headed outside for some snow fun!!!!

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Christmas with the Ohio Gribbles

The Ohio Gribbles arrived Monday afternoon around 2:30. I believe we were opening presents by 3:30 ,per Sawyer's request, and were outside playing in the snow by 4:45!

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Shoveling Snow

I'm dreaming...

Christmas morning, we were able to skype with the Ohio crew while presents were opened! It was almost like being in the room with them..almost. After dad finished frying the 5 pounds of bacon, we headed over to Grandmother Gen's for breakfast. There were 22(could have been more!) adults and 7 children all under the age of 10! After enjoying a ridiculously wonderful breakfast, we headed back home for presents. As things were winding down at Gen's, the snow began to fall. By the time we got home, the grass had a dusting. By the time we were finished opening presents and settling in, the grass was almost covered. After naps, mom and I watched Pattie show her snow skills! That evening, mom, dad, and I walked Pattie over to David's to carol before walking up to the church and back. We spent Christmas evening snuggled up watching a girlie flick before calling it a night. Although the snow has prevented the Pettys from gathering in Raleigh today, it was quite a sight to see a white Christmas.

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Babies, Babies, and more babies!

Crystal, Danny, and their two boys welcomed Audrey on Monday, December 20th. Tuesday night, Maggie and I went to the hospital to meet Audrey. Before going, I spent some time at Maggie and Justin's with their 3 kids.

Thursday, I headed down the mountain to my parents house. On the way, I stopped in Hickory to meet Dana and her son Greyson for breakfast. With a 14 month old, breakfast was fast as we tried to continue entertaining him. To keep himself busy at one point he started sticking the pegs into his biscuit! It was wonderful to see Dana who had flown in from CO for the holidays. I will take a short visit with them anyday!

Friday Frenzy

Well, we were out of school Monday, had a 2 hour delay Tuesday, went all day Wednesday, had a 2 hour delay Thursday, and went all day Friday. I slid more going to school Friday morning than I did Thursday morning but no delay was called. Since Friday was the last school day of 2010 I couldn't complain too much!
Thursday, the entire school wore pajamas to school for movie day! K-2nd grade students went into the gym at 12:30 to enjoy popcorn, hot chocolate, and a trip to The Polar Express. Most of my kids had not seen the movie and quite enjoyed themselves! Before we went into the gym, Santa made a stop by our classroom. After passing out candy canes to the kids, Santa let me take a little seat upon his lap!
Friday was called survival! We had our "family Christmas" in the gym with the entire school that morning. The upper grades performed their program, each grade level sang a song, then the entire school sang Christmas carols together. The afternoon was spent watching movies, playing outside for the 1st time for the week, and packing up decorations to take home for the holidays. The kids made their reindeer shirts so of course pictures were taken as Santa's little reindeer! That evening, I went to eat sushi (yum!) for Anna's graduation. She really finished classes in August but had to wait until now to actually walk across that stage! I left dinner a bit early and headed to another tacky sweater party. By 11:00 I was in my car heading home...I was pooped from the weeks events. Now it's on to some serious relaxing before Christmas arrives!

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Book Club

We read The Art Of Racing In The Rain and met at my house to discuss. Well, we actually met to socialize, eat, drink, and mention the book! 7 out of the 8 girls that could come own dogs so there was some discussion about our dogs and their habits. Since the snow storm kept me from having a holiday party last year I began to sweat when they were calling for some wintry weather. However, it warmed up enough to only have rain falling and the book club was a success! Next up for January is The Glass Castle.

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And "Snow" It Goes

And so it goes like this: the weather report called for rain last night, rain this morning changing over to a wintry mix later today/tonight then changing over to snow for Monday. The real story is this: I woke to 5 inches of snow this morning! Pattie was pleased of course as she loves to run, eat, and chase snowballs! I however was hoping to finish out these last 5 days of school before break. Looks like we'll be making up some days along the way...bummer. At least the snow is pretty!

Thanksmas

My friends Anna and Blair used to have these parties with their friends in Raleigh. So, they decided this year to introduce us to the new holiday of Thanksmas. It's a gathering of friends between Thanksgiving and Christmas. A time to be thankful for friends, food, and fellowship while wearing ridiculously tacky sweaters! There was a prize for the best dressed, food, drinks, and laughter all around! We even created our own version of the 12 days of Christmas, but think we'll keep our version locked up!

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Staff Party

The sunrise was beautiful Friday morning. I have always heard the saying: red in the morning, sailors take warning. Red at night, sailors delight. Surprise! I just happend to have my camera with me so when I got to school I snapped a shot before walking inside. I believe the saying should change to: Red in the morning, TEACHERS take warning!!! HA!

Friday evening, we gathered at restaurant for our staff party. It was more of a dinner and people started leaving before I could really get around to talk and get my camera warmed up! So, these are pictures of the last crew that was left...the most fun crew I will have to say! :)

Christmas Card Funnies

I thought it would be funny to have us wearing scarfs in our picture. Pattie did not agree. I'm pretty sure if she was an aggressive dog I would have been attacked!