The Nutcracker Tea Party

Emmaline has been taking dance for two years now at Dance Arts. Every year, Ms Martha puts on a performance of the Nutcracker for the little ones. It is an interactive production where they get to dance during the performance. After it is over she has a tea party for them. We got up and got Emmaline all dressed up in her pretty Christmas dress and headed on over. She was "super duper excited" (her words).

Emmaline and her little friend from her class.

They have them sit on the floor in front while they perform......

Then they would call them up to dance. Later on in the production they were teaching them how to do some of the more simple dances. Emmaline loved it!!!

Once it was over, they headed into one of the other studios that had been all set up for their tea party. I think Emma was more excited to drink out of a real teacup than she was about the cupcake!

All in all, it was a wonderful morning and I look forward to doing this with her again next year.

'O Christmas Tree....

'O Christmas Tree....How Lovely Are Your Branches......

Due to some unforeseen circumstances regarding our beautiful prelit tree last year, we decided to actually get a real tree this year. So, we called my BIL to borrow his truck and of course my nephew wanted to come along......

It was a beautiful afternoon and even though it was cold, it felt good to be outside. We walked around for a bit and looked at ALL the trees. Emmaline spotted one and we all liked it, so that is the one we got!

Once we got it home, we realized that we were going to have to go get lights for it since we no longer had any. Steven was not thrilled about having to put lights on the tree, but we did it!!! But explain to me why they would sell lights for your green tree that have white cording instead of green!!! Talk about standing out like a sore thumb!

The tree looked good....except for the white strands of lights. Either we are going to have to get a new prelit tree next year, or I am going to go on a hunt for new strands of lights for the tree!

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!!

The Santa Express

Every December the Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven has a special treat for everyone. A train ride with Santa!!! We were going with a large group on Sunday, so immediately after church, we hopped in the car, grabbed some lunch and hit the interstate to New Haven (which by the way....is in the middle of nowhere!!). This was our first time to do this and Emmaline was all excited to not only go on a train, but to see Santa. We had booked the private car, so the kids were going to get to spend a little extra time with Santa telling him what they wanted :-)

Emmaline and Sydney waiting to go

Our little family.....

This is the actual train car we rode in. It was once a presidential car that was used on the campaign trail. It has been restored to closely resemble how it looked back then.


Emmaline and her Daddy

Emmaline and Mommy.....notice the missing bottom teeth!

All the little ones piled on the couch in the parlor......

After a little bit, they set out cookies and hot chocolate in the dining room, the kids came down to get their cookie and in walks Rudolph!!!

The kids loved the long hallway between the dining room and the parlor, I think they spent more time in the hallway than in either room. Emmaline had the best time looking out the window watching the scenery go quickly by.

Excuse the sideways picture....blogger is being stubborn!!

Santa finally arrived!!!! They were all SOOOO excited. Here is my nephew Ethan with Santa. We couldn't get a picture of Sydney with him.....she did NOT like Santa!

The Hills with Santa.....

Emmaline giving him some love after telling him that she wanted a "yellow Belle dress" for Christmas. Luckily, "Santa" knew in advance and had already gotten one back in July!!!

All the kids gathered around Santa before he left. He was talking to them and he looked around and all of a sudden he realized......

That Emmaline was missing her two bottom teeth!!!

So he started singing to her! "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth..."

She just started laughing....

She talked about him singing to her for DAYS!!!

It was a wonderful day spent with friends and family. It was so much fun to watch the excitement on their faces. The Holidays are such a magical time for kids and parents too!!!

Paradise

After many weeks of hard work, Steven found out he had won a contest with work for a trip to the Dominican Republic. We were headed to Punta Cana to stay for 6 days and 5 nights at the Melia Caribe Tropical Resort. I never expected to love it as much as I did. We had only been there for a couple of days and we realized that we definitely wanted to make a return visit some day. The place was huge, but that didn't bother us. There were families with small children there and they had a whole area dedicated to little kids. It would be great to bring Emmaline back one day, but this time it was nice to get away with just my hubby (and about 40 other people that he works with). :-)

The day we flew out, we had to be at the airport before the sun was even up. We got up at 3:00 a.m. so by the time we got on our connecting flight in Atlanta we were still happy and excited, but VERY tired!

The Punta Cana Airport....this was the group in front of us waiting to get into the airport to go through customs.

Once through customs and retrieving our luggage we made our way out and got on the bus to head to the resort. We took it as a good sign that there was a rainbow.

Finally.......the beach! We just spent the first afternoon and evening exploring. I was so tired I ended up going to bed incredibly early and slept like 11 hours. It was incredible!

After breakfast the first full day there we had to go and sit through an informative session with the tour operator. This is what I heard....Blah blah blah blah blah....pool....blah blah blah blah....beach.....blah blah blah blah blah.....sand...blah blah....water....

Ready to hit the pool....

Our view of the beach from our pool side chairs....aaaahhhhhhhh......

Waiting in the lobby for our dinner reservation.

Tonight for dinner we went to the French Restaurant. I love French food and we had people tell us later that it was excellent, but this night was apparently an off night for their food. Steven enjoyed it, but mine wasn't all that great.

Getting ready to head out to do some shopping. We wanted to get it over with so we could enjoy the rest of the week relaxing.

Coming back to the resort after going across the street to the mall to find some souvenirs.

One of the many beautiful plants growing around the resort. I have mentioned it before, but I LoVe orchids!!

After dinner we spent some time in one of the open areas at the resort talking with the group and enjoying the warm tropical air and live music.

Since we got up so early to get our cabana, Steven was taking a little nap to catch up on his zzzzz's....... we are on vacation ya know :-)

I loved....loved......loved that pool!!

For dinner that night we went to the Dominican Restaurant. It was excellent!!! And if you have never tried goat....you should! I was really happy the next day at lunch to see that they had some of the Dominican stew on the buffet.

They had this little house in the middle of the restaurant, it was pretty neat....


Inside the little house....

We got up really really really early most mornings we were there so we could watch the sunrise and so we could get one of those sweet cabanas each day.

The sunrise was different each morning. God's artwork is truly amazing!

As soon as breakfast was done, they started weaving the palm branches and decorating for a festival that was to begin that night. It was fun to watch the ladies weave the palms to make this arch.....their hands worked so fast you almost could see what they were doing.

Live entertainment at lunch since the Festival was starting that day

Our last evening meal we went to the Thai Fusion restaurant. It was good, but we never figured out what it was "fused" with!

Our last morning we got up and went and watched the sunrise one last time. It was incredible!

After breakfast, I went and sat on the beach for a while longer so I could soak in the view before I had to return to reality...

Bags all packed, dressed in our "winter" clothes and ready to go. We were sad to leave but very ready to get home to our sweet girl. At the airport waiting for our turn to get on the plane. They entertained us while we waited. Can't say I have ever been entertained at an airport in the States before :-)

Good bye Dominican.....we will miss you......
But we certainly look forward to visiting you again!

I could have put another 30 or more pictures on here....I took pictures of everything. But I figured it was long enough and if you made if this far you deserved to be done so you could go enjoy your own life :-)

Thanks for reading!!!