Bye,Bye,Bye

 Anna ready to roll

 Jia says goodbye

 Anna's co-pilot, he even had his seat belt on

 Of course BennyFoo had to say goodbye

Back to school.  Having Anna gone is one of the hardest things I have done in quite awhile.  I had to stay in the house while these pictures were being taken.  I miss her terribly, every single day, call her way too much, refuse to text, and send her stuff every week.  How did this happen to my sweet baby girl????

Oops, Forgot the Christmas Pictures

This is the official time counter for Christmas morning: 7:45

Anna Presents from either Nona and grandpa

or the Updegroves

Dad and his herd

 Katie won the "big girl" pickle present this year 

I tried to fool them by putting it on the

Mexican tree upstairs

 Big pickle, Little pickle

 Jia looks like the grinch

 Jia in her cool pink puffer vest from Auntie Jenny and Uncle Craig

 Blue Woven cross necklace a bunch of dogs, and the only picture you will see of me

 One of the two presents of the year this one is from Santa

a pink DS  something???

 Our official photographer

 The second asked for present of the year

this one is a huge barbie camper

it almost makes me want to go camping!

 from Nona and Grandpa

 Presents from Auntie Jenny and Uncle Craig

These are just "random" (the really cool word to us at UCF) I forgot to post them, and there are so many of them you have to really love us a lot to go through them.

It's Funny Now

 This is Jia the week before Christmas.  She has received a note from Santa telling her that all of his presents to her will be wrapped in red with white polka dots (he has an example on the card)

He tells Jia that his presents won't be under the tree until Christmas eve.  This way Jia will be able to  tell the difference between the family presents and the Santa presents....

 This is what is left of my "who gets what, what size should I get, who do I buy for, 

are all the presents even.  Did we get the room mother, the after care counselor, Oh yeah, and 

a portion dedicated to Anna and Katie's birthday book.  I had to carry it with me at all times,

as one of my children likes to peak (Anna)

This book is the bane of my existence every year.

This is what is left of the 2012 Parnham Holiday Gift List.

(I had great satisfaction getting it to this point!)

Katie decided to take over the Christmas night present dice game. 

She did an excellent job with something for everyone.

My Favorite-Christmas Eve

I've always loved Christmas Eve the most.  All the hustle and bustle are over, the kids are excited and we always go out for a lovely dinner courtesy of Ellen and Sunny.  Here are pictures of our dinner at Carrabbas.  Note that Jia has her pretty dress on from Nona and Grandpa.

The Greatest Story

This year as we put our Nativity scene up, we explained each piece to Jia and then read to her The Nativity which is  beautiful pop-up book by Franesca Crespi. "they also have a pop-up book called Christmas Around the World" They are not  children's books, They have  gorgeous cutouts)  Okay, see how easily I am side-tracked?  An occupational hazard of teaching.

I was explaining things to Jia and she actually asked questions and was really interested!  I was so excited.