Monday the 5th, we had a fun evening with sleigh rides at school! The girls enjoyed riding around in a real sleigh pulled by horses! Tuesday, Bob left for his Asia adventure in Singapore and India (with stops in Bangalore and Hyderabad, and flying out of Mumbai). He enjoyed the experience and it all went well. He got to try lots of new food and did some sightseeing as well. We ladies had a busy week with Erin wearing a 24-hour monitor to check her heart rate with the lower dose of beta blocker (all was good), Santa's Workshop at school for the kids to shop and me to volunteer, and the usual school, Sawyer, piano, ballet, and social skills group. The ladies had a half day on Friday the 11th, so we all enjoyed a little breather.
Saturday the 10th, we had Erin's gymnastics, then a fun holiday-themed mock recital for piano!
Erin also got to go to her friend Olivia's house for a birthday sleepover that evening. It was a great day for Erin! Anna and I had a night on the town at Chick Fila. Sunday, we ladies did some holiday baking and had a blast at the neighborhood holiday party with Santa and hayrides. We also after-partied for neighbor Karen's birthday! Again, we sadly missed cousin Ben's birthday party. We hope everything works out better next year.
I got to attend a fun mom brunch on Monday the 12th, and Erin had a successful 8-year-old checkup after school that day. The best part of this week was Erin's Christmas pageant on Tuesday! I got to watch the dress rehearsal on Tuesday afternoon as well as the main event on Tuesday evening. All the kids performing did a terrific job.
We also got to observe Anna's ballet class on Thursday the 15th. It was super cute.
Bob returned on Friday evening and adjusted back to EST over the weekend. We enjoyed a breather on Friday and Saturday, plus a fun day on Sunday with tickets to the NCSU basketball game in the afternoon. The girls thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the Red Hat box and the snacks provided! We also went to Liz and David's annual holiday party that evening, which was so much fun as well.
Monday and Tuesday were the girls' last days of school, and Wednesday, Anna had a super fun playdate with friend Annie in the morning, then Grandma and Grandpa A. visited that afternoon! We girls went caroling at a nursing home on Thursday with neighbor friends and then had a fun lunch and playground time.
Friday, we packed up and headed to Concord for Christmas fun #1! We started out with cousin jump time at Defy Gravity in Charlotte.
We returned the afternoon of the 24th and had fun at the Tierneys' Christmas Eve party, then got to bed for the big night! Santa arrived as expected, and the girls had a blast opening their gifts and checking everything out. We had some quiet time (except for Daddy's adventure picking up our new couch in Hickory on the 27th) for the next day or so, then lots of fun for Christmas #3 with the Callaways/Flanagans on the 28th! It was great! We had some more family fun on the 29th with lunch with our friends Nina and Lily, and on the 30th. On the 31st, we decided last-minute (which is not like us) to venture to the Boone area to try snow tubing. We are so glad we did - it was a blast! The kids loved seeing the snow, riding the conveyor belt up the hill, and tubing down the 6 lanes. I recommend Jonas Ridge to anyone who is interested. It's a smaller operation with only snow tubing, but was very efficient and even when it was crowded early in the afternoon, it moved along well. We spent New Years Eve in Boone at a Fairfield Inn with indoor pool, so the ladies loved that. Bob and I had a bad cold, but we had fun anyway.
I need to work on getting pictures moved to the computer, so there are only a couple for now.
So, that was 2016. It was a good year! Highlights include the new car, Canada trip, and enjoying our sweet girls. It is really fun to watch them grow and work hard. I feel like we are constantly trying to balance between activities and down time, but hopefully we have a good balance. We are looking forward to 2017 and what it has in store!
