Santa, the real Santa

Those of you that know me, know that I love Santa...the real Santa...he lives at Phipps Plaza from mid November through Christmas Eve. Now, growing up, he lived at Perimeter Mall and then moved to Phipps years later. We would get all dressed up and go to the mall and stand in line for HOURS to see Santa. Hours! Then he moved to Phipps and I seem to remember getting a number and then you'd come back when it was time for your number to be called. Still waited in line though. It was a Justice family tradition to go see Santa and ride The Pink Pig. It was a day that I looked most forward to growing up and a day that holds some of my fondest childhood memories. When I had Ethan, I was thrilled that I would get to take him to see the same Santa that I had grown up seeing myself. You don't stand in line anymore, this year you called to make an appointment. It literally took me 3 hours to get through - and that was using 4 different phones. I was that serious about making sure Ethan saw my Santa, the real Santa. As I put Ethan on his lap, I hugged his neck and I know he knew who I was. He may not have remembered my name, but I know he knew me. He just had that twinkle in his eyes. Even when I went to pick up Ethan's pictures, he made eye contact with me and gave me that same twinkle, smiled and waved at me. It thrilled me! Ethan was able to see my Santa the first year - that next March he died. I was crushed! The article about Santa Ray is in Ethan's baby book. Seriously....like I said, if you know me you know how magical I thought this Santa was. His best friend replaced him as the famous Santa. He's good, but not as good as my Santa. Now I go online in October at midnight to get the coveted appointment. Now we make our appointment with Melanie and her girls. It's become our tradition to do this and as long as I'm able, I will continue to bring my kids to go to Santa. I hope that when they are 32, they look at Santa the way I do and see the magic! I believe in the magic!

Merry Christmas!!!

Halloween 2009

October has been quite the busy month for us (no surprise there). We went back to Atlanta the first of the month for the U2 concert. I was planning on staying there with the kids until Melanie had her baby on the 13th. Well, she ended up having Ashton earlier, on the 8th....so we stayed through that weekend and headed back to Memphis. Ashton is the perfect little one and I was thrilled to have gotten to see her! Makes me want another one...

RoRo and Nona came to town for Halloween. We've known for awhile that RoRo was coming, but then Nona decided to use a last minute buddy pass and come too - so we had 4 extra hands in the house. It was so nice! The kids of course loved having them here and enjoyed some alone time with RoRo on the front end and some alone time with Nona on the back end of their visit. Their visits are never long enough (hint hint)!!!

I love it when the kids get great use out of their costumes. This year Ethan really got great use out of his costume. I purchased it while on vacation and he wore it at the beach....to get bagels @ Panera, to the fire station for a visit, wanted to wear it to putt putt....then he got to wear it Trunk or Treating at church, preschool and Halloween. I would say that I got my full value out of this one!

2 days after Nona left, Nina started running a fever and ended up with H1N1. I had already been feeling some sinus stuff starting and it hit me hard. Ethan got the flu mist when we took Nina to the dr -so he started running a fever because of that. Mark got a little cold too. So we were all out of commission and NO RoRo and NO Nona....do you want grandparents in town to help when you're healthy and can do whatever you want or do you want them in town when you're sick and need help? Luckily I have the best husband and Mark really stepped up and nursed us all back to health. Saturday night I went to bed around midnight and woke up around noon on Sunday....by 2pm I was back asleep until almost 6pm. During that afternoon nap, he took a picture of me sprawled out on the floor in the family room with my iPhone and then posted it on facebook for everyone to see. What irritated me more than the picture of me is that you can see all of my ironing piled up on the love seat above me....he knew I would be furious! He also posted a picture we had taken of Nina the day before. They had been playing outside and she came inside, took her shoes off and walked in front of me and said she was going to get her pappy and take a nap. I was like, ok, whatever. Ethan and Mark came inside and Ethan went upstairs to play a little before his nap. Finally Mark went up to put them both down for naps and couldn't find Nina anywhere. She's gotten quite good at hiding quietly, unlike her Bubba, so he just thought she was hiding. She had gone in her room and turned her music on, gotten her blanket and pappy out of her crib and went in the corner....behind her crib....curled up and fell asleep. We picked her up and put her in her bed and she still slept another 4 hours! All that being said....we are finally coming out of this yuck. Nina did have H1N1, but less than 12 hours after medication was a completely different child. The dr couldn't believe that our kids have only had 1 antibiotic a piece - we have been blessed with healthy children...but when we get sick, we get sick! I finally went to the dr today and 3 hours later....just a bad sinus infection, luckily. I guess I'll post the 2 pictures here too so everyone that isn't on facebook knows what my husband did to me....payback will be fun (or expensive)!

Nina, a couple of weeks ago, Sunday after church....chunkier, before the flu

Birthday outfit I made for a friend's daughter in GA - I thought it turned out cute!

Nina and Ethan one Sunday morning....don't ya just love Sunday mornings? Ethan sure does!

I never did get him to smile. Oh well - the outfits were cute though!

The back of Donnie's truck that Cathy and I decorated for Trunk or Treat - she won this year!

Macie Mae and Charlie

Cathy and Nina

Ethan and Cathy (although he was undressing already)

RoRo got to read to Ethan's preschool class at the Fall party. All the kids were so cute in their costumes....Ethan wore his to school and then took it off after the class party and sported his wife beater tshirt all day...Halloween tshirt that Mommy made stayed in his bag, unworn. Nice!

RoRo with Ethan and Nina before she flew back to Maryland

Ethan, once again, did not want to take a picture...so she told him to make funny faces - I thought this was cute. Maybe I should realize that he does not want to have his picture taken on Sundays?!

Monkey see, Monkey do....Ethan was wearing his Home Depot goggles to help Mark cut the apples for our apple pie because RoRo wears reading glasses. Like I said, Monkey see, Monkey do...especially in our house!

Halloween afternoon, I took off shopping to a Junior League Christmas market with my Mom, Mark's Mom and Cathy. When we got back, Mark had actually carved our pumpkin. I couldn't believe it, because he does NOT like the guts inside. I thought they did a nice job!

I'm inside making soup for us for dinner before Trick-or-Treating and the Moms, or RoRo and Nona, are outside getting pictures of the kids. My Mom comes inside and says, ok I got pictures of the kids. They are good. I think to myself....yea right they are good....so I go outside and take a few more. You know, just in case. I'M SO GLAD I DID. HOLY COW, MOM? ARE YOU SERIOUS??? See the above picture and exhibit A and the below picture as exhibit B. Good grief!

I took over and got a pretty good one, but by this time the lady bug had already started eating LOTS of candy. Seriously, I'm not exaggerating...by the end of the night, she was at one point, literally on all fours on the sidewalk somewhere in our neighborhood barking and growling. That's how much candy she had. It was hilarious!

After church on Sunday. Well, I actually give my Mom props on this one - she actually got a picture...now, Nina isn't looking at the camera, and she isn't smiling....but she got it! Way to go, Char!

No lying...this is Wednesday night after church around 9pm. Does this look like a child that has H1N1? About 2 hours later....102 fever and see pic below for next day in the dr. office. Bless her heart!

What stinks is that my Mom is going to think this post is funny....and she can't check the blog from school and her computer at home is disassembled...so someone please show this to her.

Hilton Head 2009

We met Mark's parents, Carl and Jaime in Hilton Head a few weeks ago for our annual beach trip. Every year it gets better and better....but I think this year topped them all. The kids being a little older was a plus for sure! This year we were in a house that was huge and had our own pool. That was so nice! The weather was fabulous - no rain and still very warm temps, but not July/August hot. The kids absolutely loved the ocean - the rougher the better! September was just the best time to go to the beach!

Ethan and Nina had breakfast out by the pool every morning with Ro Ro. Oh the life!

Happy Birthday Pa!

Ro Ro took the kids up to the fire station at the front of Palmetto Dunes one morning. They were there for a long time and the kids loved it. Then Ethan had to go back later in the week for one more visit.

Ethan and Nina with Uncle Carl and Aunt Jaime before leaving for dinner and putt putt