Christmas with Grandma…

The weekend before Christmas is when we get together with DW’s Mom to celebrate. For the past few years, we’ve all gone up to her place in Georgia. But this year, she rented a house at St. Simons Island and we had our Christmas there.

We made it to St. Simons on Friday night. The house my MIL rented was gorgeous. It was four stories, so there was plenty of room to spread out. There were bedrooms and a common living area on each floor, which made a great layout for a large group gathering.

Saturday morning, after the boys cooked breakfast, we all walked down to the beach.

The weather was great…it was warm enough to enjoy being outside, but cool enough to feel “Christmasy.” 

When we made it back to the house, we decided to go into town and check things out. We girls hit the Bailey Boys and then went down to the village area to have some lunch. We ate at a Tex-Mex place and the open air outside seating was perfect. The boys took their mom to the grocery store and they grabbed some “Southern Soul BBQ” for lunch.

We all met back at the house after lunch and had a low key afternoon. Devin’s uncle, aunt, Papa, and cousins all arrived shortly after lunch. It’s always so great to see them and spend some time with them, too. DW’s other Aunt also arrived later that evening.

The boys and their PaPa

Warren and Annabelle wrote everyone’s names on some Christmas cutouts to make ornaments for the tree that was at the house.

We spent the afternoon visiting and all trying on DW’s cousin’s Google glasses…

& this will come as no surprise to anyone who knows my sweetheart… but he worked on fixing the ice maker that afternoon. He seriously can’t go anywhere, even to a rental house and not fix something that’s broken…

For our big dinner, we’d planned to have seafood. DW and Adam fried shrimp and oysters and Van made a really good shrimp pasta. We had clam chowder, red lobster cheese biscuits, (If you’ve not gotten the mix from Sams Club yet, you are missing out! I’ve also gotten it at Super Wal-Mart, too!) and baked potatoes. After seeing our buffet of fried starchy foods and lack of green vegetables, we had what Grandma called a “White Christmas” – Ha. Perfection, in my book. :)

After dinner, it was present time. (Actually, Mamie got to open some of her Christmas early…she was so tired so she and Grandma snuck over to the tree and opened presents while we were getting dinner ready). There’s always things that only a grandma can get away with. :) Mamie went to bed shortly after, so she missed the rest of the gift opening.

The rest of the kids (& adults) had a big time opening their gifts and everyone got some really nice and fun things.

After all the gifts had been opened, George (DW’s StepDad) called the elevator up and it was loaded down with one more box for each of the kids. It was really sweet that he’d ordered them all a “Stuffies” – and “G-Pa” had even picked them all a different one. AB got the Pegasus, and Mamie got the kitty-cat.

The girls’ great-aunt had also gotten them these matching kitty-cats, and Mamie had a fit over them. She is slightly obsessed with cats. Sometimes she will just let out a “Meow” (Which sometimes sounds like “MEE-YOWWW”) out of the blue. I’m far from a pet person, but for sure NOT a cat person, so its pretty hilarious that my girl loves them so much. 

Sunday morning, we were all just lazy and enjoyed not having anything to do. DW, the girls, me and Adam & Lauren all took another walk to the beach.

After lunch, it was time to pack up and head back to Florida.

It was such a fun weekend and the thought and planning that Ms. Teresa put into it meant so much to all of us.

Grandma with the grands

~amw~