The decorations came down the day after Christmas. My Type A personality kicks into high gear and I can't wait to get everything down once it's all over. Kamdyn wanted to help disassemble her tree. She was so careful with the ornaments.
We are so very blessed in countless ways. Christmas reminds us of those many blessings! If only we could keep that same spirit throughout the year. 
Nanny and Pop Pop came down Christmas Eve. They planned to spend Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day with us; however, Pop Pop got sick and Nanny had to drive him ALL the way back to Easley at midnight so he could have his complete oxygen, medicine, doctors, etc., just in case. We missed having them Christmas Day, so after everyone left our house, we loaded up the car with ALL of the presents that were from Nanny and Pop Pop and took off to their house. Christmas wouldn't have been complete without Nanny seeing us open all of our gifts from her. She always surprises us with such wonderful things! She is so good to us and we love her dearly!
Kamdyn surrounded by her many presents! She is one blessed and loved little girl!
Kamdyn wanted a squooshy pillow. Nanny could only find a Clemson one. :)
Opening one of her big surprises!
She got her very own digital camera. She already knew exactly what to do with it!
Kamdyn was laughing because everytime she opened clothes she threw them at Nanny! By this time she was growing tired of opening presents.....if that's possible??
Then, she found her kazoo from Nanny. She LOVES instruments and making music! It was so cute listening to her play Jingle Bells on the kazoo. You have to hum to make noise. She caught on quickly and was playing any and every Christmas song that she could think of!
After we played with Kamdyn's toys for a while, it was time to get dressed and ready for Round 2. Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim came to our house for lunch. I prepared my first Christmas meal complete with a homemade macaroni and cheese from my Mama's recipe. I was so proud of myself! Everyone said that lunch was delicious (I hope they weren't just saying that to be nice!). I say all of this because I am really not fond of cooking. Perhaps with more practice and more successful attempts I can grow to love cooking.
Kamdyn had a good time opening her presents from Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim. She got a hold of my camera again and had fun taking MANY snapshots of everyone.
Daddy opening one of his many gifts. His list this year was quite lengthy. He said he had been REAL good all year which warranted a LONG Christmas list. :) (Photo taken by Kamdyn)
(photo taken by Kamdyn....she's getting kind of good at this!)
(another photo by Kamdyn....it's like she knew what she was getting later that night from Nanny!)
This is one of my most favorite gifts....A CARPET SWEEPER! Now I don't have to pull out the HUGE Dyson every time I need to vacuum the area rugs while listening to Richard and Kamdyn tell me that I am disturbing their TV time. It also works great on the hardwoods!
Uncle Jim and Aunt Kathy....photo taken by our newest photographer.
Playing Kamdyn's new fairytale memory game.
concentrating.....
Kamdyn had fun playing Memory and Mousetrap with Aunt Kathy. Mousetrap proved to be the most difficult gift to put together this Christmas! :)
Kamdyn went to bed around 9:00pm on Christmas Eve. Santa had to be extra careful this year because Kamdyn's sleep habits the past week had been sporadic. I think mostly because she was so excited at the arrival of Christmas. Luckily, she slept through the night, but wakened around 5:30. She screamed for me from her room. It was still dark outside and Santa had not come yet. I told her she had to go back to sleep for a little while longer. Then, she called for her Daddy. He got in the bed with her until around 7:30 when she asked him to look in the living room to see if Santa had come and gone. He had!
Surprisingly, Kamdyn was not very dramatic for once in her life. She peeked around the corner, but did not get overly excited. She walked around looking at all of her things. Then, she started naming everything that Santa had left. The excitement began showing as she actually played with each gift.
She didn't realize that she still had a ton of presents to open under the tree, too!
Check out the note that Santa left. Remember.....she was worried that she would get two Handy Manny Repair shops because she had already told him she wanted one and then she got one from Georgia a few days later. She LOVED this note. My favorite moment was when she "read" the note to Mama Lucy. Luckily, we captured this moment on video! :)
This was an instrument Christmas per her request. Here she is discovering her violin. (Daddy's in the background with the video camera.)
And her accordion.
Here's her new microwave. She asked for one of these several months ago, but had forgotten. Immediately, she said, "How did Santa know I wanted a microwave. I didn't even tell him!" Her trombone (a.ka. slide whistle) is in the background. Seems that Santa had a hard time locating and/or making a toy trombone with a slide that really worked. The slide whistle is awesome!
Her new "K" cup!
She finally got around to seeing that Santa ate both of his cookies and drank most of his milk!
Kamdyn creates and makes her own reindeer food each year from different things in our pantry. This year the reindeer food consisted of cheerios, rice krispies, and two raisins specifically for Rudolph. Santa told her to leave only two raisins for Rudolph because if he eats more than two he gets really tired and lazy. She remembered this and was very insistent on TWO raisins. I guess she thought the other reindeer would enjoy cheerios and rice krispies. Reindeer food isn't complete without the sparkly magic to go in it. We added shiny red and green food sprinkles so the reindeer would be sure to see it!
She was so intent on doing this "right!"
I was trying to help her, but she insisted on getting red and green sprinkles EVERYWHERE! :)
Walking down the steps to dump the reindeer food.
Daddy didn't come down the steps to capture the complete moment, but she dumped the reindeer food all in one spot right in the middle of our yard. :)
After Nanny gave her a bath, Santa's Little Helper made him some special "homemade" chocolate chip cookies straight from the tube of cookie dough. :) She again sprinkled magic green and red sprinkles all over the cookies. Only the best for Santa! She had specific directions from Santa for two cookies and only a little bit of milk. She had to sample the cookies to make sure that they were good enough for the Jolly 'Ole Man. Check out Tick Tock in the background. This was his final spot this Christmas Season. See you next year Tick Tock!
We spent Christmas Eve with Mama Lucy, Ruthie, and Nanny. Kamdyn enjoyed opening her presents from Ruthie. I made my first ever deer meat lasagna which turned out much better than I anticipated. We had a fabulous time with our wonderful family!
I've never seen so many presents before. There are more hiding behind the BIG bags!
Ruthie with the monkey.
Kamdyn giving the lady crazy magnetic hair!
Happy with her masterpiece.
Kamdyn's new giraffe ABC/Number puzzle.
We finally visited The Lights of the South on the Tuesday before Christmas. It was very cold the night that we went. And, just like anything else around this time of the year, the closer it is to Christmas the longer you have to wait. This was very true. We had to wait in line for our tickets to get in. We waited in line to see Santa. We even waited in line to ride on the hayride to see all of the beautiful lights. Luckily, the lines moved very quickly and Kamdyn did very well with patience. I am very impressed with how this place operates. I guess they know if you have to wait too long in the cold that you won't come back year after year. However, I will remember next year to make our visit the week before Christmas before all of the schools are out.
We had a great time! We even enjoyed a nice family dinner afterwards. I love family time with my two favorite people!
First stop....Santa!
I will have to scan the "real" photo of her with Santa and compare with last years! :)
Second stop....Hayride to see the lights!
Mommy with her little sweetie waiting in line for the hayride.
The awesome "Believe" tunnel of lights.
Last stop....the playground.
Kamdyn playing in the Gingerbread House.
Inside Cinderella's Carriage.
You Get This.......
Ha! Ha! This is what I get for trying to tell her how to work the camera....a crazy photo!
And this......
And this......
Do you see Tick Tock in the corner of the door? She's finally getting the hang of pointing the camera in the direction of what she is trying to take a picture of.
Finally, she got a good one of Daddy!
Pop Pop and Nanny came to visit the Sunday before Christmas. Pop Pop was feeling pretty good and felt well enough for the road trip. Kamdyn had just gotten her Handy Manny Repair shop and said, "Pop Pop will be good at this!" They had a great time playing together. Here are a few pictures from their photo shoot. :) I had to post them all because Kamdyn's different faces crack me up.
We are so blessed to have Pop Pop here with us for another Christmas. He has been sick for the past three years and had endured a lot. He has good and bad days. He has taken many trips to the hospital with a continuing battle with MRSA and he is still having a hard time getting his strength back after the chemo and radiation. We are so thankful that he is currently cancer free. We continue to pray that his diabetes will be controlled through insulin, diet, and exercise so that we can have him around for many more years to come! We love you, Pop Pop!
Kamdyn and I were shopping at our favorite local gift shop, CommniGraphics, which is owned by some of our neighbors. She and I were talking to our neighbor when one of the workers asked if we were there to have Kamdyn's picture taken. We weren't, but Kamdyn politely told them that she wanted to have her picture taken with Santa. Luckily, I had my camera with me because they provided the Santa for free, but not the camera. I think Kamdyn was getting worried that we wouldn't make it to The Lights of the South to see the Santa there. She wanted to be sure that he knew exactly what she wanted for Christmas and she wasn't going to take any chances!
During this visit she told Santa that she wanted an accordion, a violin, a trombone, and a Handy Manny Repair Shop. She has been very consistent with her list this year and has insisted on all of these very advanced musical instruments. The funny thing is that Georgia gave Kamdyn the Handy Manny Repair Shop shortly after this visit with Santa. When she opened the present she immediately said, "Mama, I told Santa I wanted this! What am I going to do?" She was so worried that night that Kristin, Georgia's daughter, had to sit down with Kamdyn immediately to write a letter to Santa explaining that she no longer needed the Handy Manny Repair Shop.
I, of course, wasn't worried a bit! I was just hoping for some time to document these precious moments!
