CATCH UP!!! December 2012
Here’s another installment in my big game of catch-up after an extended blog vacay. (Here are my catch-ups on October & November, if you missed them.)
We kicked off December by taking a picnic lunch downtown to Straub Park to see all the Christmas decorations. You would never know it was December from this shot of my boys soaking up the sun in their shorts!
Santa wasn’t scheduled to make an appearance until much later in the day, so we took advantage of his absence by making ourselves at home in his sleigh:
And riding his decidedly two-dimensional reindeer:
Oh yes, we made ourselves right at home in Santa’s territory.
We spent most of the rest of the month hanging out with friends:
Especially Henry’s BFF, Sabrina, who he now calls “eeena!” which is basically the cutest thing ever. Eeena!’s mama, Amie, is my best mama friend. I think we probably spend more time together than we do with our spouses. Amie helps keep me (mostly) sane and just look at Henry with his Eeena!:
(Photo credit to Amie on both of the two above.)
For Christmas, Cumbie’s family rented a house in nearby Clearwater Beach and of course we moved in for the week. We were so excited to have them come spend Christmas in “paradise,” but… here’s the thing about living in paradise: I always feel personally responsible if the weather isn’t absolutely amazing while my guests are here. And unfortunately the week of Christmas was probably the worst week weather-wise we’ve had all year. The days leading up to our family’s visit were mild and beautiful, seeing Henry and I on the playground in shorts and sunglasses, but as soon as the Cumbies rolled into town the wind started blowing and it only got cooler and more windy 
, but we made the most of it anyway.
If you know my in-laws, you are not even a little bit surprised that they brought a Christmas tree with lights and decorations (plus a wreath for the door, stockings to stuff, Christmas-themed kitchenware, etc.). And if you know me, you know I definitely married into the right family because I was delighted! Here is Henry helping Grammy decorate the tree:
And hang the star with Pops:
(I love that sweet photo!)
Our rental house was right on the water, so we had fun feeding the birds:
And blowing bubbles with a bubble machine in the yard with Grammy:
I got so tickled watching them together!
The next day was actually nice and mild, so we walked up to the beach and a nearby playground where Uncle Michael chased Henry while Cumbie and I enjoyed watching from the sidelines for once! 
Grammy also got in on the action, helping Michael get Henry to the very top of a rock formation.
Before we knew it, it was Christmas morning and we were all in our Christmas jammies opening our stockings:
And taming our bucking broncos (thank you to Grammy and Pops!):
Luckily, Christmas Day was beautifully mild weather-wise, so we pigged-out on enjoyed a late-afternoon shrimp boil outside next to the water.
Later the boys went fishing off our dock and actually caught a little something!
Sadly, a couple of days later we had to check out. Even though the weather wasn’t ideal the whole time, it was so wonderful to spend a whole week with family. It was an amazing Christmas! Here we all are braving the frigid wind the evening before we all hit the road:
And that was our December in a nutshell!
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