Christmas Brunch

Christmas morning, we had about 17 people over to the house for our annual Christmas Brunch. It is sort of a hodge podge of folks, a little family and a little friends, but everyone is welcome and everyone has a great time. The only rule is "No Gifts." We started that rule the first year so there would be no competition of gifts among the grandparents. All of the gifts are opened on a separate occasion. We had lots of delicious foods on the menu this year that included: monkey bread, homemade biscuits, breakfast casserole, homemade grape jelly, sausage balls, a fruit platter, an edible arrangement, grits, hashbrowns, several coffee assortments, pumpkin bread, banana bread, chocolate chip muffins, strawberry muffins and I'm sure I'm missing something else. It was wonderfully delicious. Everyone arrived around 10:00 and the last person left a little after 3:00.

Christmas Morning

For months, Zachary has been asking for a Nintendo DS. For months, we've told him, "no." For months, we've been the meanest parents on the planet. Little did Zachary know that for Christmas he would be getting a Wii. He was so excited. These pictures don't even begin to describe the sheer joy he felt on Christmas morning when he opened this box. For a week now, all he has done is play all of his different games. We decided that we'd let him play as much as he wants over his break from school and limits would come into play when school started back.

The day after Christmas, Zachary woke up in tears. He was so mad that he hurt his arm at Grandpa's house on Christmas night. Finally, we had to tell him that his muscles were sore from playing the Wii all day. Then, suddenly, the muscles didn't hurt anymore. He said if he kept playing that he wouldn't hurt anymore. Guess he was right. He hasn't complained since. Maybe he knows better. Wonder where he gets his bullheadedness from???

Pink Pig

A few weeks ago, we participated in the Elkins/Staples family tradition of going to ride the Pink Pig. This is our 4th (I think) year of taking the kids to Lenox Mall to ride this Atlanta tradition. The ride is a little cheesy and you can visit last year's blog post to get all of the details, but the kids look forward to this evening every Christmas. Andrew, Morgan and Zachary love that they are now big enough to ride the ride without sharing a seat with their parents.

After the ride, we always head over to The Varisty for a delicious dinner of hotdogs, burgers, onion rings and fries - or as Morgan calls them, fry-fries. It never ceases to amaze us how much food those kids can consume when we go there to eat. I fear when they are teenagers.

Tooth Fairy

(I'm not too sure how to rotate a picture, so you get to turn your head sideways to read the note the Tooth Fairy left a few weeks ago.)

On December 6, Zachary finally lost his first tooth. He's been eagerly waiting for months to lose this first tooth. Too bad it took wrestling with Daddy for the tooth to finally come out. They were playing with a punching bag over at Grandma's house when Zachary got a little too close when it was Daddy's turn to punch the bag. The bag bounced off his face and the tooth was the casualty.

He was very excited to see what the Tooth Fairy would leave. She left him $3.00 which he promptly went to Target to spend. The excitement in our little boy's eyes spending his money was hopefully enough for him to keep wiggling the three other loose teeth that remain. Dr. Kwon will be very proud when we go for our next visit.

Kindergarten Choir Performance

Last weekend, Zachary had his Christmas Children's Choir performance. This huge group on stage is only the Kindergarten Choir. I know of churches that are smaller than this! They have been working hard all fall on their songs and it really showed in their performances.

One of the songs they sang was about the Fruits of the Spirit. (Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control) It was very appropriate that Zachary was the Fruit of Gentleness. He has such a gentle heart!

The children also sang a tearjerker song just for the parents. It was called, "You Knit Me in my Mother's Womb." They showed a slideshow on the screens of each child's baby picture as the children sang. I hardly remember this little baby. It seems like so long ago. Long gone are the days of jet black hair and olive skin. Now, we have a beautiful blonde haired, blue eyed, fair skinned boy. I still wouldn't trade him for anything!

Wheeling, West Virginia

For the last 8 or 9 years, I has been quite the Collin Raye fan. Every time he comes to Atlanta, I have found a way to see him in concert. Fan club? yep! Own all his cds? yep! Tshirts? yep! I even went so far as to name my son after him! Zachary Collin Elkins. Total groupie.

It has been about 4 years since I've had the chance to see him in concert. Mainly because he isn't traveling as much and doesn't come to the southeast all that much either. So, I searched for a concert venue that worked for our schedule and found a way to make a road trip out of it. The problem is that we are perhaps the busiest family I know. It is hard to find a free weekend when you have family, baseball, and football to work around. Lucky for me, I found a concert in Wheeling, WV on a weekend that we had absolutely nothing planned. Perfect road trip!

I drove 22 hours out of our 38 hour trip and put over 1350 miles on the car. It was so worth it. We got to sit second row, center. Awesome!

Zooma!

About 4 months ago, Allison and a few of her friends decided it would be fun to run a half marathon on November 8. It was a lot of hard work to train for, but totally worth it. All 5 of us had a great time and we are currently trying to make plans for a road trip for the next one!

From left to right: Kelly Strunk, Angela Lawson, Jennie Persinger, Kim Cox and Allison. We are all stills smiles - you can tell it was before the race! Little did we know what we had to look forward to.Our dear friend Robin joined our husbands to be part of our cheerleader squad for the morning. Here we are in a pre-race prayer. This is about the 4 mile point. Coming down the hill to the finish line. The back of the shirt reads: "Dear God, please let there be someone behind me to read this."

Luckily, there were a few folks back there. The shirt was quite the conversation piece throughout the morning.