Brrr!

DM REALLY loves her hat and coat this year.  She doesn't want to take it off! She really only takes it off willingly to eat!

Maybe this is a sign that I really do keep our house a bit too cold.

Heaven Has a 4-Legged Angel

2011 was a year of many blessings for our family, but on the last day of 2011, we lost David's parents' dog Grant.  He had been trained to be an assistance dog but turned out to be too timid for the job so John and Jeannie had the opportunity to welcome Grant in to their home.  I remember so vividly Jeannie asking me if I minded if Grant attended our engagement party. Of course I didn't mind!  If anyone in attendance was annoyed by the VERY well-behaved golden, they probably wouldn't be in our lives very long term! 

 Grant loved to swim and please his owners! 

Rest in peace precious Grant!

Christmas

Christmas was everything we could have imagined, complete with tons of quality family time, rest and an amazing worship service.  We hope your Christmas was all you'd been hoping for!

We are "rearranging" a bit in the Patterson household.  In an effort to share more photos, we've started a Picassa site, which can be viewed on the right under Family Photos / Our Family.   Loading photos in Blogger is entirely too time consuming, and while I'd love to move this entire blog, but it isn't happening this month.  :).   

Cookies, Parties and More!

We decorated (ate icing) with friends!  Some of the kids did pretty good.  DM really just wanted to keep decorating another cookie so she could lick the icing off.  We iced a lot of red cookies as soon as I realized that the red icing was going to blend best on her red dress.

Mommy brings home a GIANT nutcracker from her office party!  Yippy!

Our class party.  Fun times!

DM with Ms. Arleathia who has been amazing!  She has so much of the same teaching style that I had, even if the children are ten years younger.  She is so consistent.

Our DM loves to eat, even if she is the ONLY one left at the table.  Completely unphased by it!

Fun with Dear Friends

Earlier this month we slowed the Christmas Craziness that we've been trying to avoid to have dinner with dear friends who have been patiently awaiting a precious Baby Boy and celebrate Julie's birthday. WLT should arrive any day and will be a HUGE blessing to his parents.

Happy Baby Blessing, Thanner Family!

Christmas comes early!

We had Christmas with my parents a bit early because they'll be traveling for Christmas and we'll have the Patterson crew with us.  It was a quick visit but we had a blast and DM kept us all on our toes.

DM found a new friend in Winston, my parents' dog.  Tahoe will never let her cuddle but Winston tolerated!

David and DM open a gift.

DM shows Mom part of her new book.

DM wants to stop opening presents to read another new book.

On a slightly unrelated note, I love all china, crystal and silver despite the additional care it takes when compared to today's tableware. Pretty sure I'm the only one of my friends who insists on having multiple sets of everything. This is the children's set to Mom's silver. LOVE.

Christmas is Coming!

DM and I made a trip to Lenox with Mom, Amie, and Ro!  Every Atlanta child needs to ride the Pink Pig as much as possible!  As is typical there was so much to take in and DM was quite serious as she observed.  We did get a few smiles ever now and then.

 Pretty much the best picture of DM and me.  She's not one for staying still.

 Here it comes!

Not so sure!

 Okay, this isn't so bad!

DM and part of her "village"!  (Village = people who we feel are helping to raise DM into a loving, giving member of society.) 

 This is the Pink Pig I rode.  It was kind of like a traveling jail cell now that I think about it.  You can even see the wires over the windows.  I think this was the one that was around when my parents were young, too.

 Our goal is to keep Christmas simple.  The chaos of the holidays can easily suck all of the JOY of the holidays.  I am so guilty of allowing this to happen but the I am going to try to be very intentional about it this year!

DM's simple tree.

Our tree is also quite simple this year and we're pretty sure it may not make it to Christmas day but we love it.