Jan 2, 2012 Last Day at the Adams Home

We spent our last day at Mom and Dad's at Turtle Park down by the river front in Albany. It was a gorgeous day and we had a really nice time. I took what became my favorite picture of the whole week at the park--you'll see it in this slideshow. It is of Miss Georgia. She's just such a precious little beauty!
We had a fabulous time with the family! One thing that I failed to get a picture of was the "Post Office" that the kids created together with Nonny's help. They invited us all to write little notes to one another so they could have letters in their post office. Then one night they brought them all in to the family room and delivered them to each of us. It was precious and hilarious! We will definitely be doing that again. It was my new favorite tradition for sure! I am blessed and grateful for these dear people.

New Year's Day Jan 1, 2012

We had a really special New Year's Day this year. Carrie Beth and Abby and I sang a trio in church that morning at Albany FUMC which was a treat! I love singing with my sisters so much. The Morans and Mimi and Poppy came to celebrate the day with us also. When I was a kid we would spend our Christmas vacation at Mimi and Poppy's home, so when we can be together again with some of them, it is treasured time.

Christmas 2011 at the Adams' Home #3

Here are some more pics of our time together. We always enjoy taking the kids down to Lake Loretta so they can feed the ducks and geese. It was a much less eventful trip than we have had in the past. No goose attacks/bites, etc this time, fortunately! We threw and threw and threw bread 'till it was gone. The kids were also really glad that we were able to play at the church gym. They have lots of scooters in there, so they wheeled all over the gym while we sat and chatted. The daddies scootered a little too! You'll see a couple of pictures of Posy seeing Miss Betty, the Atkinson's guinea pig. She wasn't too sure about her, and poor Miss Betty did a good bit of squeaking. Anyway, here are the third set of pictures. No. I'm not done yet! We were there for almost 10 days, so forgive me for the excess! :)

Christmas 2011 at the Adams #2

On Tuesday Mom, AndyIII and I went over to Americus, GA to meet the Moran family who brought a moving fan with Mimi and Poppy's belongings from Perry. They moved into Magnolia Manor there, so we spent the day helping them get their room settled. The Morans really did the lion's share of the work, but it was a team effort getting that room arranged and unpacked properly. Poppy is definitely at a different place mentally, unfortunately. He is strangely sharp at certain moments and then very forgetful most of the rest of the time. One of his sweet sharp moments happened as we had lunch together that day. Mom, Andy and Mimi and Poppy and I were seated in a sun room at the Manor eating, and Poppy suddenly started quoting a poem he has used many times in sermons he has preached. He quoted the poem from memory as he's done so many times before, without missing a single word. Suddenly I was gripped with emotion. It was a poignant moment for some reason. Hard to believe that they will not always be here with us. So very glad to know we have all of eternity with them, though! We also had a good visit with Papaw, Dad's father, who is also there at the Manor. He is not terribly happy there and his health seems to be an ongoing struggle, but we pray that he can find peace and health and contentment. He seemed to really love seeing his great grandchildren. It's so nice that they're all there together. It was a full couple of days--as we went back on Wednesday to help them finish getting unpacked, etc, but we enjoyed getting to be with them for that time.

Christmas at the Adams #1

OK, like I said a few posts back, I am warning you. There are lots of pics! If you can believe it, I actually left some out of these slide shows! I have several slide shows to post. I tried to kind of group them into days. This is the first few days at Mom and Dad's right after Christmas. We had such a great time together! Watch all of the slide show and you'll see one pic that reveals some pretty exciting news about one of the Adams girls!

Christmas Eve 2011

We spent Christmas Eve day at Mary and Stan's here in Kingsland. The Destrada family was also there, and we enjoyed a fun day together. Papa (Stan sr.) has a fun tradition of getting a new, silly Christmas hat every year. You'll see some pictures of the kids wearing it. It sings, lights up and they love it! Mary and Stan are always so generous to us. We are hoping, with their big gift to us, to buy paint from Lowes and do some much needed painting around here--eventually! If only I could make a decision about colors. We were particularly grateful to spend Christmas Eve with the Rogowskis because Papa has been sick and in and out of the hospital for quite some time now. We felt so blessed that he was home and able to be with all of us for that time of celebrating. We just were missing the Hollands! We know they had a great first Christmas in their new home in Mt. Pleasant. God is so good to us. We are grateful for our family!

December 2011--up until Christmas

So here are several pics of some of the high lights of December--before Christmas Eve. We always enjoy decorating the tree, and this year was extra fun because we had a new tree! There are a couple of pics that were taken after the adult cantata and during the kids' musical. Those were both such wonderful events. We felt such a keen awareness of the Holy Spirit working, helping, moving in and all around those experiences. There's one pic of Stan at a band concert. His bands sounded great this year. His huge 6th grade band puts out this wall of sound!! Amazing! :) We were so glad to be able to zip over to Savannah for a quick visit with the Atkinsons on the weekend of their church's children's Christmas performance. Carrie Beth has worked very hard and those kids are really coming along! We got to go to Savannah Christian's "The Journey" which is like a re-enactment of the journey that Mary and Joseph took to Bethlehem. We all loved it! Very cool experience. It was quite a production. There are some pics from Benjamin's Noah's Ark preschool program, too. He did such a great job as a reindeer. He was pretty shy around Santa, and when I asked him why he wouldn't talk when he sat in Santa's lap, he said, "Mom, I already wrote my list. Why should I tell him again?" :) There are a couple other Santa pics with both of the kids from a Girl Scout event. Olivia looks so big on Santa's lap all of a sudden! When did that happen? After school let out, we had a week before Christmas, and we really enjoyed resting and playing as a family. One day was particularly warm and we went to the beach for the afternoon and had a picnic. Truly gorgeous! Well there are a million more pics coming, but here are a few to start! :)

If Anyone is Waiting with Baited Breath...

I know I don't have a big audience out there reading my little monthly updates with pics of our family, but for those family members out there who might be waiting for some Christmas pics, etc. I'm working on it. I have about a zillion pics to work through and organize. Stan got me a new (to me) camera for Christmas, and so I really went snap happy! Anyway, I just thought I'd pop in here and say HI! And let you know updates are coming. Maybe this week I'll have some moments to work on it as the kids are returning to school and we are settling back into our routine.