Merry Christmas!!!

Have a fun and safe holiday season!

Lots of Love,

- The Cunninghams

Love Birds

I saw these birds while I was in the Doctor's office waiting for an appointment. I've seen them before..Normally they don't seem to know each other exists, but this time they were snuggled up on their little swing. Cute, huh?

Boys will be boys

Yesterday William and I blew off some energy the neighborhood playground.

The day before that, it rained... a lot.

I saw Grandma kissing Santa Claus...

Well, actually, that's St. Nick she's kissing... and if you look close enough, you might recognize that jolly old man to be Grandpa G!

For anyone who doesn't know the story of St. Nicholas, he was the original Santa Claus! St. Nicholas was a wealthy Bishop (hence the garb) who loved providing gifts to others. He was big on the element of surprise, so he was known for delivering gifts at night so the recipient would find it in the morning.

One of the more famous stories is about a poor man with three daughters. The man was distressed because his three daughters were of age, but he had nothing for their dowries, so the girls were unable to marry. One night while their laundry was out to dry, St. Nicholas filled their stockings with bags of gold. The man was overjoyed and his daughters were able to marry.

The name Santa Claus actually comes from the Dutch pronunciation of St. Nicholas, which is Sinter Klass. Early Dutch settlers who came to NY brought with them the tradition of Sinter Klass to the United States. Neat, huh?

Anyway - it's too bad we weren't in Jackson this weekend because I think William would have much preferred to see this St. Nick than our mall Santa.

Inspired

Inspired by the pictures our friend Jackie recently posted to her Blog, I broke out the camera and tried my had at ornament pictures.

This is what I was able to take before the kids started poking each other.

Thanks for the inspiration Jackie!!!

Get out your wallets, 'cause here comes Santa Claus...

William went to visit Santa in the mall for the first time ever. While the set up was a beautiful Polar Express snow globe theme, I was a little bummed by the whole experience.

The Polar Express is one of William's favorite movies, so the line to get to Santa was pretty exciting. But then we got to the big man in red...

Now... I admit that it's possible my childhood memories are clouded with the Santa experience I've seen in movies. What I expected was happy-helpful elves, lots of fake snow, and a Santa sitting among a pile of presents greeting every child with a jolly "ho, ho, ho". Instead, there was a sales rep with a clipboard wanting to know which picture package I was committing to purchasing. So, right off the bat, I got the impression that Santa wasn't interested in seeing William until I handed over $17.

Is this what the mall Santa has come to? What happened to the idea of luring people to the mall by letting kids see Santa for free? Perhaps that was never the case...

Never-the-less, after committing to package C, William got to stand near Santa and get his picture taken. Maybe today's constant liability issues.. or our extra-sensitive stranger danger sensory means kids aren't allowed to sit on Santa's lap anymore, but I felt a little cheated. Or maybe kid-on-lap treatment comes with package D.. I guess I should have asked.

In the end, Santa handed William a sticker (that's right, folks! Santa doesn't even hand out candy canes anymore), and we walked away with this image on a flash drive. You know what? I don't think Santa even asked William what he wanted for Christmas. :(

Happy Birthday Teddy!!

Take that Economy

Look what showed up in our driveway on Tuesday.

And thanks to Elizabeth, and her mad negotiating skills, it hardly cost us anything.

Playing the Piano

Perhaps we have a pianist in our future? I'm just happy she's using her hands (instead of her feet) this time.

Singing Christmas Tree

(photo courtesy of www.carolinavoices.org)

This Sunday, we took the kids to their first theater production. We won tickets to see the Singing Christmas Tree, a production by Carolina Voices.

For fans of the Three Amigos.. no, the Singing Christmas Tree is not the same as the singing bush. It was actually really neat. They went through a history of "Christmas in the Carolinas" and sang songs of the different lineage that makes up our culture today. Along with the choir on a tree, they had dancing and muppets. It was lots of fun for the kids.

As entertaining as it was, Megan is one year old, so she has a short attention span. We hit her expiration around intermission, so that's when we left. We did get to see Santa on stage and sing "Santa Claus is coming to town" before we left, so it was a good way to end the show.

Feeding the ducks with Grandpa

One big perk to visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Texas is that they live right next to a nice park, complete with a lake and ducks to feed!

Check out all the pictures: click here

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!!

Cousin Jillian

While at G & G C's house, Cousin Jillian came by for a visit.

Jillian is only 5 months younger than Megan, but Megan seems like a giant around Jillian.

Megan enjoyed playing "around" her camera aware cousin.

See more pics.

Thanksgiving Roadtrip and Graceland

Hello blogger readers. I hope you are not still suffering from Thanksgiving overload.

Well, the Cunninghams are back home now after a long and fun trip to see the family. Over the next couple of days we'll share with you all of the fun that we had.

I'll spare you the slide show of the 345 pictures snapped this past week. I'll just post the interesting and cute pictures.

The week started and ended with a two day drive through Tennessee to see G & G Geibel. While passing through Memphis on the way to Texas, I picked up my brother who flew in just to help out with the drive. Thanks Craig!!

(Craig running some energy out of Will)

Since this was his first time in Memphis, we just had to stop at Graceland.

It was much smaller than I remember.



And gaudier. :)

(William checking out one of Elvis's earlier costumes.)