Family Pictures in Georgia

Other Odds and Ends.

Here are a few other random pictures from the holidays, as well as a video of Brooklyn and Grandma and Grandpa Heaton teaching her to play ball.

The REAL DEAL

So after an eventful Christmas Eve, Santa DID find us the next morning. There was more stuff than we knew what to do with. Each year though, we have a discussion about what time it is acceptable to get up to see what Santa brought. And NOBODY is allowed to go see what he brought until we are all up and ready to go. We decided 8:00 would work, but Brooklyn was definitely not ready to get up at 8. Here's the play-by-play of how she did.

"Why are we awake this early again?"

"I might be up, but I DO NOT have to smile at you yet."

"Whoa morning breath. Yup, you too camera man."

"Fine, I'll open a present to apease you all."

"Happy? Sheesh, the things you people expect from me."

"All right, enough of this. We should be in bed now."

"Maybe if I pretend I'm sleeping, they'll all go back to sleep too..." "ZZZZZ..."

Christmas Fun

We had tons of fun visiting with family, but especially my siblings and parents. Matthew and Anna loved playing with and holding Brooklyn, as well as my parents of course, so here are a few pictures of them playing.




On Christmas Eve, we also play Christmas Bingo for prizes. We won some great things, but this was Brooklyn's favorite. Go figure...

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Santa Claus made it to the Kotter cousin's Christmas party again this year!

We were wondering how Brooklyn would handle a strange man with a long beard, particularly since arriving in Georgia with a lot of new people suddenly brought out a newfound attachment to her parents, but she surprised us all. Tim was betting that she would be fine, I was betting that she would cry, so in the end, I guess Tim was right. Santa didn't make it until the end of a long party, and Brooklyn was so tired, she slept right through the whole thing. I tried to wake her up a little as I took her to Santa's lap, but she just went back to sleep. It ended up being a little less traumatic than I expected...

Making Sugar Cookies

Every year we make sugar cookies and then decorate them. Why? Because they are absolutely delicious, plus, we need SOMETHING to leave for Santa on Christmas Eve. So here we were again, in Georgia making sugar cookies.

(Did I mention that we were able to go to Georgia for Christmas? You've probably gathered that by now... boy was our story of getting there fun. Maybe I should blog about that too...)

Anyways, this sugar cookie thing has grown a little out of control for me because I love them so much. I've started making them for every holiday I can justify it. But this isn't about my problems, so back to the sugar cookies for Santa. This was Brooklyn's second sugar cookie experience, and the pictures tell all.



We tried having her help us cut out the dough, but her drool was a little out of control... Not to worry, the heat of the oven surely killed any germs in her drool on the cookies... :)



After we realized the drool could be a problem, we put her in her chair and Daddy helped her cut out a few more cookies.




They turned out beautifully, and so delicious.

Early Christmas Morning

We celebrated our own little Christmas morning before leaving for Georgia, and boy did we get some great things. We left our stockings out for Santa, but clearly, he didn't want us to do any double-dipping so he didn't leave anything for us until we were in Georgia on the REAL Christmas Eve. Still, even without his surprises, we had lots of presents to open. Brooklyn wasn't sure what to think of unwrapping things-- she just liked pulling bows off presents. The whole concept of something being underneath the wrapping paper didn't quite make sense to her--- thank goodness, or all of the presents would definitely have been unwrapped early.

Brooklyn unwrapped a new sippie cup, bubble bath, and a few toys. Tim got some flies for fishing, and some orange sticks. And I got a new pillow, perfume, and new dishes!