Christmas #3 - Aunt Manda and Festival of Lights

On Christmas Eve, the Aunt Manda arrived! We drove to James Island for the Holiday Festival of Lights, an annual event

at the county park that includes roasting marshmallows, riding a carousel, taking a train ride (Chance's fav--"again!"), . . . and, of course, LIGHTS in all shapes and sizes.

Aunt Manda and Grace on the carousel.

The girls.

The elaborate sand sculpture.

Daddy, Aunt Manda, the twins--walking among murals made by area schoolchildren.

NOT PICTURED: The shenanigans of Aunt Manda with the twins while Mommy and Daddy went to Mommy's 20th high school reunion . . . Grace and Chance. With Aunt Manda. For a day and a half. By themselves. We'll never know . . .

Christmas #2

No blogging. Lots of Christmas. And, more specifically, Mommy sick. She worried (no way!) that she had mono, a brain tumor, or something similarly horrible. But January's CT scan showed major infection in the sinuses (with loads o' swelling and a cyst). Good to know she doesn't have Ebola virus. The drugs seem to be helping this week, so finally back to blogging . . . yay!

Grandma and Grandpa Boespflug came for a week before Christmas, and Grace and Chance learned the meaning of the word "presents." Each night, the bags were refilled with new gifts, and the twins began asking for more. On about the 3rd night, Grace decided she was finished with dinner quite quickly, and when Grandma and Mommy tried to coax her to eat more--and wait for the rest of us to finish--she resisted. Grandma then promised presents AFTER dinner was finished, and when Grace realized the presents wouldn't materialize RIGHT THEN, she burst into seemingly real tears and wailed, "PRESENTS!" Oh, the drama . . . but to this 20-mo-old, it was a serious tragedy. Chance puts Xmas bag on head to entertain us . . . Grandma reads new book to twins after breakfast (she's a fabulously animated reader; the twins love it).

Church service the Sun. before Christmas included kids' pageant and cake for Jesus' birthday.

Daddy and Gracie also tried out the piano. SEE VIDEOS BELOW!

A trip to Charles Towne Landing, Charleston's original settlement. We only had time to see the "native animals" before the twins needed naps; halfway through the walk, Mommy broke out the PB&J for Grace, after which she noticed an elk following us along the path (right next to the fence) who eyed Grace's sandwich (and oh, is that a sign that says "no food"?).

A trip to the SC Aquarium (in this pic, lookin' at the turtles).

Also a drive down to Edisto Island, where Grandma and Grandpa will be staying for a week in February--can't WAIT to see them again!

On the beach at Edisto, Grace holding a shell (it's for Aunt Manda, but we have yet to give it to her).

Isn't this a grand pic of Grandma and Grace? Heart.