Celebration in the Oaks and Happy New Year!

A family favorite holiday activity is Celebration in the Oaks!  This year we took a friend along and the kids had a blast...

Waiting for the ladybug rollercoaster...

Three little piggies...

Fun house...

We were back home for New Year's Eve to celebrate in style! 

 

Dancing

Dance company is a lot of work, but it is also a lot of fun!  And sometimes leads to interesting situations, like when you attend a sleepover with your friends but have to be costumed and ready to leave at 7 a.m. for a dress rehearsal.  At least Emma had to leave also for basketball.  The juxtaposition of the showgirl and the jock cracked me up...

Solo competition is also fun because you get to cheer on your sweet friends and they get to encourage you...

Sleepovers at the studio may be the most fun of all! 

Or maybe it's special classes with homegrown professional dancers, like the incomparable LeConte Banks! 

We love our dance family at Tari's School of Dance! 

 

Christmas Eve and Morning!

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to attend Christmas Eve candlelight services at our church.  We observed the tradition again this year, although it was extremely exhausting for some of us...

Then it was home for gumbo, potato salad, and birthday cake for Jesus! Then we put on our Christmas jammies and hopped in the bed...well, the kids hopped in the bed.  The adults stayed up, laying the stockings by the chimney with care...

Putting together tents...

And torture devices...

And dragging gifts from their hiding places to under the tree...

The next morning we had quite a few nice surprises...

Four happy kiddos...

Grandpa Crane and Grandma Tonie joined us for Christmas and of course, Grandpa is always ready for a new adventure.  He can now check "ride in a side-by-side" off his bucket list...

Merry Christmas, everybody! 

 

Christmas Fun with the Guillory Gang

'Tis the season to pose with your family inside a giant ornament made of Christmas lights! 

Hanging with the Guillory Gang is always fun.  They know how to have a good time! 

Before we took in the lights, we attended the living nativity downtown...

I love this tradition, although some years we miss it! 

This year Sadie's boyfriend and our school friend got in on the family fun...

After freezing outside at the nativity and lights, we grabbed some beignets and hot chocolate at Coffee Call.  Can't get more BR than that!  
 

A Cline Family Christmas

The Cline Family Christmas Party is one of our favorite family traditions.  This year Mawmaw and Pawpaw hosted at the storage building...

The big girls really enjoyed playing with the baby girls...

Ben is too cool for school, but still tolerates us all so sweetly.  And why is there toilet paper on the counter? 

Stylish...

The family that cuddles together...

Guess no one told Selena they were taking a sibling picture! 

We played the game with treats wrapped in a giant ball of Saran Wrap.  Some people really got into it...

I'll leave you with these sweet little nuggets cuddling on the couch...

 

Christmas with the Cousins

Q: How many photos does it take to get 9 kids to look at the camera and smile at the same time? 

A: The world may never know.  We haven't gotten that to happen yet...

Throwing in their great-grandma just ups the level of difficulty...

We tried many different configurations trying to see who could next to whom and still behave...

Corinne could not stop talking...

I finally threw in the towel and just did a silly one...

I think they all at least had a good time...

Oh, and by the way, this was Christmas with the cousins...