Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Home Is Where Your Mama Is...

I love my home.  I love my husband and daughter.  I love our pets.  But there is nothing like your HOME - the place where you grew up.  This past weekend, my sisters and I helped my Mama decorate her Christmas tree.  We had so much fun putting up our favorite ornaments, drinking hot chocolate, watching Mama's favorite Christmas movie (It's A Wonderful Life), and being our goofy selves!

Holiday Spirit

This is absoloutely the MOST wonderful time of the year!  I LOVE the Christmas season!  I love the smells, the music, the lights, the decorations... and the general cheerfulness of the month of December. We got into the holiday spirit this weekend and did some decorating!

Decorations

Here are a few decorations in our home...

Living Room - Our Family Tree

View from the front door

Our First Christmas Tree!

Lots of lights!

My Gone With the Wind ornaments

Longwood University - Class of 2005

No tree (at least in the Smith household) is complete without Duke and Panthers ornaments!

Lucy LOVES the tree!

Dining Room - with our red and gold themed tree

I've been buying red and gold ornaments on sale for the last few years to have enough for a themed tree!

Candy and decorations

My Christmas dishes matched Michael's glasses!

Outside pictures to come!  :)

PINK at Daddy's house?!

McKayla came home last night to a well-lit home decorated for Christmas.  She was so excited about all of the lights and having TWO trees!  It was dark when she got home, so I don't think she noticed the Christmas flags outside until we left for school this morning...

McKayla:  We have pink flags!

Me:  Yep! Do you like them?

McKayla: They're PINK!

Me:  I know.

McKayla:  Of course I do!

The Magic of Santa

I found this on my computer yesterday.  A few years ago, they were celebrating an anniversary of The Legendary Santa and asked people for their stories in a few words.  My family has so many memories of going to see Santa and this year I get to continue the tradition by taking McKayla - I think that I'm more excited than she is!!  They didn't choose my entry, but here it is for you to read:

My parents took my sister for her first visit in 1982. Daddy didn’t understand driving over an hour to see Santa. Mama, however, knew there was no Santa like the Legendary Santa…


The tradition began in 1963 when Mama and her siblings went to see Santa at Miller & Rhoads. My grandparents recall lunch in the Tea Room and hearing Eddie Weaver play the organ. Mama was amazed that Santa knew their names! She knew that she’d take her children to see the Legendary Santa.


This became our favorite family tradition. After that first visit, Daddy says that the Legendary Santa would make a non-believer believe that this was the REAL Santa. The tradition grew to three generations, including all of my cousins.


We were almost always the first in line to watch Santa come down the chimney. It seemed as if Santa really remembered our family each year. One year, he told us that if he had time Christmas Eve, he would place a sooty finger on our foreheads. One of my first memories as a child is seeing the fingerprint on our foreheads Christmas morning.

In 1998, we took our last picture with Santa as a family after 17 years. Daddy whispered to Santa that we had come for many years and how much he meant to our family.


We have such fond memories of going to see Santa. My sisters and I look forward to taking our own children one day to experience the magic of Santa.