The Christopher Crew: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Etc.

Happy New Year, everyone!! I hope your year has gotten off to a great start. We have been very productive on our end, already making great gains in preparation for Carter's arrival. I know it may seem early, but we had to take advantage of our time off together. Plus, she will surely be here before we know it.

I had hoped to post a few times over the break, or at least get to one before now. But, we've stayed busy, been enjoying our time together, and it doesn't help that I have a new phone that I have all but replaced using a computer for. So this is literally the first time since my last post (Dec. 16th) that I have been in front of a computer.

I will keep the recap of our Christmas and New Year's adventures brief. We had a great 2 weeks off work. We traveled home to Summerville for the first week where we spent a good amount of time visiting with family and friends. Tillman's Great Uncle and Great Grandpa were able to come to town for a few days. I was also fighting off another sinus infection. We came home for the second week of break for several reasons, one being a dear friend of Tillman's 2nd birthday party. We also wanted a few days to get Tillman back on some sort of schedule and have plenty of time to unpack and unwind from traveling before heading back to work.

I hope the pictures will be mostly in order. My pictures are mixed and jumbled from several different sources, so my timeline may be a little off.

Our new toys. Oh, and we convinced Mom to get the same one while we were home.

Excited to be on the road.

A new toy kitchen at Mom and Dad's house

The mixer was definitely her favorite part of it.

Getting ready for a bath, sporting her pjs from Great Uncle Dan and Great Grandpa

Out of order, but the opposite side of the kitchen

Finding new toys at KC and Joe Joe's house

She thinks Moe is the best.

Joe Joe had to hold Moe still so Tillman could get her hands on him.

Checking out the tree

Playing horsey and playing with Moe at the same time

A Toy Story hat KC and Joe Joe got T from their trip to Disney

KC and Tillman

Either hanging or rehanging ornaments on the tree at Mom and Dad's house

Blurry, but cute. Little Dep and T

We found this 1980's Sesame Street in Mom and Dad's attic. T loved it.

Making Puppy Chow

Discussing the ins and outs of the new phones. Mom and Josh are the techies in the family.

Thanks to a friend of ours, Josh and I were able to have a date night downtown Charleston Saturday night. Mom and Dad kept T and Josh and I spent a night away walking around downtown, going to the market, dinner, etc. and just enjoying some quality time together. It was amazing....doesn't happen often.

This is Josh in our hotel room.

Lovely.

We had dinner at Nick's BBQ

Josh and his meal

Me, looking like I only have one arm.

Enjoying our time together.

So pretty. This was my favorite.

Inside a lighted Christmas tree

I'm pretty sure Dad enjoyed this breakfast. It's not everyday he gets to eat breakfast with his granddaughter in his lap.

Sitting in "the" chair at Nanny's house. This chair holds much sentimental value in the Christopher family. Josh has claimed it was "his" since he was a kid. Now Tillman thinks it's hers.

Don't worry about blocking the walkway...

Tillman and Nanny bird-watching out of the kitchen window.

T being silly while Mom and Dad had her for the night...a little out of order

T feeding Big Dep Chex Mix out of her dump truck. Oh, the mind of a child.

I love the sunroom and Christmas together. It's so beautiful!

Christmas morning. T running straight to the loot.

This is her Radio Flyer tricycle from Mom and Dad, which she refers to as her "motorcycle"

Why a motorcycle, we have no idea.

Loving Christmas morning!

Missing Tony, Danica, and Chiefa.

Dad's rein-beer

More trike action

Our daredevil

Christmas lunch with the Gray side of the family. I love this outfit!

Tillman opening a gift from her Great Aunt Kathy

Giving Great Grandma Gray a big hug.

And watching her open some gifts. I think Tillman was telling her who was in the pictures.

Gifts at Nanny's

After T opened hers she felt the need to help Nanny with hers too.

With a birthday and Christmas less than 2 months apart, this child has become a pro at opening presents...and at thinking all the presents in the world are for her.

Getting an early start on being spoiled by Great Uncle Dan

This just melts my heart.

T and her Great Grandpa Franks

Opening her Big Wheel from Great Uncle Dan and Great Grandpa

Kisses!

She was excited about that Big Wheel.

T helping her daddy put the Big Wheel together, a story in itself.

Ta-Da!

These are our awesome handmade cornhole boards from Uncle Dan!!

(& a few helpful touches from Grandpa, too)

We can't wait to put these to use. They are soooo well done!

And it means more that they are handmade from scratch from a family member.

Great Grandpa and Tillman enjoying some treats.

T playing with her daddy.

Out of order, but Tillman and her cousin Emslee exchanging gifts Christmas Eve night. I know the picture doesn't do it justice, but these two could be sisters if you look close enough. It's all in the hair.

A house Shelly told us about nearby that was plenty decked out in lights and music.

Tillman loving her Jake and the Neverland Pirate toys from her cousin Emslee

Chopping Big Dep's leg off

And he comes after her for revenge

This was actually one of our first days in town. Mom purposefully left the bottom of the tree undecorated so Tillman could help participate and have fun putting on the ornaments.

And of course we had to bring Tillman's gift from Robin home with us. She couldn't get enough of this new toy.

After Christmas returns, exchanges, and shopping...This was a pit stop at Barnes & Noble.

Worn out

Cuddled up with Woody, Buzz, and popcorn to watch one of her new Toy Story movies.

This is what T does with the cornhole boards.

We got to go see Ansley Grace!

It was so funny to see Tillman around a baby. She looks like she's inspecting her.

Hugs

Ansley was so funny. She's just recently discovered her vocal cords and she was squealing and laughing and Tillman the whole time.

Ana, Ansley, Tillman, and me letting the girls exchange gifts.

Back home for Hadley's 2nd birthday party!

It was Elmo themed and soo cute.

Kasi made these cake pops herself!

T tearing down the entire Lincoln Log town Josh set up for her the night before.

Opening a few gifts from Josh and me.

The child made out like a bandit...Doesn't need a thing in the world.

Finger puppets

Tillman being Tillman.

Nolan and Tillman playing inside T's giftbox. Nolan gave her an awesome riding roller coaster car. I have a video I'm going to try and post. It's great...she looooves it!

After the initial excitement wore off from the car, the two of them got their money's worth out of the box. I've got a video of that too. They are so funny together.