Christmas Weekend #1

First, thank you all for your well wishes for my Mom.  I'm happy to report that she is doing much better and gets to go home today.  We are all so thankful.  It was a longggggg Friday night!  I stayed the night with her in the hospital so Dad could go to the hotel and sleep since he hadn't in three days!  But, she's much better now and I am SOOO glad.  

On Saturday morning, Baltimore got a lot of ice.  Uber got me to the airport despite pretty much all of the interstates being closed due to accidents.  Well, that was just the beginning.  My flight got canceled so I flew standby on every flight until I got the last confirmed seat of the day on the 5pm.   Thankfully I grabbed a seat on the 3:30pm flight so I arrived home in time to at least see Molly Anne for 10 minutes before she went to bed.  Whewwwwwwwww.  Then Kathryn came over 45 minutes after I got home so Kevin and I could go to our neighborhood party.  I honestly have zero clue how I went to that after I didn't really sleep on Friday night but adrenaline is a beautiful thing!

They had the local high school band come play some tunes for us.  It was such a fun surprise and they were wonderful!  

Sunday morning I was back to being Mama.  Scrapple and eggs for my girl!  She is a true Maryland girl! ;)

Then she and I headed over to the Ballantyne Resort to check out the gingerbread houses.  Local folks build these and submit them to the contest.  It benefits the local children's hospital.  

Here are a few pictures...

And our favorites...

Girl Scouts...fun fact, I was a girl scout until I was a senior in high school!

Hudson River plane gingerbread house...this is interesting to me because I flew back to Charlotte from the Newark airport about 15 minutes before the Hudson River flight took off.  We flew the same flight path as this one from LGA.  I had a million voicemails when I landed.  Crazy.  

I was Facetiming my parents, carrying her big diaper bag around, trying to take pictures with my good camera, and chasing this child around.  We left the stroller at Becky's on Friday haha so I had no way to contain the queenie!  But it was fine...just a little crazy.

Then she spotted Santa (aka Sants!)

Third time was a charm!

He was such a sweet Santa and talked to her so I think that made the biggest difference.  

We had no idea Santa would even be there but we picked the perfect day to go evidently.  He said he likes to visit Ballantyne on the weekend before Christmas every year.  Note to self for next year.  Molly Anne said she wanted a dog for Christmas......or maybe Santa suggested that.  Well, sorry Molly Anne but it ain't happening!

After a long nap, we went to Kevin's parents for Christmas with them!  And it was magical.  This was our first glimpse of what Molly Anne would think and she LOVED it.  She didn't miss a beat!  

Cousins!

BUBBLES!

Molly Anne with her grandparents!

I couldn't leave this picture out, it was just too cute!

Today we are back at our routine for a couple of days!