a waffle house kind of christmas

this should be several posts but it is not. because christmas is now 3 weeks ago. change the title of this blog to yesterday's news, now with mom jokes!

in the beginning of december, 2 weeks after we set up our tree because i am a firm believer in low stress november christmas preparations, the family made a list of activities we wanted to participate in for the holiday. we had most of the usual activities but we added lake lanier christmas lights to our list. we'd never been there before but you can't live in atlanta and not know about it. on the designated night, we made about 7 trays of cookies to deliver to friends and only one of them was home so we drove to lake lanier with 6 trays of cookies in the car. the car line to enter the park was astronomically long and we lost interest after about 30 minutes but there was no getting out of line at that point. everyone had to go to the bathroom. at the 1 hour point we were all starving and eating the cookie trays. by 1 hour and 30 minutes of waiting to ENTER the park, we were all climbing the walls of the car. when we finally got inside the park and they charged us $45 instead of the advertised $35. then we almost got in a fight with another car who did not want to let us merge. then we got stuck behind THE SLOW-W-W-W-EST driver of all time. no one needs to examine a lights display that closely and carefully. after we made it through the entire light display, we had lost the christmas spirit and gained bladder infections. the nearest quiktrip couldn't be found soon enough. it was nearly 11 by time we made it home. needless to say, we have had our fill of lake lanier lights for the rest of eternity.

christmas eve the kids put together a little show. lots of singing of songs made up on the spot and traditional hymns sung to unrecognizable tunes.

christmas morning. athena blythe commemorated the event by pulling out a swimsuit and slept in it and spent christmas morning in it.

all of hersch's visits to target paid off as santa gifted him with the much sought after paw patrol sea patroller. he would only pose in this picture if the sea patroller could be in it too. 

note: hersh was so enamored with his sea patroller that he sat in a filthy diaper for quite a long time without complaints and got poop all over the rug. merry christmas to me.

we went to waffle house for breakfast. we had to drive by about 5 locations before we could find one that didn't have an inordinately long wait time. along the way, we passed this holiday gem:

you may be thinking, "where is santa claus?" he's hard to see because he's wearing camouflage. 

i tried to make a charcuterie board. it was pretty good but could easily be renamed a constipation board. that much cheese, fruit and processed meat is an long, uncomfortable night waiting to happen.

my mom flew in later christmas night and the next day thomas and i embarked on my christmas present. thomas surprised me with an afternoon at the high museum of art and a night at the georgian terrace hotel. 

the high museum had a special exhibit i had been wanting to see, "making africa: a continent of contemporary design" and a permanent exhibit of african art. thomas and i have bonded over our love of african art. who knew?

 i'd like to wear this pronto, please.

we ate at a tavern in atlantic station then went to out hotel! it had a round ceiling in the bedroom! 

our view!

we watched jeopardy and semi pro wrestling and slept for 12 hours. it was amazing. 

the hotel restaurant:

historic pit stop in the hotel:

we arrived home to a very sick grandma and a lot of chaos. 

i got my first hair cut in almost 8 months. 

we made all the blondies we could possibly make in a 24 hour period.

we saw ferdinand. it was good. but expensive. i'll never get over the shock of how much it costs to see a movie. 

herschl almost escaped through the emergency exit but i was able to catch him at the very last minute, as witnessed by the entire theater.

tea party and toy story memory with grandma:

saying goodbye to grandma sandy is always the hardest. she is everyone's favorite. 

merry christmas the end.