The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Naples

After a great Christmas and a trip to Atlanta, we packed up and hopped a plane down to Naples! Woohoo!

plane

We were so happy to see GJ and Daddo and celebrate some more Christmas! Including new iPads for the kids!!

xmas

xmas

xmas

iPad

We then got down to the business of enjoying Naples!

naples

naples

maples

beach

We even had a return visit from our gator…

gator

and made friends with two turtles on the beach!

turtle

turtle

turtle

Off to the beach!

beach

beach

Lots of sand castles!

sand castle

beach

beach

Lunch volcanoes…

beach

and dinner out!

dinner

Roll Tide! SEC Championship!

sec

Sing 2! So good!

sing2

sing 2

Ice cream!

ice cream

and CCCs of course!

ccc

Fireworks for 2022!

fireworks

fireworks

More adventures to come!

Falcons

We gave the kids tickets to the Falcons game the day after Christmas so we were up and out the door early on the 26th to drive to Atlanta! It was a beautiful day for some football and they had the dome open!

falcons

falcons

flacons

falcons

Our seats were great and the Falcons actually brought home a win! Rise Up!

falcons

falcons

A fun after Christmas treat!

Christmas Morning

The kids were up bright and early – but they had to wait until the first number was a 6 before coming into our room! They were there exactly at 6:00! Excitement was high!!

xmas morning

Santa delivered on just about everything – with a few surprises too!

xmas morning

xmas morning

It was so fun to watch while they checked everything out!

xmas morning

xmas morning

xmas morning

xmas morning

When Samantha noticed the Ms. Pac-Man Machine!

paceman

paceman

clapper

I think this was Maxwell’s favorite present despite his face here – his new Greenlight card!

greenlight

Samantha’s new dress up shoes!

dress up

Authentic 1980s Totally Hair Barbie!

barbie

Everyone had fun with Ms. Pac-Man!

paceman

paceman

We then opened the presents from each other. Maxwell was very proud of the gigantic present he wrapped for Dad…

present

present

which turned out to be a tiny chapstick! ha!

present

Robert and I provide our middle-ageness by getting each other Theragun products! Our aching bodies need help!!

xmas morn

Samantha wasn’t excited at all about her present from us…

lol

and that’s when she thought it was just LOL pajamas! Then she saw that she got tickets to see LOL Live on Stage!! Woohoo!

lol

lol

The boys then opened one of our presents and they got tickets too! Tickets to see the Falcons play the next day in Atlanta!! Rise up!

falcons

They then watched a special video from Boban Marjanović, a player for the Dallas Mavericks telling them they’ve got tickets to see the Cavs play the Magic in Dallas in January!! Headed to the Big D!

dallas

It was a fantastic Christmas morning with lots of smiling, happy faces…like this one!

makeup

That’s Samantha with some of her new makeup out of her caboodle!!

Merry merry indeed!

Christmas Eve

We had a really great Christmas Eve with some pretty perfect weather! After much back and forth, I did convince Samantha to wear this precious dress and it made me so happy.

xmas eve

xmas eve

We stuck with the noon church service again this year and, given the rise in covid cases, we were glad to be the only ones sitting up in the balcony.

church

church

After church we had lunch up at the club and decided to sit outside to avoid covid. It was a beautiful day for it! We then got lots and lots of photos – many of which make me laugh pretty hard!!

xmas eve

xmas eve

xmas eve

xmas eve

Samantha was on fire with the silliness!

xmas eve

sky

xmas eve

xmas eve

xmas eve

xmas eve

xmas eve

I was being silly here but I love it. Just a picture of me doing the most! It wasn’t easy this Christmas season but I feel like I made some Christmas magic happen for the kids and I’m proud of it. So, cheers to me! Maxwell’s expression sums up everyone else’s feelings. ha!

me

We did manage to get some “normal” photos which aren’t nearly as fun!

xmas eve

xmas eve

xmas eve

I sure do love this crew and am so grateful we got to have a wonderful Christmas Eve together!

Christmas program

We made it to the last week before Christmas! It’s been busy busy already with fun holiday activities – and a little sick thrown in. Boo! First Robert got sick with some kind of fever virus that took him down. Then Maxwell got hit with a respiratory virus and we ended up at the doc to get some steroids. Finally, Spencer started running a low grade fever that he couldn’t shake so we again ended up at the doc and got a dreaded flu diagnosis. Noooo! Thankfully he wasn’t that sick but did have to miss 4 whole days of school. He was out Monday through Thursday of last week but did get to go on Friday for the final day before Christmas break. Everyone is feeling good now and hopefully we are sick-free until 2022!!

Before everyone got sick, the kids had their Christmas program up at school. I was so happy to have it back as the traditional in-person program this year. 5th graders don’t participate so it was just Spencer and Samantha but they both did great! Robert was supposed to be out of town so I had another special date with me to see the program  – Mrs. Susan!

Samantha was looking cute as always…

xmas program

As was Spencer! 3rd grade was supposed to wear an “ugly holiday sweater” but this is the best we could do. Not ugly but clever! I also made him put a collar shirt on under it much to his chagrin. There might have been some bribing involved. No shame in my parent game!

spencer

Love my trio!

trio

Each grade K through 3rd came on and sang a few songs. It was very well done and very cute!

xmas program

program

program

Spencer is full of enthusiasm and energy on stage, just like his brother. Please read that sentence with all the sarcasm intended! ha!

program

He did a nice job and did everything just as he was supposed to!

The kids had to do two performances a day for two days. Robert was supposed to be out of town for both but, since he got sick, his trip got cancelled! He didn’t have the flu and felt better by the second day so he got to go up and catch the next day’s performance! Hooray!

Samantha opted for an outfit change…

sky

and Spence just stuck with what worked!

spencer

They both did a great job both days! This is Spencer’s last year for the Christmas program and I’ll be sad when the days of Christmas programs are all over. Enjoying it while is lasts! Merry merry!