Our Christmas Trip!!

"Mercy and Zoey Be-Be"
Danny and I left at midnight on Thursday before Christmas headed for Greenwood, South Carolina. They are 1 hour ahead of us so we got to Greenwood around 6:30am their time and we made a quick stop at Wal-Mart for a few things before going to Keith and Lindy's.
We got to their house right at 7:00am. and just as we got there Mercy was waking up. She's so GORGEOUS!! She just gets more beautiful everytime I see her. Do I sound like a proud Nanna or what!!! She saw me and come running to me with those little arms up saying, "HEY NANNA"!! When she gives you a hug, she squeezes real hard. I LOVE IT!!! Then it was Pappa's turn. Same treatment and Danny just BEAMS with PRIDE!!!
We start the morning off with some biscuits that we bought at Hardee's on the way. It was a long day. With no sleep and Pappa having to help Santa put together a swing/slide that Mercy requested from Santa, it was still a fun day just being with them.
Saturday, Lindy, Mercy and I went to Wal-Mart to exchange something that we had purchased for Mercy and headed home to cook our Christmas dinner. We ate it on Christmas Eve since we were leaving Christmas Day to head back home. (We decided to travel at the times that we did to avoid the Atlanta traffic and we did good.) Lindy did an awesome job on dinner. It was delicious.
Mercy made Santa some cookies to set out by the fireplace and we watched Santa being tracked on the news. What fun to see the magic of Christmas thru the eyes of these little ones. Makes me wish I was a kid again. I appreciate my parents for allowing me to experience the wonder and magic of Santa. We all know the True Reason for Christmas is the Birth of our Savior and Santa is the spirit of giving. So much fun!!!
In the evenings, Keith would build a fire in their fireplace and we turn the lights out and watch movies. So cozy.
Christmas morning we got up at 6:30 and woke Mercy up to receive her Santa and to also open all her presents she received for everyone else. She was so excited she didn't know what to play with. She finally got tired of opening them and Keith finished them off.
When she was here for Thanksgiving, Lindy had taken one of Keith's tube socks and filled it with rice to use as a neck pillow for Mercy if she fell asleep in the car. To also help entertain her while driving, she gave her some markers to let her draw on it. Well, this rice sack became her be-be!! She waged that thing everywhere. I took it and drew it a face and tied a bow on the end that was to be the top of the head. I made her a blanket and took a tomato basket and made a pillow to fit the bottom and glued some ruffle aroung the top to make it a bed. That became her favorite toy. Well, in seeing how she loved this Be-Be, I decided she needed a doll for Christmas. I bought a soft-bodied doll that came with an extra outfit, bottle and passie. I made her a diaper bag and a couple cloth diapers. I then bought her a little stroller for the Baby. Her Granna (Pam) buys her a Madam Alexander Doll with a cloth body and Blanket with a baby carrier. (Neither of us knew the other was doing this).
Lindy said that after Pam gave her the new baby she wouldn't play with it. She wanted Zoey, the name she chose for the rice bag Be-Be. I gave her the baby we bought and all the accessories and she loves the stroller, diaper bag, bottle and passie but she uses all this with Zoey, the rice baby. It is so cute. I told them we should have just bought a huge bag of rice and a bag of tube socks and made her a family of Be-Be's. I just hope Zoey doesn't wind up in the bath tub someday.
After we exchanged gifts, we all got ready and went to Church. After church we went out to eat at the only restaurant open on Christmas Day, IHOP, and it was packed out. From there we went back to the house packed up and headed home. It was so hard leaving them. We got home around 8:00 pm and Crystal and Daniel came over for us to exchange our gifts with each other and Danny and I to open ours from Santa as well. We all got what we wanted and needed. It was a Great Christmas.