Back home for Christmas

On December 20, Sophie and Paula returned to Charleston and started making final preparations for Christmas. Grandma & Grandpa Vergne, Aunt Leia, Aunt JoAnne and Uncle Gary all joined us in Charleston shortly before Christmas. Stephen, a friend from church, also joined us for Christmas day.

Surprisingly, Sophie pretty much left our Christmas tree alone but she liked to look closely at the ornaments and have Mommy take some of them down for a better look. On Christmas morning, she couldn't resist sitting on top of a pile of presents! =) Santa Claus was good to all of us. Much to our amusement, Sophie loves playing with her new cars that Uncle Phil gave her for Christmas (while in Nashville)! She received the cars along with a track tower where she can race the cars. Who said that girls can't enjoy playing with cars? =)

Sophie had a great time playing with Aunt Leia especially and Leia was a great sport about it.

Christmas in Nashville

Sophie and Paula were able to visit Nashville for a week in mid December. They attended Martha's (Paula's sister) graduation from Freed Hardeman University (about 2 hours from Nashville) and celebrated an early Christmas. Matt was able to get away for a long weekend and enjoy the festivities too. Paula was so proud of her little sister who earned a degree in elementary education. Sophie enjoyed spending time with Nana (shown above), Paw paw, Uncle Phil, Aunt Martha, and many extended family members and friends.

Since Sophie already had some baby dolls and typical girl toys, Uncle Phil decided to branch out and give Sophie a little track tower where you can race three cars at a time. Uncle Phil also taught her other useful tricks such as growling like a lion. =) Sophie enjoyed all of the attention.

Christmas is coming!

Here's Sophie in her Santa hat. She loves our Christmas tree and has actually done pretty well around it. One night last week, we went to our local park where you can drive through and see tons of Christmas light displays, get out and see Santa, ride a carousel, ride a train (we're on the train below), and see a sand sculpture. We went with some friends and had a lot of fun. We all enjoyed seeing the lights and riding the train! Sophie was scared of Santa and didn't want to have anything to do with him. In the bottom picture, it's hard to tell, but we are in front of an incredible sand sculpture with a Christmas theme.

On Wednesday, Paula & Sophie will be flying to Nashville for a week to celebrate Christmas with Paula's family. Matt will come on Thursday and spend a long weekend with them. We are all planning to attend Aunt Martha's (Paula'a sister) graduation from Freed Hardeman University. We are so proud of her!