Snow Day!

Around six inches of snow fell overnight Monday and Tuesday morning.

For us here in NC, that is tantamount
to a blizzard.

They cancelled school of course.

Then, and this really cracks me up, our new Governor declared a state of emergency.

Can you imagine what the folks in New England, Indiana or Colorado are thinking?

Six inches of snow is a state of emergency. By 2pm most all city roads were completely clear and the sun was out.

Oh well, it sure was a lot of fun to play in. This is our first snow in a couple of years so it was the first Will has really seen.

A low key birthday celebration

We opted for the low key birthday celebration for Eliza Grace this year. She had a friend over for dinner and a sleep over. It was too cute listening to Will call out to the "girls" (and girls comes out as a sing-songy,two syllable word when he says it.)

"Hey girls, come play trains with me"

"Girls, can I push one of the baby strollers?"

"Girls, hurry, come eat pizza!"

"Girls, wake up!"

I fully expected to have to put on my big voice around midnight to get the girls to go to sleep. Boy was I surprised. After a movie,

these gals asked to get ready for bed, got in their sleeping bags and read books to each other. I know they were asleep before

10:30pm! Ah, a mother's dream sleepover.

The next morning I took the gals roller skating and proceeded to fall so hard on my rump that I think the building shook. Needless-to-say, I went to see the chiropractor a few days later.

No big to-do. No hundreds of dollars spent. And Eliza Grace said it was one of her best birthdays ever. Gotta love it.

I brought out the pewter goblets to toast the birthday girl with sparkling cider. Pewter goblets is what we always drink from when we have pizza and watermelon for supper -

don't you do the same??

Tink on fire

It was a group effort on the candles.

Not gonna quit my day job

Well, I started something now.

Since I made Will a Percy the Train cake
Eliza Grace decided she wanted me to make
a cake for her birthday too.

She didn't know what she wanted so I picked
Tinker Bell and she was thrilled.

I think I did ok...sorta...well...really she
looks a little freaky. And it looks like
she had a botched nose job and she smeared
her lipstick.

But the important part is that you can
tell that it is Tinker Bell. Right?

Next year it is back to Target for cakes.

I think she looks better as a brunette!

Seven!

Today our little girl turns seven. 7! Holy cow, how did she get to be seven already?

And surely I have not aged a day during the past seven years... right?... anyone... anyone...something "D O O" economics? (for those '80's kids in the crowd).

So happy birthday to our sweet Eliza Grace. You are a joy to have in our lives and we love and cherish you more than you will ever know!

Then.... she still yawns just like that :)

...and now

2008 picture collage

The Hughes Family's 2008 Christmas letter photo collage.

My first....

...post of 2009. What shall I write?

I could do the typical rehash of 2008. The
look what we did, survived, enjoyed review.

Or I could do the look forward to 2009 with
thoughts on resolutions, predictions and desires for the year to come.

I could wax poetically about life and all of its
challenges, rewards, expectations and realities.

But I think I will just say that it is another sunny day in North Carolina, all the Christmas stuff is put away,
Scott has a pork butt on the smoker, the kids are playing quietly together and I am still in my jammies.

All in all a really good start to the new year!

Big Wheel Keep on Turnin'

So Scott, lamenting the fact that HE never had a Big Wheel as a kid, was very excited to give Will his very own Original Big Wheel for Christmas.

All I can say is this kid loves speed. Thank goodness he is as coordinated as he is, because he loves to go FAST! And while going fast, he loves to watch the ground rush by...which means that we had several near misses today with parked cars along the side of the road.

Meanwhile I am caught between paralytic fear and chest-puffing pride as I watch him scream down the street. Heading down the hill he never once put his feet on the pedals. Needless-to-say, he loves it!
Here, let me show you:

On your mark...

Get Set....

GO!

Wheeeeeee. Look Mommy, no feet!

A Merry, Wall-E Christmas

By far our favorite movie of the year is Wall-E. And I mean favorite for Scott and I as well (although Kung Fu Panda comes in at a close second!)

Eliza Grace & Will were VERY excited to find Wall-E and Eve action figures under the tree. Then, when they spied the same characters on their new sets of jammies....well, squeals of delight could be heard around the neighborhood. They called each other Wall-E and Eve the rest of the day...it was too cute!

The funny thing to me was that these were not their "big" gifts.  Will received an authentic BIG WHEEL and Eliza Grace got the Hannah Montana guitar play along plug-into-the-TV game thing. Those were supposed to be the really exciting gifts.

Will did take a spin on the big wheel and I know he will really enjoy it if we can get a warm day without rain to ride it around. But let me say that I am pleased that Eliza Grace was thankful for but was not overly impressed with the Hannah Montana thing (which she had mentioned when discussing Christmas wishes).

Admittedly, Eliza Grace comes off a little socially immature and frankly,I have no problem with that. In fact, I am perfectly pleased to know that she would rather play with her Eve action figure than try to emulate Hannah Montana, who is twice her age. She and I both notice many, many girls her age that are completely into clothes, their looks, Hannah and High School musical. And while she occasionally tells me about those shows (second hand from what her friends tell her because we do not let her watch them) her interest is superficial. I have no problem with her staying as young/innocent/untainted by the world as she can for as long as she can.

Anyhoo, you know I would not sign off without posting some pics :)

Tradition

One of the many things that Eliza Grace and I have in common is that we both have a deep love of tradition. But then again, I think that all humans have a love for tradition.
Traditions help us feel connected, nostalgic, part of something bigger than ourselves - a family, a community or even just part of the human race.

Anyhoo, before I wax any deeper, let me get to the point. Eliza Grace, age six mind you, has insisted upon many traditions around the Christmas holidays.

It is tradition that she and Grandmommy go to the Old Salem Candle Tea EVERY year. It is their special time together and even though this was only year number two of the tradition,
she was insistent that they had to go...because...it's tradition!

Another biggie is when she and I dress up and go to see the Carolina Ballet's version of  The Nutcracker Ballet. I have to admit that I really look forward to this. It is a mother-daughter thing for sure.

I love seeing all the other families there with the little girls all dressed in red and pink with bows in their hair. Some mothers drag bring their little boys with their khaki pants, dress shirts and slicked down hair. They are all so handsome.

However, since I know that Scott would rather poke himself in the eye than sit through the ballet, we leave him and Will to their own devices and off we girls go, all decked out for the show.

And with all that as a prelude, here are some pictures of our traditional outing to see the Nutcracker Ballet!

In front of Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh

They decorate the lobby with lots of beautiful Christmas trees

My little pixie!

Waiting for the show to begin

Disappointment that the show was over...well really, she was pouting because I would not let her walk on the wall surrounding the fountain.

Signs of the Season

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Scott must have been a very good boy this year...his name is the first on Santa's list!

Happy birthday William Foster Hughes

Happy birthday to our little man!

Three years ago today you arrived with relative speed (and a broken collar bone!)...and you have been on the move ever since.

We love you Will!

Thomas the Tank cake frosted to look like Percy - at Will's request Percy was to have the # 3 on him

"Mmmm...the cake was good!"

"How does it work?"

"Oh yeah...Aunt Kelly rocks!"

"wow, my own guitar!"

Jammin' with Eliza Grace

"must open...must doodle now!"

Fall colors

I still have not had a chance to really learn more about or experiment with my camera but I think these pictures came out nicely.

I do love autumn colors - especially the reds and oranges.

This one's my favorite.I love the sun's rays streaming through.

Pumpkins & Princesses & Potters, oh my!

Halloween. Need I say more?

Eliza Grace began talking about Halloween costumes 'round about August. 

In the end, she thankfully chose to wear her ridiculously overpriced recital costume from last year and went as a ballerina princess. So now we are down to $25 per wear for that one.

Will kept waffling.

"I want to be a ghost"

"I want to be a pumpkin"

"I want to be nice ghost"

"I want candy...where is the candy??!!"

So, going to the best known source of everything, I asked the other moms at the bus stop, and thankfully my next door neighbor had a pumpkin costume that fit him...it cut up the crotch a bit, but hey, he only had to wear it for a couple of hours, right?

And Will, who could not WAIT to get out there and start bringing in the sugar, happily ran with the other 10 kids up to that first house, someone rang the door bell and when the door opened, they all yelled, "trick or treat!" at the top of their lungs...at which point Will burst into very loud tears and began running down the steps screaming "moooommmmyyyyyy."

And that, ladies and gents, was the first and last house he went to. He hung out in the stroller as we went up and down the street and just enjoyed the view.

Thank goodness that Eliza Grace's bucket was eventually overflowing and she was willing to share :)

Posing before the hunt begins

"um, mommy, my heiny is bugging me" (I LOVE Eliza Grace's expression in this picture)

Lookin' goooooood...

Will bringing up the rear at that first house....moments before he came tearing back down

Some of the gang posing at a house...we had  two Harry Potters in our group this year!