The Harkey Clan

Christmas in Hilton Head, 2011

Christmas Day - family and fun!

After the excitement of Santa's visit and all the presents wore off we went over to Uncle Kevin and Aunt Carrie's unit for a big family brunch.







Trying out the new pink Radio Flyer Santa brought Lily for Christmas




Having fun on the new princess off-roading quad!



Uh-oh....the blondie has gained control of the rocket launcher!


Clowning around with Uncle Jonathan

Christmas Eve Activities

This year, since we new we were going to be moving units in Hilton Head on December 24th, we decided to hold off on decorating a tree until Christmas Eve. I've always enjoyed carving pumpkins with the girls on the afternoon of Halloween, and thought this might be a similarly fun activity for the family....and it was! We used some colored lights and a few balls, but for the most part the decorations were construction paper chains and popcorn/cranberry strings. Though it was born out of necessity this year, we had so much fun that it will be a tradition that we will keep into the future.








Lily got to open one Christmas present early!...she choose one that was from Uncle Jonathan.


Gran, being the cookie fabulista that she is, led the cookies for Santa Claus team. She found some little bear cookies and "edible" markers that allowed Lily to draw pictures on the cookies for Santa to eat. As you see below, Lily was also concerned about the reindeer and decided to leave out some broccoli and water for them...the peppermints were for Santa and the reindeer I think.




Polka-dot did his job (as usual) and told Santa exactly where to find the girl's Christmas tree. If you ask me, Santa probably didn't have any objections to dropping off their presents on a beautiful night in Hilton Head either....though I hear he did have to get a little creative to fill up the tires on Lily's new bike....

Week 19: Thanksgiving

With a work schedule that I've been handed the last couple years, it has made us acknowledge that Thanksgiving is about just that, no matter which day you celebrate it (though I think working turkey day 2 years in a row is quite enough, thank you).
So we ended up having our 'Thanksgiving' on Saturday which was nice to have a little time to prepare and get a little shopping done in between (very little shopping, but successful nonetheless!)

The turkey Caroline is sitting with was made by my mom's mother ('Nonie' is what we called her.) We lost her many years ago, but she was lovely and I have nothing but warm, loving memories about her. The dress Caroline is wearing is the one she came home in from the hospital, it fits her perfectly now. It seemed appropriate as she is nothing but a blessing to us.




Lily was such a help in the kitchen this year. Luckily the dressing required a lot of crumbling of cornbread and biscuits...and I can't think of a better 'crumbler'! She loved every minute of it.



She also gave me a little help with my dessert...she was so excited to put her apron on. She was such a cutie-pie.


The spread.

The 'fam.'



'Classic' Lily set to help Daddy put up the lights.

Week 11

Just as Lily did, Caroline loves her play gym. You can find her doing her workouts while we are reading books to Lily at bedtime. She's so content to play and stretch and gurgle while we are getting big sister tucked in for the night. Every once in awhile she'll have an audience, as viewed below.



The below pics are of the lovely 'Welcome Caroline' shower my Aunt Carrie held for us. It was so thoughtful of her and great to get the family together. We were so pleased my great aunts could make it.

Good Times Never Felt So Good!

Friday was a great day of visitations at the hospital. Aunt Carrie stopped by a couple of times. Jane and Tim also made a significant effort to come by (poor Tim was visiting on his break from work!) Then in the evening Nana and Papa and The Harrelsons arrived.