Christmas traditions...

I saw a 12 days of Christmas challenge, but I started too late! They started BEFORE Thanksgiving! Christmas starts AFTER Thanksgiving at my house!!

Day 1: CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

~Every Thanksgiving Mimi and Poppy give me a new Santa, and my boy cousins a nutcracker to collect.

This is the one I got this year! You can hang it on the door and put pictures in his wired beared! :)

~Thanksgiving night or the day after, we put up our FAKE christmas tree. It drives me crazy having a fake tree! But we DO have a candle that SMELLS like christmas trees.

~Mama puts a pot on the stove with apples, oranges, and cinnamon sticks, and it makes the entire house smell SO good!

~We all put the ornaments on the tree together (this part is always dreaded! i dont know why!)

~We watch Christmas movies EVERY night

~Several of the girls I graduated high school with will always get together the week before Christmas.

~Daddy always waits till Christmas eve or the day before Christmas Eve to get Mamas present, so either me, or my brother will make a quick trip to the mall with him.

~Christmas Eve night we go to my dads side of the family to eat and open presents.

~When we get home, we are all allowed to open ONE present! **which are usually Christmas pjs!

~Christmas morning we sleep in a little bit then go downstairs to see what SANTA brought us!

~Mama always makes breakfast for us all afterwards :)

~For lunch we go to Mamas side of the family to eat and open presents

~After lunch we either come home to watch a movie, or go to the movie theatre to watch a Christmas movie

~We go BACK to Mimi and Poppys for supper and have more family come over then!

~We have to take our highly dreaded family picture with EVERYONE in it---including animals!

~We sit around playing cards, dominoes, and other games as a family....

........Then its ALL over!!

TEXT THE VOTE....NOW!

PLEASE HELP ALBANY, GEORGIA WIN A GRANT FROM PEPSI FOR A SPECIAL NEEDS PLAY PARK!! VOTING ENDS AT MIDNIGHT TONIGHT AND WE HAVE TO BE IN THE TOP 10!!! WE ARE AT #8 RIGHT NOW!!!

This is written by Traci Henry of Albany, Georgia....

As the mother of a handicap child who has multiple disabilities, I recognize the important need for a playground for children with special needs.

Instead of purchasing commercial airtime during the Super Bowl, Pepsi is using that money to fund ideas that will change the world. I submitted an application to the Pepsi Refresh Project and that application was accepted. The ideas with the most votes will receive money for their project and we only have to be in the top 10 to WIN.

I am asking everyone to Vote for our project every day for the month of November and to ask everyone you come
in contact with to Vote. You can Vote 3 ways every day.

1. Sending the free text Text: 103013 to Number: 73774
2. Via the Pepsi Refresh website with an email address
3. Via your Facebook login

http://www.refresheverything.com/butterflykisses

It is my ultimate goal to create an outdoor playground for handicap children to play on.
Children have the right to have a facility and or area to play in that is safe and compatible to their physical needs. I will NOT stop until every play area in my community has a handicap accessible swing.

WE FIND OUT TOMORROW MORNING IF WE WON!!! I WILL UPDATE TOMORROW!!! :)

Thanksgiving......

I HOPE EVERYONE HAD A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

We had a pretty laid back one this year! On Thanksgiving day, I woke up and made mexican cornbread with my mama and watched part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. After that, we all showered, and headed over to Mimi and Poppys for lunch! We were supposed to go to Macon this year to my Aunt and Uncles house to ride horses, and have a good time there, but she ended up having kidney stones :( We ate lunch, and laughed, and had to go around the table saying what we were thankful for. Afterwards, we headed to All American Fun Park to bowl.....

*Our Group* (minus Aunt Pam, Uncle Mike, Hunter and Taylor.. and my great grandma, she said she was too old to bowl!)

*My Mama*

*My brother, me, and my daddy*

*Mimi*- ok, mimi is the slowest bowler you have ever seen. Mama said it was like we were watching her bowl in"slow motion", but... I think she came in second place!! She was the first to get a strike and you would have thought she won an award she got so excited! :)

*I am by far the worst bowler*

*You can see how high up in the air my ball goes*

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Afterwards, we went back to Mimi and Poppys house to eat dinner. I think we were all "pooped" at this point and count not stop laughing. We had the idea to go around and take funny pictures :)

*Me and Daddy*

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The next morning we decided to face Black Friday by waking up at 2:45!!!! We were at Target by 3:30 and the line outside waiting was wrapped around the side of the building, almost wrapped around the back too!! So we decided to leave and head to the mall!!

We ran into some of our friends there! Mrs. Lisa and Fowler! It made us feel good to know we werent the only crazy ones there!!!

*Ignore how we all look!! It was EARLY!!!*

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We all have so much to be thankful for!!! As exciting and relaxing and Thanksgiving was, Holidays are still hard when youve lost loved ones! This was our first holiday without Sue-ma and Aunt Lynda. They were definitely missed, and it was completely different without them, but Im sure they had their very own feast up in HEAVEN, with our Lord and Savior!!

Catching up.....

Well, this face explains my face from the past few weeks, and the upcoming stress of the next two weeks! I sent this picture to my mom last week when I was studying saying I was bored, aggrivated, stressed, and homesick... She didnt have any sympathy for me.. All she did was say that the picture made her laugh out loud!

I have a booth at City Market in Valdosta, and last week my mama and mimi came and helped me set up some new stuff so it could be ready for the Christmas Open House. I was completely stressed out, because I am NOT a decorator, so they came for the day to help me out!

My booth :)

Thursday night I went out to eat with Mechelle and her family. It is SO nice to have a friend down here whose family is also here. I get so homesick at times, and its nice to be around another family.

Yesterday, we went to my dad's art show in Thomasville, Georgia. It was so much fun; they had so many different animals, magic shows, really neat art, pottery, jewelry, animals they were trying to give away. I have gone every year for as long as I can remember, but this year it was nice to have a friend go with me!

Mechelle and the camel

Mechelle just KNEW it was going to spit on us!

The lion... this was one of the prettiest animals here

a kangaroo- this was the first time I have ever seen a kangaroo! I wanted it to stand up so bad to see its "pouch" but it wouldnt!

The polka dotted horse!

This was my favorite animal! I could watch a monkey all day long! They are so neat to me! I was supposed to hold it at 5:00 before we left, and the people never came back out, I was so bummed out.

Mama and the camel

The white tiger

This is Mechelles future boyfriend. I think she fell in love there.

The magic show-- i HATE magic. I tried so hard to watch every single move that was made, but I still could not figure out how they did some of these tricks! It drives me absolutely crazy!!
That night we went out to eat with Mama and Daddy after the show was over. The food was absolutely DISGUSTING, but the town is absolutely GORGEOUS. It was so nice to be able to spend time with my family and my best friend all at once :)


Me and Chelle Belle :)

at " El Fagoto".. I think we were cracking jokes like " I fogata" all the way home!

the parents :)

Today, Me, Mechelle, her sister, and her cousin all decided to go to Reed Binghams state park to go on a nature trail. It was so much fun to have some girl time and laugh and joke around. The girls.
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Daddy,

Im so proud of you! I loved being introduced to people as "David Laniers daughter". I couldnt have asked for a dad with a better talent than you! God certainly gave you a gift that not everyone has, and I love that you are using it each and every day! I know it gets stressful being an artist at times... especially in todays economy, but I am so glad that you have not given up! I know that this is what God made you to do! I love you soo much!! :)

Wishful Wednesday

I WISH I WAS IN NEW YORK CITY!!!

If you know me, you know that half of my heart is in New York! I dont know what it is about that place.. the bright lights? the busy streets? the subways? the SHOPPING? the food? the energy? the musicals? I love EVERYTHING about New York!!

This is what you see right when you land :)

This was me and my friend Paige on the Brooklyn Bridge

By the Statue of Liberty

My cousin Caleb, me, and Paige on the Subway

some random building.. I love the graffiti!

This is my "friend" Babboo! My mom, mimi, and I used to make a point to try and go every year together (that only lasted 2 years) and we went into a store and met this man. He told us to go to the back room to look at all of his Coach, Gucci, Prada, Burberry, and Chanel purses. So of course we went! He recognized us the next year, and then the next year I went with my friend Paige and he asked where my Mom and Grandma was! He always remembers its my birthday in December too and gives me a free gift! We will never forget Babboo!

This is the restaurant from the movie Serendipity. They have the BEST frozen hot chocolate!

This was in Central Park.

Times Square.

We woke up at 4am to head to the Today Show! We were actually able to be seen!

I do not know when we will go back again, but I do know that the longer I wait the more excited I will be!

PS: Mama and Mimi..... this is a hint for future reference! :)