Acker Country Living: Christmas and More!

What a whirlwind of fun December was! We did not attempt going to see Santa again (second year in a row we've sat that one out), as Sus has always been enraptured with the idea of Santa and terrified of the actual Santa. John would react however Susannah reacted, as he does with any and everything, so it would have been ugly. While scared-kids-with-Santa pics are hilarious, we have 2 of those of Sus already, and I think that's probably enough, lest we send her to counseling later in life.

I'm actually the worst at this Santa game anyway. For starters, Pete and I don't want an imaginary man getting credit for all the good gifts, so Santa only brings stocking stuff (toothbrushes, underwear, oranges, and candy -- exciting, but not big ticket items if you know what I'm saying). So we don't play him up that big in the first place. (We have limited funds, y'all, don't hate.) However, Susannah still wanted to write Santa a letter this year describing the things she wanted, so she wrote a page chock-full of scribbles and told me, "It says, 'Dear Santa, I want anything that you give me.'" In my grown-up mind, I didn't think it was that big of a deal to "mail" it since there were (a) no specific requests and (b) stocking stuffers already purchased. So, like a careless, unimaginative person, I laid the list on the top of the trash one night after the kids went to bed. You know where this is going. The next day, Susannah opened the trash (for reasons still unknown... I think sometimes she just likes to keep tabs of what we're tossing out) and immediately exclaimed, "MOMMY! Why is my letter to Santa in the trash?!" Oh boy. I don't even know how I weaseled my way out of that one. Lots of blubbering about confusion and that I'd put it in the mail ASAP. She'll talk about that in counseling one day, I'm sure.

John is in a stage that Susannah never entered: he only speaks in questions. Not literally, but that's what it feels like. "Mommy, what's this?" "When we gonna go to PopPop and Dizzy's house again?" "Did ThanMan give me this shirt?" "Can I have a snack, please?" "Can you help me, please?" "Can I help you cook dinner?" "When we gonna go swimming again?" "Does Hudson wear basketball pants?" "Does it take 78 days to go to Aunt KK and Uncle Bear's house?" "Where's Daddy?" "Remember the man cave at Pop and Figgy's house?" and on and on and on and on and on AND ON. Yesterday before church, I promise you he asked me 20 questions in under 10 minutes. He's our curious little buddy, and it's really cute thinking about it later on, but I want to pull my hair out by question 10 in the midst. His vocabulary is impressive, though, and he is so funny. The other day he needed me for something and was saying, "Mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy...." Pete said, "What do you need, John?" And John said, "MOMMY TO LISTEN TO ME!" Now that's hilarious!

Mary is crawling like a crazy girl! She's all over the place now, and it's so fun. She's most proud of herself when she finds someone in another room. The squeals of delight are so precious. She's also eating us out of house and home along with her siblings. I'd been having to cut her off so that she wouldn't overeat! At her 9 month checkup, however, we noticed that her weight percentile had surprisingly taken a bit of a plunge, so the doctor basically told me to fatten her up. So Mary's dreams have come true: she can basically eat until her heart's content every meal, and even get a snack time now. I'm sure in her little baby mind she's thinking she has absolutely arrived.

And now for a cluster of pictures from various points of December and this first half of January:

Mary loves having a "Mary's turn!" now. She's in the daddy-fun rotation, and gets PUMPED when she hears S&J say, "MARY'S TURN!"

This is a MEME waiting to happen. Hand on her hip telling me like it is!

Such a fun season we're in now with Sus: board games!

"Daddy, Daddy, come in, Daddy!"

Sus has been on this scientist kick, saying she wants to be a scientist when she grows up, so I absolutely jumped on that for Christmas and got her a microscope!

Figgy knows how to accessorize some babies with THE CUTEST things! Don't you just want to eat her?

At the airport, heading to Memphis!

Even if you get in at 10pm, you still have storytime with Dizzy before bed.

Indoor winter games! Courtesy of Aunt Lauren.

An Elf snack. John wanted to eat it just how Buddy the Elf did.

Sus was a little more dainty.

The whole Ware gang at the Christmas Eve service

Matching cousins!

John and Hudson helping Aunt KK and Uncle Bear make sugar cookies to decorate

Decorating cookies

An early-morning flight from Memphis back home makes for one of the sweetest moments for me as a mom. Sus and Mary were both sweetly sleeping on me, and John was asleep behind us on Pete's arm (see next pic). The flight attendant was sweet enough to capture this moment.

Love that he fell asleep like this

Acker Family Christmas came just a few days after we returned from Memphis!

All fancy for NYE

Our annual NYE party / anniversary pic! Love my man somethin fierce.

These are my best friends, and they are the most beautiful souls.

These friends are 2 months apart and love each other so much!

Our annual NYE 7:30pm Ball(oon) Drop!

Bottom to Top: 2015, 2016, 2017. John and his two best buddies.

The Christmas gift that has given me the most free time to date.

Warming bellies by the wood stove!

Mary finally gets to bathe with the big kids!

SNOW! LOTS and LOTS of SNOW!

I caught Mary smiling in the snow one time. After this one grin, she was pretty much over it.

Dream land for Sus

Smiling because it was only Day 1 of our 5 days of being snowed in...

Happy girl!

When the snow doesn't stay out of your snow clothes, Daddy knows how to improvise.

The boy LOVES snow.

Meet Packowee, our redneck snowman, who's actually a girl.

Susannah writes her name now! This was a week ago, and she's written it so many times since then that her handwriting has already gotten better. The girl has a love of learning.

I could stare at that sweet face all day. And some days I do.

My life was made yesterday, as Sus and I were twins for church! I told Pete if we had the money, I'd create an entire wardrobe of matching outfits for me and my girls.