Santee Christmas

Our Christmas celebrations started this year in Santee, SC with a gathering of Drew's Mom's family. With three photographers in the family now we have LOTS of pictures to share for Christmas - hope you don't get bored, we tried to break it up as best we could! Above Aunt Lisa and Alyssa trying to get Miller to smile at the camera - he is more interested in Ho, ho!

Great, Great Aunt Lynda, Alyssa and Granny Lynda trying to solve the money puzzle game. Alyssa finally solved it Christmas Eve!

Great Aunt Missy and Kim cheesing it up for the camera.

The whole gang! Uncle Jim and Aunt Missy, Kim, Drew and Alyssa, Clay, Lisa and Miller with Uncle Chevy, Granny and Aunt Lynda. We all had a great time, good food and made some new memories!

Oh HAPPY day!

Alyssa in full birthday gear - Butterfly crown, butterfly necklace, #5 Birthday Girl shirt, and pink & green socks. All ready to take on Chuck E. Cheese's.

Chuck E. Cheese chaos, how FUN!

Morgan and Lillian . . .

Riding the roller coaster ride with her boyfriend. A portend of things to come?!?!?

The Columbia Andersons - Miller, Clay and Lisa

Alyssa and Chuck E. Cheese - look at that smile!

I just couldn't get over the Butterfly cake, exactly like the invitations. Thanks SO much Mrs. J!

A brief computer graphics lesson by Great Aunt Missy.

Oh yeah, I know I'm talking about happy days (oh happy day)!

Too Much Christmas!

Here are some more photos of Christmas 2008. As my grandmother, Mrs. Gennie, used to say we definitely had "too much Christmas!" We traveled this year and had 3 Christmases but we all feel it was one of our BEST Christmases ever. We want to thank our families for all they did to make this Christmas so special. I think I finally understand "too much Christmas!"

Christmas III

We arrived in Irmo, SC at Clay, Lisa and Miller's for Christmas III about 1:30 p.m. I regret that this is the only photo I took but it shows Granny, or "Santa" and Lisa who cleaned house and set this beautiful table while having 2 or 3 Christmases with her family in between our visit. We heated the food that was carried on the sleigh, opened presents while everything warmed up and then had a wonderful meal. We had almost as many desserts as we had meat and veggies but we were so stuffed, dessert came later. I wish I had photos of the t-shirt dividing game, but it too was captured on video, as were most of the highlights of our visit in Irmo. I think the photographer was a little tired! Definitely too much Christmas!

Christmas I

Christmas I was held in Saluda, SC, hosted by Nana and Vuvva (in his Merry Christmas Y'all shirt). We had a nice family supper then opened presents. Since we were spending the night, Alyssa stayed up WAY past her bedtime singing and dancing to songs on the computer with Nancy and Jeffrey. We slept well, had breakfast then helped Vuvva pick pecans. I wish I had photos of us picking pecans but this was better captured on video, which I will probably never be able to figure out how to blog. After working soooooo hard, we packed the sleigh and headed north. Thank you Nana and Vuvva for letting us stay with you! The hospitality was wonderful and being able to break up our trip added to our enjoyment of the entire holiday adventure. Definitely too much Christmas!

Vuvva and Drew discussing genealogy.

Lisa and Miller opening a gift.

Alyssa and Miller opening presents.

Alyssa in front of her 3 baby dolls.

Another Busy Weekend

We had another busy weekend, in fact we took an extra day to squeeze in even more activities! On Friday we headed to the Lake Murray Lake House to spend some quality time with Nana and Vuvva. The weather was pretty nasty but Alyssa's twin cousins, Emily and Erica, came over to make it a night of FUN! Saturday the weather was great and the ZIP LINE was working so Alyssa played hard! We all went for a boat ride and then got cleaned up for a party for Nancy and Jeffrey who are getting married in October. Alyssa and the twins had a babysitter and tons more fun! We enjoyed some fine Saluda hospitality, awesome food and storytelling by quite a character! Even with a late night we were up early for Church to see Miller get baptized. He was so great for his baptism but the ceremony wore him out. The adults and older children really enjoyed the luncheon at his home while he was napping!

First road Trip in the Camry and in Alyssa's new "Boost"

Emily and Erica helping Vuvva with the Zip Line

Hot dogs for Hungry Girls.

Time for a Boat Ride with Captain Vuvva


The Zip Line in Action!

Party for Jeffrey and Nancy

Miller - all decked out in white!

Aunt Lisa and Nana

Granny and Uncle Clay

Just a Swingin'

It's Miller Time!

On Sunday we met our new nephew, only 1 week old, Miller Caldwell Anderson. He was such a good baby and slept most of the time.

Proud parents, Clay and Lisa - welcome to the Club!

"Baby" Alyssa

Don't let us disturb you - Miller Time for Drew too!