Christmas in Atlanta - Casual Week

Our week in Atlanta was so nice and relaxing. Although it wasn't busy or stressful, it also sure wasn't restful! Brylee did great about letting us sleep, it was the rest of my family that kept us awake. There was not a night we were there that we went to bed before 12:30am.  Most nights we stayed up until about 1-2 am playing games!

We met my mom at her office twice during the week for lunch.

 
Brylee was a cute little show-off with her new walking skills!

 

We also started a collection of sippy cups and utensils for my mom to keep in preparation for future toddlers in their house. My parents are also keeping Brylee for a week while  Bryan and I go to Mexico this spring. Brylee enjoyed playing in her own kitchen drawer.

And my sweet brother made us all pancakes one morning, and made Brylee her very own Mickey Mouse pancake!

If you know anything about me, you know I am slightly competitive (which has gotten much better since my college days, by the way!) Well, I get it from my family, who also happens to be super competitive. We can turn anything into a competition, which is what we did with these Dollar Store puzzles my dad got us as little stocking stuffers. One afternoon we all teamed up and had a round robin competition with 3 different 100 piece puzzles.

 Team David & Emily

 
Team Bryan & Jamie

Team Mom & Andrew

After three rounds, we actually all tied, each team coming in first, second, and third at least once for each puzzle.

 
We couldn't leave this competition in a three way tie, so there had to be a tie breaker. My dad found this kind of difficult uni-color 100 piece duck puzzle, in which each team assembled it in private while being timed by my dad. Best time won.  I'm proud to say Team Bryan & Jamie had the fastest time! This might have been one of the best memories from the week. We were all laughing pretty hard at our competitive nature!

We also spent a lot of time at the neighborhood park and outside in the backyard. This girl sure loves to swing and play outside. The weather couldn't have been nicer!

Our evenings were spent lounging around and enjoying each others' company. Brylee learned to ride her new stuffed giraffe like a horse!

What a cute girl!

My brothers came back to my parents house on New Years Eve, and we headed to the park again. When we were kids, we used to create obstacle course races at the park. So what did we do as adults? Created an adult obstacle course race on a kiddie playground, of course.

We learned that the boys' speed was not as much of an advantage as the smaller size of us girls. Emily and I came within 1 second of each others' time! It was too funny.

We also spent one day at the driving range. My dad got a new set of golf clubs for Christmas, and Andrew got some for his birthday that was in November. So my mom kept Brylee while the rest of us shared a couple golf clubs.

Meme and Brylee were having a good time at home!

My mom did a good job of keeping a closet full of our old kids toys in the basement. Brylee really enjoyed the Lego train throughout the week. And just before we left, we pulled out this old keyboard. This musical girl of ours really enjoyed hearing herself make music!

We had such a good week overall. Other than  half of us catching a 24 hour stomach bug on New Years day, we enjoyed every minute of being in Atlanta. We missed my family when we returned home, but it was nice to be in our own bed again. It was like Christmas all over again when Brylee re-discovered all of her own toys at our house. Looking forward to the next holiday!