Well, we finally have everything unpacked and put away from our week in Chattanooga. All of the new toys have  a place. It did take putting some toys in a box to rotate in after a few months and I still haven’t found a perfect place to put the puzzles. How do you organize all of your kids toys? Do you have a play room?

In other news, we did a little returning today of some toys that Will got double of. I also wanted to get some Chirstmas ornaments that I liked at Sam’s. Sam’s had NO Christmas ornaments left and barely any other decorations, Target had a better selection but nothing I just had to have. I was also disappointed in the after Christmas sales at the mall, they weren’t any better than the before Christmas prices plus a lot of shelves were empty. I guess they’ll be full of spring clothes by the end of the week.

But, the day was not a total loss! I used some of my LifeWay giftcard to buy Ted Dekker’s new novel Burn, his second collaboration with Erin Healy. I can’t wait to start it but have 2 books ahead of it to read. I also used some of my Michael’s giftcard to buy a green photo album (now I have 3 green and 3 brown) and some pretty yarn that was on sale for $.99! I am going to use it to make a scarf when I get my knitting and purling down What was your favorite thing that you got for Christmas?

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

My posts seem to have Christmas movie theme this week! Tonight, 7 of us loaded up to go downtown to eat dinner and look at the Christmas scenes in the building windows. It was a fun night – Will especially liked the Christmas windows. I may have had grand ideas of the windows in my head – I mean, the last decorated windows I saw were Macy’s in NYC! But, it was a fun night with our family!

You may be asking yourself “What does this story have to do with Christmas Vacation?” Well, the picture says it all! Yes, the 7 of us loaded up into the 1995 station wagon complete with wood paneling and Christmas music blaring.

Bill, Amber, Dana, Will and Mom posing before piling in!

I have to admit it was completely my idea to go in the station wagon – and it was fun and something we won’t soon forget! Jonathan wouldn’t get in the picture and my Dad took the picture.

Will did really like the window decorations! They were decorated with animals, Santa, elves and reindeers and a lot of “nice” lists. Will’s name even made Santa’s list I can’t wait to make even more Christmas memories this week!

The movie has nothing on the Dixon family! I have to admit that I have not seen the movie Four Christmases but it looks really cute – maybe I need to rent it.

Christmas is always a fun time around the Dixon house! Since our family lives in Chattanooga and we don’t we always have an extended “holiday” to fit in all the Christmas celebrations. In the five years we have been married we have always be fortunate enough to be able to spend a lot of time in Chattanooga for Christmas no matter where we have been living or working. I always thought that when we had kids we might change our traditions and be home on Christmas Day but it seems that since we live out of town it is more special to be in Chattanooga.

This year is no different! Santa knew that we were not going to be home on Christmas Day so he came to visit Will early – it was fun to set out a couple of toys for him and let him pull some small items out of his stocking. Then, we have five “Christmases” in Chattanooga (in order) - Henderson Family, Dixon Family, Big Fine Family, Fine Family and Big Dixon Family!

We have a fun week planned and are looking forward to all the time we get to spend with our families!

Everyone knows that practice makes perfect! So, today I let Will practice unwrapping Christmas gifts. I wanted him to at least be familiar with the concept since he doesn’t remember last Christmas and all of his birthday presents were in gift bags. And I have learned to start early since I only let him start practicing blowing out candles a day or two before his birthday party and he was a pro about a week after his birthday party!

Hmmm…….. I wonder this could be?

Slowly but surely getting the paper off. This boy is a true “Dixon” – he handed me every tiny little piece of paper before he attempted to get another piece off!

Surprise!  It’s his 123 New York book – which happens to be his favorite book at the moment.

This box was fun to carry around and he eventually opened it to find an empty Lucky Charms box and he has been playing with it all day long.

Eleven days until Christmas – I think he’s got the present opening down!

This has been Will’s favorite thing to do today – never mind the ever growing pile of toys he has all over the house!

Yup, that’s right. He’s sitting on the step and playing with his tennis shoe!

Santa came to visit Will on Christmas Eve.

Last night was the tree lighting at Rockefeller Center. This is a huge event every year – over 100,000 people attend – and this year was no different. There were great performers including: Tony Bennett, Josh Groban, Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift and Ashley Tisdale.

I got there about 5:15 and Bill and a girl from church, Debbi, were suppose to meet me there at 6:00. Debbi got there fine around 6:10 but Bill had a lot of trouble. By 6:15 they had shut down almost all of the streets around Rockefeller Center. Bill was walking in a huge circle, couldn’t get near the street we were standing on, and every cop was telling people different things. Bill gave up and went home and watched it. I was sad because Bill wasn’t there but he was probably glad because it was so cold!

Only the VIP’s and people on TV could see the performers because the stage was down on the ice skating rink and us regular people were not allowed near there.  Oh well, it was fun to hear and we could see it on a big screen on the side of 30 Rock. I took a few pictures – but I can’t post them until December

In other news, Bill is working on a new account at work and will get to do some traveling in the near future. He doesn’t get to go anywhere exotic – just North Carolina – but he is looking forward to it. He has always wanted a job where he would get to travel. But,  I’ll be lonely without him AND PepperAnn!

Not long until we are home for Christmas! We can’t wait!! It’s going to be so great but the time will probably fly by. We have a list of restaurants we want to eat at while we’re in town so if you would like to join us you are more than welcome: Ichiban (probably like 10 times), Outback, Logan’s, Genghis Grill, Chili’s and Chick-fil-A. I know, we’re strange but we don’t have those here! Except for Outback and we love Outback so we want to eat there anyway!