A Christmas Visit in Dothan

A few days before Christmas William and I headed up to Dothan to visit my family for Christmas. I wanted to spend some time with my grandparents before Christmas and so off we went! William was soooo excited while we drove up. He and I sang Christmas songs and laughed all the way up.

(to make this video, I held the camera up backwards and just hoped for the best...

I DID NOT take my eyes off the road!!)

Once we arrived at my parents, he went directly to their tree and just oohhed and ahhhed at the lights and ornaments. My parents love decorating their house at Christmas time. It always looks so festive and brings back memories of childhood Christmas moments. I was tickled to snap a few pictures of William in front of my parents tree. We just hung out around the house enjoying the time together. I even made homemade cookies with my little brother...something I've done with him year after year! It's a special Christmas tradition. Holden is growing up so fast, that I cherish these moments with my little brother. Before I know it, he'll be "too old and too cool" for his sister (for a little while)

One night we loaded up in the suburban and drove around town checking out the Christmas decorations around town. William was so excited about all the lights and decorations in everyone's yards. Daddy made it so much fun! He'd get real excited and make a big deal about all the sights. William would say "Wook, Granddaddy, see the lights" until he finally crashed in the car. Daddy just laughed and said "works every time!"

I enjoyed going over to my grandparents houses to visit and let William give them the "big surprise" (details to come) as well as give them their Christmas gifts. This was fun! William helped them open the presents...he really loves pulling the paper off the gifts. Both Poppi and Grannymart were tickled. They were all smiles and soaked up the moments with William. Both of them had a jar of cookies, which somehow William found :) It was very sweet to watch him ask for a cookie and then once they gave it to him, hear him say "thank you" I love watching my child with family. I think it is so special that he gets to have a relationship with his great-grandparents. He adores them, and all our family for that matter. His little heart is just so full of love.

Hunter wasn't going to get to come down this year to see us on Christmas, so I had his gifts ready for him. I mentioned before that at Thanksgiving he really took an interest in the family traditions of cooking, so this Christmas, I started him a recipe collection of some of my favorite family recipes. William was so excited to help Hunter open his presents. I hope Hunter will cherish the handwritten recipes and will add to the collection over the years. Who knows, maybe one day, some of those cards could end up back in William's hands...

Well, it was a very quick trip to Dothan, but full of love! I was very blessed I was able to zip up there to see everyone before Christmas. My parents and little brother would be coming down to our house Christmas afternoon, but I wouldn't get to see my grandparents or Hunter, so I'm glad we went. The best part, only a few more days until our big announcement!! We wanted all our family to hear the "news" in person first, before telling the world :)....

Christmas with Papa and Mimi

Christmas time is so exciting! It's such a special time of the year. We were so excited to spend some time with Papa and Mimi to celebrate Christmas with them this year. They came up to visit the weekend before Christmas. We packed as much fun and excitement into the weekend as we could! It is so rewarding to be with family and to watch William with Grandparents. Time with Papa and Mimi is always fun and relaxing. There is always great food and lots of laughter.

While the guys worked on putting together our new storage shed for the backyard, Mimi and I took William to finish up some Christmas shopping. William had a great time helping us. He and Mimi had fun strolling around the stores while I gathered a few last minute gifts. We had a great morning out while the guys worked. William loved having them here and all the attention. He couldn't get enough of them! He's such a loving child and loves everyone so much and always enjoys our families. He is such a happy child!

At some point during the weekend, we took William to visit Santa!! Our first Santa stop was the Santa at the Bass Pro in Destin. William loves the fish in the fish tank, so I'd been taking him by weekly to see Santa from a far while he enjoyed the fish tank. Well, it worked! That day after checking out the tank for a while, he was ready to get in line to see Santa. He kept waving at him and tried to run to the front of the line :) When it was his turn, he walked up to Santa and let me put him in his lap. He sat there like a big boy!! He smiled for pictures and even told Santa what he wanted: a choo-choo and a "bike-a cycle"!! It was adorable!! He waved bye and gave Santa a hug as his turn ended. We were all so tickled at his reaction!! Bass Pro had a cookie decorating station set up for the kids after visiting Santa, so William and I decorated our cookie together. He seemed so happy! After we finished, we grabbed lunch and headed to the next Santa in Destin Commons. This Santa visit was a little different. When we walked in and William saw Santa, he wanted to go right to him, but there was another child having her pictures made. Well, when the lady said " no, you have to wait" (as if I was going to let him run up there), he became shy and not sure anymore! He would not go to Santa for anything! So, I went up with him and sat beside Santa and held William. William was not all smiles, but more an uncertainty of what was going on...he kept looking at Santa and wouldn't say a word. He finally whispered "choo-choo and bike-a-cycle". It was an adventure to say the least! Ha!!

That night, Philip prepared a fabulous dinner (I'll get him to give details) for everyone...which had to cook all day...and was so full of aroma that I suffered all day!! I was so so sick that afternoon and evening! My dinner was a small bowl of the most wonderful homemade plain mashed potatoes! (details to come later) Bless his heart, his love of cooking, we discovered was going to have to take a MAJOR break!! My sensitive stomach simply could not take the aromas of certain things, nor the taste! I felt awful b/c he had gone to so much trouble to prepare this dish and all I could do was whimper and moan about how sick it was making me! Papa and Mimi to the rescue!! They helped me with William soooo much when I would get sick. William was not sure what was going on, but was happy to have them there.

We celebrated Christmas that evening as we exchanged gifts. It was priceless watching William open his gifts...as well as everyone else's! He would get so excited about everything he unwrapped! My favorites from Papa and Mimi were the mega blocks, the puzzles, his big boy pillow and the apron!! When I tell you William loves to be in the kitchen with us, that is an understatement! I was tickled when I saw he now had his very own little apron! He was so excited! The best was the basketball goal!! My little boy loves to be outdoors and needed some outside things! He was beyond excited when the basketball goal appeared!! He couldn't stop playing with it and squealing!! He would keep trying to make a goal and would jump around and clap when the ball would finally make it's way in the goal! He has certainly enjoyed his gifts!

We had a wonderful Christmas with Papa and Mimi! Thanks for all the memories!

Thanks for all the help! We are so blessed! We love you!

Trip to the Tree Farm

Boy was our December busy!! We started the month off with our annual family trip up to the Strickland-Davis Tree Farm in Defuniak Springs. We were on a mission to find the perfect Christmas tree! Did we pick the coldest morning to have a fun family morning out?? It was freezing, but somehow that was perfect! We were all bundled up and ready to go! Philip and I enjoyed a warm cup of hot chocolate as we began our search. William just loved all the trees! He kept saying "Mommy look at that tree" or "Daddy, it's a big tree" He was so cute going up to all the short trees saying "This is my tree". We had so much fun walking around and deciding on our perfect tree. I somehow always fall in love with the biggest tree out there and my wonderful husband just smiles at me and ends up cutting it down :) He is so good to me...

My brother, Hunter, met us that morning with Drake. My parents and brothers had been taking care of Drake for a week or so for us and it was the perfect opportunity to meet to pick him up. It worked out great b/c Hunter could take a family picture for us and actually have Drake with us!! Somehow Hunter managed to take the best picture of us with Drake actually looking straight at the camera. Back to our tree... William loved watching and attempting to help his Daddy cut down the tree. He kept saying "we take it home with us". William and I sang Christmas songs and danced around while Philip cut the tree. It was just a priceless morning!! I knew our Christmas season was off to a great start! I love our family outings and all the memories we create. I love the joy I see in William's eyes as we discover life together. I knew it was going to be a fantastic Christmas full of many wonderful memories as our family of 3...

Mommy and Me Fall Art Class

William just loves his art class! I love Mommy and Me art class! It's such a wonderful program. Every week he will ask me if we have "awt" today. He loves the days when we paint the best. Each week we go to our Mommy and Me artclass with Abrakadoodle and have a blast. I love the little masterpieces that are created each week. I love watching his face light up as he paints with different materials. He loves the projects with the glue stick. It's so cute to watch him glue something and then stick it to the project and say "look, it sticks" I love listening to him as he names off the colors and shapes we are using each week. We work on using the paintbrush to make strokes either "top to bottom" or "side to side". We also work on stamping "up and down" and making patterns. Some days he'll look up at me and say "paint with me, I'll hold your hand Moma" and it just melts my heart. Somehow he ends up with paint all over his hands and arms..and sometimes face, but that's one of the fun parts of the class! I love how each class ends with "gallery" where each child gets to present his/her artwork to the class. The teacher is amazing. She is so sweet and kind and puts a smile on your face. She loves to ask the kids questions to get them talking about the art (as best they can given their age) He especially loves it when we stop by to see Daddy after class to show off our project. We have every project displayed somehow here at home. (yes, my house is decorated with my child's artwork and I love it)

Here are pictures from our Fall Mommy and Me art Class! Enjoy

November Videos of William

Just some videos of William from November. The first 2 are at home and the rest are from a mini vacation at the lake. William loves to paint, so we spend a lot of time painting and drawing pictures. Hope you enjoy! I love the moments caught on video!

Thanksgiving 2009

Let me begin with telling you how much I LOVE Thanksgiving!! I love the simplicity of it as well as all the traditions and the slow pace! I LOVE family and being with family! I love the weather around Thanksgiving time. I love the food we prepare. I love most of all taking the extra time to reflect on and share what you are most thankful for each year. I love how my heart always seems fuller when Thanksgiving time rolls around. Now let me be clear that I am always sure to count my blessings daily and tell those I love how much they mean to me, but somehow I become more sentimental around this time of year. I also find it hard to believe that society rushes right past this occasion and wants to skip right on to Christmas (which I deeply love as well). I feel myself wanting to fight for Thanksgiving to have its time and place! Taking time to remember the 1st Thanksgiving and what it taught is important to me, but the most important is taking time to just BE THANKFUL for everything in your life and to SLOW DOWN!! I love Thanksgiving!!









So, to catch up on the Justiss Family.....



Our Thanksgiving 2009 was spent here at home with Maggie, Granddaddy, Holden and Hunter. I was just tickled that they were able to come down and spend quality time with us! They came down a few days early to spend time with William and Mommy while Philip was at work. There is just something about having my parents with me that makes my heart burst. I love family! Somewhere over the years a tradition started with the Thanksgiving cooking. The more I got into cooking, my mother so generously let me step in and cook along side my daddy. Daddy used to always make the cornbread dressing, but he handed it off to me a few years ago (I think without us even realizing it!) I still love the way my Moma makes the peas and butter beans taste JUST LIKE my grandmother's so I beg her to do those! Daddy makes the sweet potato casserole and I make the dressing (from scratch) and the chicken and dumplins (from scratch) and the scalloped corn and together we make the squash casserole, green-bean casserole and brown rice while Philip does his carrots as well as the turkey and gravy.

Well... this year, I was not my total "healthy" self and my brother picked up on it, so he quickly came in and wanted me to teach him how to do the dressing and the dumplins (which are my favorite). I was a bit shocked at the ease I talked him through the recipe and remember thinking to myself that this was one of the blessings of the year...the interest Hunter was showing in the family recipes! Holden even jumped in and helped with the dumplins b/c they looked like fun rolling out and cutting :)



Right before the blessing each year, our family tradition is to hold hands and form a circle and individually share what we are most thankful for that year. The waterworks always follow. It is touching to hear everyones heart.



I love more than anything that William is being raised in a home with loving parents who both value family as much as we do. Philip's family has their special traditions as well and it is always fun to share in them when we are with them on special holidays. I am so blessed to have a loving family that supports us as parents in raising William!



Back to the story :) We spent one day just hanging out at Pier Park with Maggie and Granddaddy when they first arrived in town. William had a blast! He loved Granddaddy pushing the stroller and had a blast on the merry-go-round with him! It was so sweet watching my Daddy (who's an army man and tough as nails) enjoy the merry-go-round with his grandson! I can't put into words my feelings of watching William with his grandparents (either my parents or Philip's). My heart is always so full of excitement as I watch him interact! What a blessing! I am so thankful for family!!



As a girl who LOVES to shop, another one of my favorite traditions that follows Thanksgiving is the shopping day on Friday!! For as many years as I can remember, Moma and I have got up in the wee early hours to drive to B'ham for the day to shop, shop, shop!! It's a day of shopping with my mother I love! Just us 2! This year, we got up extra early and headed over to Pier Park to shop! We have done the B'ham trip since William was born, but that's okay. We will get back to it eventually. Pier Park was perfect this year! We giggled and had the best time! It's just us girls!! We did cut our day short to get home in time so we could see the iron bowl (or rather keep William entertained so Philip could watch most of the game). I was very sad with the game this year, but there's always next year!!



After my parents left, we had a quiet night at home. It was a perfect ending to a wonderful Thanksgiving! William had a blast with Maggie and Granddaddy, but I could sense his enjoyment of just the time with the 3 of us. He's a family oriented child. He loves to be with Mommy and Daddy and is happy at home. He is great at entertaining himself when he needs alone time. I love to watch him when he does this. It is mesmerizing to watch his little imagination take off when he's independently playing. He'll talk about whatever family was here and ask for them to come back and want to call them to talk, but he'll also quietly drift off into his alone-time and unwind :)



Hope you enjoyed my recap of Thanksgiving! I am trying to catch up on our life! Just stick with me!!

WPJ's first Peanut Festival Fair and Parade

If you know anything about being from Southeast Alabama (Dothan to be exact), then you know how big the Peanut Festival is!! It's a tradition! I couldn't wait to share this with William! It finally worked out for us to take William to the fair and the parade this year!

As we entered the gates to the fair, William quickly discovered all the lights and the sounds and he was sooooo excited!! He kept pointing to the Ferris Wheel and saying "look, a big circle" He was amazed at all the sights and sounds! I couldn't capture enough of his little face! He even tried a peanut :) Maggie and Holden met us out there for the big night. We all had a blast enjoying William's 1st trip to the fair. His favorite was the merry-go-round, so we rode it several times. He was the sweetest little one out there! I'm so happy to have the memories of his first Peanut Festival Fair!

Better than the fair is the Peanut Parade! It's another wonderful tradition! I have memories of going as a child as well as marching in the parade. It goes right downtown Dothan. The best is the truck that comes and scatters the peanuts! That's when everyone runs out and scoops up some peanuts to enjoy during the parade! I was like a kid in a candy store waiting for the truck to come by so William could experience this! At first, he stayed on my hip and just watched, but after a little while, he was ready to pick his on peanuts! He was so cute picking up little handfuls with his chubby little hands! He was a great parade watcher! He enjoyed the bands and the floats. Poppi, Maggie and Holden were with us and helped capture the memories. William especially loved all the attention he was getting! Maggie even introduced cotton candy to him :) Poppi had a blast waving at everyone with William.

I hope this is a tradition that continues through the years! I just love the Peanut Festival! I love the memories of William's 1st experience at both!

(well, we did take him to the parade last year, but he was only 1 year and didn't quite understand everything, but nonetheless, we have pictures from that trip too!)

Enjoy the pictures!!