Here Comes Santa Claus...

I had heard that if you went during the week that you wouldn't have to wait in a long line to have your picture taken with Santa. So, one day, I had to go into town to run some errands, and I thought that if Taylor was in a good mood that we would go by the mall to see if she could have her picture taken. We got our shopping done and went to the mall, and sure enough, there was no line! Woo hoo! Well, then I started to look at the prices of the pictures, and I thought it was just crazy. I stood there and debated for a few minutes and then just turned around and walked back out to the car. Then, I kept looking at Taylor and thinking, "but she looks so cute, and I would love to have a good picture of her with Santa..." so I called Jared and asked what he thought. I figured he would say, "That's too much, and she already had her picture taken with Santa at the church for free," but instead, he said, "Well, if she's in a good mood and you think she'll take a good picture, then I don't care." So, that left the door open, and I'm weak, so we went back inside to have the pictures taken. She WAS in a good mood, but as soon as I put her in Santa's lap, she started crying. We got her to stop crying, but as you can see from the picture, she still wasn't thrilled. She's been snotty lately, so I wiped her nose before giving her to Santa, but of course, as soon as she started crying, it started streaming out of her nose again. So, you can see snot coming out of her nose and even a little tear coming out of the left eye if you look closely. It's not a fabulous picture because she's not smiling, and she's not even looking at the camera, so afterwards, I started feeling guilty for paying so much to have the picture taken. (The cheapest thing you could get was like a 3x5 and two keychain pictures for $15 or $16. What I ended up getting was two 3x5's for almost $20 after taxes. I know $20 isn't a whole lot of money- well, it is if you're poor- but I just thought that was ridiculous for just two little pictures, so I don't know if we'll be doing it next year or not).


On Saturday, we celebrated Christmas with my dad's family at my cousin Sheree's house in Birmingham. Sheree was always one of my favorite cousins growing up. She's probably around 10 years older than me, and I always loved doing things with her. I can remember sitting on her waterbed when I was really young, and she was showing me how to cross stitch. Whenever my parents built our new house (when I was in the 4th grade), I even had to get a new bed just like Sheree's- only mine wasn't a waterbed. Well, now, Sheree is married to a very wealthy man (he owns several car dealerships), and they live in an absolutely beautiful, gigantic house in Birmingham, so most of our family functions are held there. (My dad had 1 brother and 6 sisters, so it's a very large group when everyone is together---- very much like the Mayfields). Most of my dad's family had either not seen Taylor before or they hadn't seen her since she was just born, so it was good to get to show her off ;-) After we ate lunch, the men played poker (Jared just watched), and the women played dirty santa with Christmas ornaments that we all brought. Dirty Santa is always a fun game, but after it was all over, Sheree said, "Okay. Now draw another number because Tom and I bought presents, and we're going to play again. The presents range in price from $50-$700." Oh my gosh! I was like are you serious?!! We've played Dirty Santa for several years but never like this! There were close to 20 women playing, and the biggest prizes included a flat screen TV, an iPhone (the winner of the men's poker game also won an iPhone), two digital cameras, a video camera, a Blu Ray DVD player, a photo printer, a laptop computer, and a Coach purse. I couldn't believe it! I mean, can you imagine what it must be like to be able to do that? I wouldn't mind having that kind of money just so I can buy gifts for other people like that! My dad's family grew up in Cullman, just good ol' country folk, so as you can imagine, we were all just crazy excited over this! The TV, iPhone, and laptop were all frozen by the time that it was my turn, so I ended up with one of the digital cameras (oh darn... haha!). It's the same brand as the one that I have now, but WAY better!





It is 7.2 megapixels versus my 3.2, and it even has specific settings for taking pictures of snow, taking pictures at the beach, etc. Oh and it's PINK.. haha I haven't gotten to test it out yet because I have to buy a memory card for it, but I can't wait to try it!

While we were playing Dirty Santa, Taylor played in the floor. At one point, I found her with styrofoam in her mouth and removed it, but I think she must have ingested some before I got to her because I discovered it in her diaper later! (If you know what I mean!)

Sheree also gave Taylor some cute little boots! Sheree had some brown ones like them, and I think she said she found these at Target and bought like 12 pairs of them to give to kids! They are a size 5, and Taylor wears a size 3 right now (well, she does when we can get her to keep shoes on her feet!), so maybe she'll be able to wear them by next year, but they are so precious! I love Sheree! I think it is so awesome that she has stayed the sweet, down-to-earth, generous person that she has always been!























Here is a picture of Taylor in her pretty dress that we bought her for Christmas. We're planning on getting pictures of her at Portrait Innovations, but by the time I called, the earliest appointment they had available was the 27th. I don't know if they'll still be doing Christmas pictures by then, but I will probably get some pictures of her in this dress because I just love it! We've had such a hard time finding bows and stuff that will stay in her hair, but we found a little red glitter headband at Gymboree at Bridge Street, and it's precious as long as she'll keep it on her head!