1-6-18  Christmas at the Hicks's:

Since Angie and Josh weren't able to make it to St. Louis for Christmas, they decided to hold their Christmas with the family today when everyone could be there: Josh's folks and brother; Tim and Faith; and us. 
We made Ben play Santa and hand out the gifts.  

 waiting anxiously

 MeMa and PaPa

 Cheesy Faith and Tim

 My haul.  Picture of Layla, junior mints, collector coin, and a $25 Itunes gift card.  A few days later Angie and Josh also gave us an Echo.  We use theirs all the time when we're playing cards to play music for us.

 Faith and her "I'll be there in a Prosecco" t-shirt

 Tim and his new hat.

 an "awwww" moment

 baby time!

 Faith and Josh buds

 Tim in a stare down with Layla

 Still can't get them interested in having their own!

It was a great time!  Maybe we should have Christmas celebrations weeks apart every year!?

12-31-17  Christening gown shopping:

So where do you buy Christening outfits from anymore????  After calling several stores, Angie was thinking of ordering one online for a couple hundred dollars and hoping it got here in time.  As a last resort, she asked if I'd stop at the Rack and see if they had any.  On my way there, I saw Von Maur and wondered if they might have something.  So I stopped.  Much to my delight, yes, they do!  So I took pictures and sent them to Angie.   It still amazes me that we have that technology now!  Things sure were a lot different 30 years ago!!!
Anyway---there were quite a few options to choose from:
We had been talking about how cold it was and how Christening outfits weren't warm.  So I was surprised to see this.  Such a cute little sweater pantsuit

 even had cute little shoes and socks

 and cute little bibs!

 Not many dresses to choose from, but they were really cute.

  Unfortunately the smallest dresses were a 3month.  Layla was barely 8 lbs now, so needed a NB size.

 The pantsuit came in a NB, so did this.  It wasn't in the Christening stuff, but it was cute and very practical. 

Angie had me buy the pantsuit and the lacy sleeper gown/head band to see them in person.  The sleeper gown was the winner.  It was also much cheaper then the outfits she saw online---$48.  One less thing to worry about!

12-29-17  still too cold to do much!

So I talked the kids into letting me babysit and sent them to order new glasses and on a date to a restaurant by themselves.  I think we all 4 had a good time.

Layla even turned 1 month old today!  She's had quite the time so far in her short life---nicu for about a week; home with her birth mother for a few days; into interim care for about a week; and to her forever home at 3 weeks.   So far, she seems to be coping with all the changes very well.

Angie writes this:

Layla is One Month old today!

Although she was born 5 weeks premature, our little babe is growing like a weed! She weighed in at 7 lb 12 oz this morning and measures 20.5" long.

She likes long walks on the beach, puppy dogs and ice cream. Just kidding, she's less than 5 weeks old. But she does like eating and sleeping and melting our hearts with how cute she is!

12-27-17  babysitting Layla:

For not really ever missing being a Grandma, now that I am, I'm pretty thrilled.  Don't even mind babysitting.  So when Josh had to go out of town for a night, I stayed with Angie for the night and helped with the little one.

But first---I ran up to our local resale shop and found a bunch of $1 long sleeved onesies for Layla.  Seems they had a lot of short sleeved ones, but we're in a wicked cold spell right now!  Anyway----it was fun shopping for baby clothes.

 Taken during my night shift.

 Look at all that hair!

 Such a content little thing!

12-26-17  back to Ga. to meet our granddaughter!

Since we were all coming back to St. Louis for Christmas, so we thought, I also made a few Dr. appointments for myself.  Had labs drawn last Thurs., so today was the day to go back for the results.  Then we planned to jump in the car and drive back to Georgia.  Since my appointment was at 9:15, I had high hopes that we'd be on our way by 10.  No such luck.  The appointment ran late so we didn't get on the road until after 11.  But my appointment went really well for a change!  For the first time since I've been going for regular check ups (since about 50 years old), my A1C was in the normal range.  Until now it had always been in the pre-diabetes range, so I was quite happy with these results!  I guess all those salads are paying off!  Even lost a couple pounds which isn't bad considering all the food I ate at the Christmas parties and the 11 nights cruise!  Now if it would just get warm again so I can go out and continue trying to be good. 
This is why I don't care much for snow, either----it looks pretty initially, but it doesn't take long for it to look like this.

 This was the start of a particularly bad cold spell, too.  Highs in the single digits in St. Louis for the next week and only in the 20 in the Atlanta area!

 a really dreary day!

 no wonder the barns get so weathered.

 Missing the greenery of Florida and the Caribbean!

 a rather pretty barn

 back to the usual mid west barns

 so cold Rend Lake is freezing.

 I don't know why these bill boards are up, but I get a kick out of them

 On into Tennessee and icicles on the bluffs

 finally some blue skies

 so many barns we've seen trip after trip

 then there are some I don't remember seeing before!

 Some we've seen get more and more dilapidated. 

 another "new" one

 when the trees are with leaves, some of them are totally hidden.

 another familiar one.

 wonder why this one has a red stripe?

 Wondering if someone lives in here?!

More icicles on the bluffs in Tennessee

 warm afternoon light with pretty clouds.

 We hit Nashville right before sunset.  Usually we detour around the city, but this time we decided to listen to the car Navigator and go straight through. 

 There were no slow downs and it was nice having a different view for a change.

 Love the symbol for this radio station---the "batman" building with the traditional 3 stars of the Tennessee flag.

 looking East as we left the city

 Sunset lasted a good while and was really pretty tonight.

 Got back to the Suwanee area by about 9:30, so we called to see if the kids were still up.  They were, so we went to meet Layla!  Such a cutie and such a good little girl. 

Nice ending to a long day!