Quick trip and lots of toys!

So, I took a quick trip to Birmingham yesterday! I took my sister's Christmas decorations which she had stored at my parent's house last year. I had my mom's minivan packed to the brim with Christmas! First, I had to cut down the Christmas tree Ivey had picked out at Thanksgiving and load that in my mom's van. I wish I had taken a picture of my mom and I in the pouring rain tromping through the mud wearing our rain gear and carrying umbrellas to cut down a Christmas tree!!! We were quite a sight!! :)

Here's the tree she picked out on Thanksgiving:

 We had a wonderful time together running around town and visiting with each other! After dinner, Ivey wanted to try to get a little photo shoot in to try to capture a Christmas card picture of the family...since the weather was so yucky, we tried to think of a place indoors that was decorated for Christmas. We decided on the easy/close-by option of Samford University...we felt a little out of place in the library with all of those students trying to study for finals! :) Once we started, we realized just what a challenge it is to capture everyone looking in the same direction and smiling with a 16 month old little boy!! He kept wanting to walk off...

Or crawl up the stairs:

Or put his hand in his mouth:

Tom and Ivey kept seeing students that they knew from their church...Ivey asked one of them if he would mind standing behind me while I took the picture and play "peep-eye" with Thomas to get him to smile. The guy looked confused and asked "What's that?" We laughed and asked him if he had ever heard of peek-a-boo? Seriously, what are they teaching students these days?!? :) He was a good sport and we got a few good shots (which I will save for the Christmas card reveal...).

I drove back this morning in time to get ready to go to work for a few hours to help out with a huge toy drive that benefited our Child Life Department...we rely so much on toy donations at Christmas and throughout the year...we give gifts to the children who are in the hospital on Christmas, or birthdays, or other special holidays. We also celebrate monumental occasions like "No More Chemo Parties." Even just the day in and day out procedures sometimes need a little reward! We have a constant need to keep our closets full of craft supplies and prizes!! This year, different departments throughout the hospital collected items from our "wish list" and presented them on floats during a "Parade of Presents."

 Once the parade was over, it was our job to take all of the items to a room where we will sort through everything and get it all organized! We were TOTALLY overwhelmed by the generosity! I almost teared up several times just thinking about how these toys will help to brighten the lives of the children we serve!

 Sorry this one is so blurry...not sure what happened!

Christmas cheer is definitely in the air, and I can't wait to get the house decorated!!!