Category Archives: Christmas

3 1/2 Years

Lucy celebrated her third birthday last October with friends and family as well as Dan the Animal Man and a porcupine, snake, owl, and tortoise (the last one she even got to ride!). Her favorite birthday present was a Power Wheels Jeep from Aunt Christine and Uncle Josh, complete with a Frozen theme and a “radio” that plays songs from the movie.

She was very excited to dress up as Daniel Tiger for Halloween, and her Mimi transformed Lucy’s wagon into Daniel’s trolley.

While Kevin performed at Wendell Falls’ Grounds Café for the first time, Lucy accompanied him with some interpretive dancing.

Lucy’s holiday schedule was jam-packed: she got to see the Rudolph musical in downtown Raleigh, see Disney on Ice at PNC Arena and participated in the Knightdale Christmas parade; she hung out with Mrs. Claus at Pullen Park’s Holiday Express; and saw the Chinese Lantern Festival in Cary with her entire family while they were in town for Christmas.

The New Year brought snow to Wendell and Lucy went sledding for the first time. After getting over some initial fears, she loved it and can’t wait for the snow to come back.

She’s been taking dance classes at Heather’s Dance in Knightdale, and the studio held a daddy-daughter dance in early February. While Lucy was one of the youngest girls there, she had a great time and made a few new friends.

February also saw a candy-tastic Valentine’s Day party at Lucy’s school, Central Baptist, as well as a cookie decorating party that Lucy and Allison hosted at our house in Wendell Falls. At the end of the month Lucy spent a week at Grandma and Coach’s house in Key Largo, and loved the pool and a bumpy glass-bottom boat ride.

Following tradition, she attended the Raleigh St. Patrick’s Day parade with her friends Nevin and Shay and were visited by her Mimi and Grandma for Easter, where she took part in several egg hunts.

2 Years 3 Months

The holiday season was full of family, friends, and fun for Lucy. In November she attended her first horse show at the North Carolina state fairgrounds, had Thanksgiving dinner with her friend Sam Erikson and his family, and attended the Raleigh Christmas parade (which had much nicer weather than the previous year). She even took part in a Thanksgiving song at her school and was one of few kids who actually sang!As December dawned, Lucy helped pick out a Christmas tree and enjoyed the Holiday Express train ride and carousel at Pullen Park, but she still isn’t much of a fan of Santa. Even though she talked about him daily, for the second year in a row she cried on his lap. Her extended family came to town for Christmas and Lucy truly got into the holiday spirit this year–she baked cookies, opened gifts, started the annual tradition of singing Happy Birthday to Jesus (her idea), and couldn’t get enough of the neighborhood lights.Lucy loves cooking in her play kitchen and in the real kitchen with mom; the play pizza set she got for Christmas makes for a daily pretend feast. She is a frequent visitor to Ravenscroft, where dad works, and gets high fives and hugs every time she comes around. She loves finger painting, using ink stamps, and coloring. As the new year rolled around, she experienced the first snow of the year, transitioned into her big girl bed and is excited about visiting her grandparents in Florida in a month.

Christmas 2015

Lucy was far more engaged in her second Christmas than her first. She was joined by her entire family to unwrap presents in Raleigh, and her gifts included her first tool set, a dump truck, lots of bath toys, a basketball hoop, and some fancy new sneakers.

She attended Christmas Day mass at St. Raphael and had her first taste of Mimi’s lasagna (as well as the Flinn family tradition of Christmas party-crackers) on Christmas Eve. She also enjoyed taking ornaments off of the tree.

‘Tis the Season

Even though the highs were in the 60s during the first weekend of December, Lucy helped pick out a Christmas tree.

When it cooled down the following evening she visited the Holiday Express at Pullen Park in downtown Raleigh, where she took her first rides on a carousel (of which she was definitely not a fan) and a train (which she liked much better).

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

Lucy got an up-close-and-personal view of the Raleigh Christmas parade from the headquarters of the Junior League of Raleigh, where she met Mrs. Claus.

That evening she had a meeting with Mr. Claus himself, and although she wore the proper attire, she was less than thrilled with old St. Nick.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Lucy celebrated her first Christmas at home surrounded by her Grandma and Grandpa Flinn, Mimi and Pop-Pop Perkins, and Aunt Christine and Josh. She had a number of costume changes and made her first visit to St. Raphael Church for Christmas mass.

Lucy joined some of her neighbors for a New Years get-together, but she didn’t make it to midnight (nobody in the family did). She did, however, watch the Ohio State Buckeyes the next night in the Sugar Bowl!

Lucy carrying on the Flinn family Christmas Eve tradition of English “Crackers.”

Lucy seemed a little overwhelmed with all of the giving and receiving of gifts on Christmas morning.

Lucy fell fast asleep after mass on Christmas Day.

The grandmas love Lucy! Her ugly Christmas onesie is courtesy of Mimi.

Lucy took her first Christmas very seriously.

Santa’s little sweetheart was all worn out from the day’s festivities. Yes, those are Santa socks on her hands (she can work her way out of any pair of mittens).

Lucy was just slightly less-than-thrilled with her New Years Eve photo shoot.

Santa, Baby

Lucy took her first trip outside of Raleigh this weekend as we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Flinn in New Bern. While we were there, Lucy met Santa in Bear Plaza, and while she wasn’t scared, she wasn’t overly impressed, either. (She seemed to like the bright Christmas lights more than anything!)