Another Whirlwind Weekend at the Lake

We spent the past weekend at Cy's parents' house on Lake Murray again, this time to celebrate Christmas with the Smith and Conroy branches of the Shealy clan.  It was a whirlwind trip - we drove up Saturday morning and arrived just in time for the festivities at lunch.

Pops helped Gemma scope out the Christmas tree

Liam and Gemma were pretty excited to see Hank

 After lunch we exchanged some gifts - Gemma got a toddler band instrument set from Uncle Mike and Aunt Jean that she really seems to like.

Although it is debatable as to who likes it more: Gemma or her daddy.  He taught himself the song "Soft Kitty" from the show Big Bang Theory and has been practicing constantly.  He was quite proud of his accomplishment, as you can see:

Gemma also got a little baby doll in a stroller.  She is pretty much obsessed with this little baby doll.  She carries it around everywhere (she even insists on taking it to bed with her at night) and says "ba ba" constantly.

Uncle Mike and Aunt Jean also gave each of their nieces and nephews a painting by a local folk artist named Ernest Lee.  Cy and I had never heard of Ernest Lee, but I was still pretty excited because our painting had a flamingo on it.  (Not sure Cy was too thrilled but oh well.)

After the crowds left in the afternoon, we packed up the three little ones and headed out to Riverbanks Zoo to see the Christmas lights.  It was a lot like the James Island County Park lights except you had to walk around so it was a lot more work and it was absolutely freezing.  Poor little Gemma looked like the poor kid from A Christmas Story ("I can't put my arms down!") by the time we were through bundling her up:

Despite the hoards of people and the subzero temperatures, the lights at the zoo were very cool to see.  Noah had a really good time--he kept freezing us with his magic wand and was doing all sorts of awesome dances to the Christmas music that was playing.