Tatum is on the Nice List

Although she doesn't look thrilled to be sitting on Santa's lap, Tatum is still on Santa's Nice list.

Home for the Holidays

Snacks = Happy Traveler

Tatum enjoys her first Bojangles Biscut, welcome to the taste of the south!

The Shearers boarded another trans-continental flight to visit family and friends for an early holiday celebration in North Carolina. It has become a tradition to provide Tatum a photo album at the start of each new airplane journey. The album is loaded with pictures of loved ones for her to check out as we travel. This in addition to picture board books and TONS of snacks is what helps us survive long flights with an 18-month old.

We spent 10-days total in NC - three nights at the Harris Home (Andrew's sister) in Charlotte; three nights at the Shoemakers in Asheville; and three nights with the Littles (Meghan's sister) in Charlotte. It was a perfect bookend trip with family each weekend and friends in the middle.

The Harris Home started with the adventure of making gingerbread houses at a Christmas Party. Each child got the cook's ware and pre-made house. There were tons of candies for the kids to choose from to create their unique house. Tatum is still a bit young to really participate, but she ate her share of our golden graham shingles.

Nicolas (4 y.o) and Sophia (2.5 y.o) had a blast with their cousin Tatum. The kids spent their days following each other around, playing in the new tents, taking a bath, and dressing up for the panther's game. It was a great time because there was so much laughter and play between the kids.

Next we headed to Asheville, where we spent three nights with our friends Brian and Nicole. Tatum was the only kid in site, so she took advantage of the cold rain-less moments and played outside. Her favorite is playing in the car and pushing all the buttons. Mom treated herself to some new boots, and Tatum just had to try them on.

While in Asheville, we took a morning drive to Burnsville to visit my cousin Amy and her two sons James and Henry. We were treated to delicious bakery treats and homemade soup for lunch. Tatum shared some Spanish language with James and requested "aqua" at lunch. (Nicolas and Sophia too picked up "aqua").



Our last stop on the road was my sister Jen's house. Her twin boys Ethan and Drew enjoyed playing with Lala's rollers and putting them in Tatum's hair. During the rainy days we took the opportunity to visit Santa at the local mall.

Tatum picked up three new words on the trip: Choo-choo (we played train at Julie's house), ham (that's right, this kid loves ham; she's her father's daughter), and snacks (surprised? no).

On our return, we had time in the Charlotte airport before our flight. Charlotte has a great food/shopping/rest area in the center of the terminals where there is an open bar with a man playing piano. Tatum loves music, and loves to dance; so she was thrilled to be able to dance to the piano man during our wait. This delighted the musician as well as passer-byes. Tatum was given a dollar tip from a woman who's day was made by the little two foot dancer. We gave the tip to the piano man.

And thanks to Direct TV at our seats on the return flight, we made it home safely and sanely; Andrew was able to watch football and Tatum tuned in and out of the baby channel.