CHRISTmas Celebrations

Well I didn't make it on here the week of Christmas, but I figured I better post one more blog before 2011 gets here. Is it just me or did 2010 seem to to just fly by?! Before I get to all the festivities of 2010, I must post a pic of my cute hubby that I took of him on Sunday, December 19th after one of his choir performances at church. The choir did 3 performances on the 19th and they were amazing!! I worked in the Infant nursery during the 9:00 performance but then I was able to see the 11:00 performance. WOW, is all I can say!! :) They had a 7:00 performance too but the kids and I stayed home and didn't go to that one since the kids still had a couple days of school left before Christmas break. It was awesome though! :) Once we did all of that then we ate breakfast, changed clothes, and my dad came to pick us up to meet at my parent's house to exchange gifts over there with my parents, my sister and her family, and all of our family. Again I took a ton of pics but here are just a few of them. The kids always get stockings full of things from Memaw and PaPaw too and that's what they checked out first before getting to the gifts.

I think I have mentioned this in previous posts, but I made a Christmas chain for the kids to countdown til Christmas and on each chain there was something fun to do each day. The kids LOVED it! Of course, this year I had to be more creative since G-man is still not able to drive, but thankfully, my sister and brother-in-law agreed to help us out by taking us to see Blue Springs lights one day so I put that on the chain for Tuesday (the 21st). It turned out to be a whole family thing: all four of us went, my sister, brother-in-law, nieces, and nephew went, and my parents went. We decided to turn this into an early celebration for G-man's birthday and so before going to see the lights, we went to his favorite restaurant: Golden Corral. My parents surprised him by getting a piece of cake from the dessert bar there and providing their own candle and candlelighter for him and we sang "Happy Birthday" to him. It was a very memorable night and one that G-man will never forget. He is still talking about it! :) Unfortunately I didn't have my camera out and ready for the picture, but it was a fun night.

On Thursday (the 23rd) G-man had the day off work so he stayed with the kids and I got up early to go with my sister to the hospital where our mom was scheduled to have a heart cath surgerical procedure. My sister, my dad, and I waited in the waiting room and prayed that everything would go smoothly and that she would get to come home. The surgery took a little over an hour and then the doctor came out and said that everything went well and she was able to come home later that afternoon. I have to tell you that was the best Christmas present for me, was being able to have my mom home for Christmas and enjoying all the festiviies with us! Praise the Lord!! God is so good!!

We had Christmas Eve (also known as G-man's birthday... Happy Birthday, Honey!)at our house this year. There were about 15 or 16 of us here at our house. We had fun playing games, singing the 12 days of Christmas, and opening gifts. Here are just a few of the MANY pics that I took of that night! We always start off by taking a few family ones and then of course I took a couple random ones too (actually more than a couple but I'm only posting a couple!)lol.






As you can see from the pics below, opening gifts was a favorite among the kids. We saved the gifts until last and so they were very anxious by the time it was finally time! It was so much fun watching my niece, Gena, open her first gifts on her first Christmas! So much fun! :)





On Christmas morning, we opened our gifts here at home and the boys checked their stockings to see what Santa left them. :) After opening gifts, G-man read the Christmas story to the boys. Yes you are seeing them correctly, they are all still in their pajamas. That is part of the fun on Christmas morning, getting up and running into the living room in their pajamas to check out their stockings, open gifts, and listen to the Christmas story, all while wearing their comfy clothes! :)

Once we did our Christmas here at home then we went to my parent's house to have Christmas with my parents and my sister and her family. My mom always has stockings for the kids so here they are with their stockings.
Again it was so much fun to watch Gena looking in her stocking and checking everything out! :) Here are a few more random pics that I took on Christmas Day. I posted more on Facebook so if you are my friend on there then feel free to check them out. This picture above just cracks me up. My sis had gotten a piggy bank that said hot flash fund on it because she is always getting hot flashes! Lol! :)
There were a lot more gifts on Christmas Day than on Christmas Eve and Gena didn't know what to think. She was having a hard time deciding which one to play with. :)

All of the kids received new pajamas for Christmas and that came in handy because at church on Sunday, the 26th, it was a "Come As You Are" service and the Kids had Pajama Day down in Kidz church so they were able to wear their new pajamas. It was a good Christmas and now we must tackle the house! It looks like a tornado hit the rooms! lol! In case I am not able to get on here again before New Year's, let me just say that I hope you all have a very blessed New Year's! Looking forward to talking to you more in 2011!!