Christmas at Home

We arrived home on Monday evening.  Tuesday morning we loaded up on groceries.  We think this is the most food we have ever had in this fridge.

Later that morning, Mama Jo and John came over to visit and exchange gifts.  Cousin Mitch came over too, but somehow managed to avoid the camera.

Mama Jo brought some yummy pimento cheese sandwiches, and cookies to bake with the kids. 

Nathan and Hannah got some really neat Spiderman and princess dinnerware which were a big hit. 

I’m not sure who this little girl is.

We managed to at least get one good group shot before they left.

That evening, we went to the Christmas Eve candlelight service at Christ Chapel.  We were a little late and got to sit on the first row.  It turned out pretty good because the musicians kept the kids attention.  Nathan listened intently to the sermon and even offered a hearty “Yes!” when Pastor Jeff asked if we thought Mary expected to have her baby in a stable (the correct answer was “No” which drew a big laugh from the congregation). Towards the end of the service, Hannah couldn’t help but dancing a little.  She would hold her candle in the air and sway it back and forth like she was at a concert.

After church we had tamales at Uncle Julio’s and then boarded the Christmas Express for some Christmas light viewing.  The kids changed into their pajamas and enjoyed some hot chocolate along the way.

That evening we went home and put out cookies and reindeer food and the kids hurried to bed.  Here is how we found the living room the next morning!  Santa left us a note and signed it with a Gig’em!

By this time, Hannah and Nathan were seasoned veterans at gift opening.  Hannah was very sweet and told us “thank you for everything” before she started opening gifts.  You will notice that Nathan couldn’t just wear his Christmas PJs without an Aggie jersey over it.  He’s a good Ag.

Ninja Turtles, superheroes and A&M gear were the gifts of choice for Nathan.  Hannah got a golden locket, tickets to the Nutcracker ballet, and dolls.

After we opened gifts, we had coffee cake for breakfast and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.  Nathan was excited about lighting the candles.

Pretty soon it was time to hit the kitchen. Jennifer cooked most of the day and prepared a fantastic Christmas dinner with ham, beans, potato salad, Brussels sprouts, squash casserole, rolls, two pecan pies, and an Italian cream cake.  Nana and Pappy drove in from Canyon and arrived just in time for dinner.

Hannah had a mild case of the flu, so we were able to exchange the Thursday Nutcracker tickets for Friday tickets.  The girls got all dressed up.

Hannah loved the ballet!  She watched the entire performance very intently and was very inspired afterwards. She danced around everywhere for a few days.

While the girls were at the theater, the boys stayed home and watched football from the couch

We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus and hope you did too!

Christmas in Evadale

We went from Devers to Evadale.  Our first stop was to visit Memaw. Her entire family came to celebrate, which was the first time everyone had been there in several years. I think the count was 5 kids, 12 grandkids and 10 great-grandkids.

Here is Memaw with her kids.

And with the Fling family.

Catalina came to visit too.

Hannah was glad to see Betsy.

Nathan wasn’t “shy” of this Santa.  (He has learned that you can’t go wrong with a Gig’em when taking a picture)

Amber’s crew came over to open presents with Nan and Pop and all the kids had lots of fun together.

They were very excited about their presents.

Hannah loves this show and has memorized most of the songs.  She was excited to get the DVD.  We didn’t bother telling her that the acting was sub-par.

She also got a Nutcracker ballet DVD. She had asked Nan multiple times to replace hers that was scratched and would not play.

It was a quick trip but we had fun seeing everyone!

Christmas in Devers

We went down to Devers the weekend before Christmas to visit Mimi, O, and our cousins.  It was a short trip but we had a great time.  We got to spend some time with Aunt Candace and Micah before they headed back to Russia.  We were also hoping to meet our new Whitaker cousin, but he came down with RSV and was in the hospital all weekend.  He is doing better now.

Here are some pictures from our visit.  I had fun wrestling with the kids

Since her parents were not there, Kate took to me.  I was a little smitten with her also to be honest.  We described her as a dream child.  Just easy going, quiet, smiling, and happy to be there. We don’t really know what that’s like around our house.

Here are some shots of the cousins

Liam and Nathan called themselves “the gum chewing brothers” and wrestled pretty much non-stop all weekend.

Donna, Cheryl, Granny and company came over Saturday evening and we opened presents.  Here are all the cousins before the festivities.

They both really enjoyed opening their gifts.

We had a good visit.  The only thing that would have made it better is if the whole family could have been there.  Maybe next time!

FNI Christmas Party

We had our annual Christmas party at Lone Star Park this year.  It was a nice party, and the kids had fun as always. 

They decorated cookies and Hannah had her face painted.

But the highlight of the night was a visit by Santa.  Nathan was, in his words, “just a little shy of Santa.”  Hannah hopped right up in his lap. She has learned that she enjoys posing for the camera.