Christmas Came....and went....

Well, we had a lovely Christmas. We hosted my family this year: my parents, my brother and sister-in-law and we went to visit my grandmother on Christmas Day. We had a nice time. John and I attended the annual Christmas Eve service at church without any kids...how relaxing! Then, we came home and re-grouped and ALL went Christmas caroling. That is an annual tradition for my family. We went to sing at the Packwoods' home first. I think that it was a little emotional (not weeping or anything) for my family to get to see Libby right there looking and smiling at us as we serenaded her family with Christmas cheer! She looks so good. My dad said that he just wanted to go over there and hug her and let the family know that so many people are praying for her...but he felt that it might overwhelm her. She seemed to enjoy the singing and the boys were wound up and excited about Christmas Eve. We exchange gifts and Gracie gave us a platter of YUMMY Christmas treats! We left there and headed to a widow lady's home that we visit every year. She was so pleased to see us as she sat in her walker/chair on her front porch and we sang. We visited some friends that live a couple of streets over and then our neighbors who let us know that they have NEVER had Christmas carolers. It was a sweet time and we enjoyed blessing others in song. We came home and bathed the kids and put them to bed and the family stayed up and played Texas Hold'em while I played SANTA CLAUS. I don't know why I have to get things every year that require assembly! I guess I like to torture myself! We were up past midnight and we really felt it when we were up at 6:15 Christmas morning with the kids!!!! We enjoyed the huge pile of gifts and laughed at the humorous gifts that were given. The kids were entertained the entire day with their loot! We headed to Memaw's house in the afternoon and spent the evening with her. We had a HUGE "Cowboy" lunch (sliced beef HUGE twice baked potatoes, homemade rolls and LOTS of desserts) so the gourmet pizza for supper was not too appetizing! Memaw had purchased an insurmountable amount of licorice...I still can't think of why...and she tried to pawn it off on us. My brother was the only taker...she also had real ginger candy (yuck) to which he accepted as the rest of us turned up our noses. We watched a home movie of Whitney singing in church and Savannah speaking at a school assembly and exchanged gifts with Memaw, sang carols to her (at this point, we had our entire routine down) and headed home. Our tradition is to open our stocking on Christmas night, so we did that when we got home. I love stocking stuffers and try to find unique items to put in there.
FAVORITE GIFTS:
Savannah--Nintendo DS
Whitney--Hannah Montana with stage set
Blayne--Darth Vader voice changer
Reagan--Hot Pink Jogging Stroller for Dolls (or an empty plastic bowl and huge metal spoon)
John and I got some awesome plastic cups that don't sweat and that keep ice frozen for hours....no more fighting over the ONE favorite cup we have!!!

Well, Merry Christmas to you and your family.
More posts soon...