Saturday, December 29, 2007

Jolly Ole St. Nick

Well as we've been telling the kids for a month now, the big man in the red suit came to visit. But more importantly, when Kate was asked what Christmas was about, she would answer it's Jesus' birthday and giving presents to others. Hopefully she will always feel this way and celebrate with the same heart of a child.
This year was different for us. We actually did not have to rush and run to be with everyone this year. Living back home definitely had it's advantage this year. We began on Sunday with the Allen Christmas. We traditionally went to see the lights in Tylertown (if your live close and have not seen this, it's something to see). Afterwards, we had our family Christmas with Kendall. She was not with us for Christmas Day this year so we had our fun with her then. Shelly and Jay stayed through Christmas. Shelly's parents traveled down from Arkansas. After Christmas Eve services at my mom's church, we had my in-laws and Jay's in-laws over for supper at my mom's. It was nice visiting with everyone. Much to Shelly's dismay and through several braxton hicks contractions, baby James did not make his appearance for this Christmas! Poor Kendall and Ms. Sue (Shelly's mom) really wanted that baby to come while they were in town!
I was surprised on how easy Kate went to bed. She must have been very tired. I am sure in the years to follow, this will not be the case. Chris and I differ on whether Kate got him up or he got her up. I am sure he woke her up :) She was so excited. Leah is still unsure of the whole ordeal, but was glad to see the gifts and had no problem ripping into them!
We then had our traditional breakfast of oysters and the fixings at my mom's. We rounded out the day at Chris' grandmother Opal's.
Another new gathering was having Chris' dads Christmas the day after. It was actually very nice having it all spread out. The kids weren't overwhelmed with too many gift at once. Notice I said at once, they definitely were overloaded with gifts! :) Merry Christmas and a happy 2008 to everyone!


Getting Santa's cookies and milk ready.

Putting out reindeer food.

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