Christmas Festivities

I love all of the family togetherness that comes along with the Christmas season. My family begins Christmas on Christmas Eve with Mom's family. Then, Mom, Dad, Allyson and I go to the Christmas Eve service at church. This is one of my favorite services because so many families are there together. It's a wonderful evening of worship and catching up with old friends. On Christmas morning, the four of us wake up and have Christmas breakfast before opening gifts. Usually Mama Barb, my mom's mom, and Uncle Don come over for breakfast. This year, Lee Anne and Andy both joined us! Then, we get all loaded up and head to Grandma's for a few days. There is never a dull moment with this crowd. You would think now that all of the grandchildren are older that this time would run smoothly and in order. However, when you have a Grandpa who gets more excited on Christmas about opening presents than any child you've ever met, things get interesting. Someone has to keep a constant watch on Pa to make sure he doesn't open gifts out of turn. It's just so hard for him to wait for his turn to come back around!

The day after Christmas shopping can get interesting as well. Wal-Mart is about the only place to shop when we're at Grandma's, but we go all out and stock up on wrapping paper, decorations, and tape to last several years. Someone from the group inevitably gets lost, which sometimes causes us to have a Wal-Mart employee make an all-call and have the missing person report to the front. This year I stocked up on stuff for me and Stephen to decorate with next year! It's crazy to think we'll be married next Christmas and starting new Christmas traditions, but so exciting at the same time!

This year we were blessed with snow on Christmas day! Once we all made it to Grandma's, through the treacherous driving conditions, we had a lovely dinner with everyone's favorite: Andy got his spaghetti; Allyson got her chicken and dumplings; I got chocolate pie; and we all got a big breakfast on Sunday morning due to church being canceled. Then, came time for sledding! It took us a while to get a good track packed down with snow since the snow was so fluffy this time. After several crashes and many many walks back up the hill, we were good to go! It was cold but lots of fun! And, Andy may have lost his pants after tackling me in the snow...we'll keep the pictures PG though.

Here are a few of the highlights in pictures: (warning: picture overload!)

Mom's side of the family

 Mama Barb with all of her grandbabies

 Us!

 Mom and Uncle Don

 Me and Ally Poo

Christmas morning breakfast

 Pa anxiously awaiting his turn to open that big pile of gifts in his lap!

 Grandma and Pa looking at the family calendar we make for them each year.

 Pa entertaining the crowd

Fun in the snow!

 Making the track pushing Andy down the hill

 One of many walks back up the hill

 Faith and I really got the track going

 And then I needed a break

 Two peas in a pod

 Me and Pa

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and that it was at least half the fun mine was!

PS this boy comes home on Friday from Africa!!