A New Year-Our Week Long Christmas!

Since it's a New Year, I have decided that one of my resolutions was going to be to update this little blog more often. I sat and read through some of my old posts last night and realized that I wouldn't have even remembered some of the little stories if it wasn't for my blog! It's a great way to journal the life of our little family. So to begin again, I thought I would post about Christmas and then maybe do some catch up posts of this past year in the next few weeks.

Merry Christmas!

We started Christmas off on Monday, December 20, by having Tim's parents over. My M-I-L asked to just spend some time at our house and do some fun things with the girls for her Christmas present, so that's just what we did! I fixed some little finger foods to eat and the girls got to open a few presents from them. We also fixed sugar cookies and my M-I-L brought some cute Christmas cookie cutters and icing! The girls had a blast! We spent the rest of the evening eating cookies and just spending time playing with the girls and talking. I am glad that the girls are able to have their Grandmommy and Poppy to make memories like this with! It was a very fun night!

Present time with Grandmommy and Poppy!

Making Cookies

This picture was taken on the Sunday before, but I thought it was too sweet not to share!

On Tuesday, our pastor, Bro. Joe, and his wife, Darlene hosted our next Christmas party. Since I haven't blogged in awhile, I haven't been able to mention that Bro. Joe was diagnosed with terminal cancer back in August. We are very sad and just praying for healing every single day. Anyway, we had such a sweet time celebrating with them! One of his daughters was in town with her husband and brand new baby! I got to love up on that newborn and I just soaked up every minute. She was so precious. Mrs. Darlene made a delicious pot of organic vegetable chili and it was AMAZING. She also had some chicken noodle soup and it was great, as well. I had to be polite and try both, of course! They gave us a gift certificate to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, and Mrs. Darlene (Craft Queen) made each of our girls a bow with a jingle bell on it - cutest bow ever!!! Addy was the funniest thing with these bows. Every time she heard jingle bells she would just shake her little head with a big grin on her face. Precious. We had such a sweet time with them and are so thankful for the time we got to spend with them that day!

This picture cracks me up. All the men were sitting around talking and Emmy just went and cuddled up with her daddy on the couch to watch Beauty and the Beast that Bro. Joe had put on for her in the background. They all look pretty interested, huh? haha

The ladies minus Emmy. The newborn baby is behind the table on the floor in a bouncer. Wish you could see her, too!

After our Christmas party at Bro. Joe and Mrs. Darlene's house, Tim took the babies home for naps and Emmy and I went to a Christmas cookie decorating party. It's turned into an annual thing, I guess, because we went to one last year at the same house! We had so much fun! I am amazed at how Emmy's fine motor skills have improved since last year, but really since just a few months ago! She is writing, drawing, etc. SO well. I'm so proud of my girl. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and eating yummy treats!

So Proud!

All the kids at the party. I just realized that Emmy looks like she needs to go potty in this picture. Embarrassing...or blackmail one day :).

Wednesday evening was when we had our youth Christmas celebration. We met up at our normal youth meeting place, and enjoyed some times of fellowship and just reflecting on the past year. After everyone's tummies were full, we headed to a local nursing home to visit with some of the members from our church that were living there and to sing Christmas carols. Those people loved having our group there, but especially loved my little girls! They kept offering them cookies and smiling and waving at them. It was so precious. I am looking into starting to visit there on a more regular basis with them. My girls seemed to enjoy themselves and I truly feel like it was therapy to the sweet people in the nursing home!

Part of our youth group

A couple days before Christmas, we had another little Christmas celebration with my in-laws except Tim's brother, his wife, and their son came. We ate together again, of course, opened a few more presents, and had a great time enjoying each others company! It is always great to be around family and cousins. We are blessed to have most of our family living nearby, but always miss Tim's other brother and his family in NJ. We love you D, L, G, L & J!

I just had to share this picture. Lucy had a runny nose and was letting her tongue act as a tissue! Haha!

Opening presents...again!

Lucy got a Ragady Ann doll! She really loves it, but wasn't feeling too hot this night. She actually was diagnosed with an ear infection later on that evening when I took her to PM Pediatrics. :(

Emmy, Z and Addy playing! Silly cousins!

Our next Christmas celebration was on Christmas day. We set out the girls' presents the night before all wrapped like gold, frankincense and myrrh, and went to bed excited to see their little faces the next morning. The girls woke up at their usual crack of dawn time, and came straight to our room like we asked them to do the night before. Tim got the camera set up and when he came in our room to tell us it was time for the girls to go and see what they got, he told us to look out the window. I immediately ran to the window and yelled, "NUH UH!!!!!" We had a White Christmas! We live in TN, so we rarely get snow. I have lived here my whole life and can only remember one other time when I woke up to snow on Christmas morning. It was so exciting!

This was actually Christmas Eve. This photo session was very dramatic. The tree fell over onto Lucy right after this was snapped. 'Nough said.

When the excitement wore off a little, we let the girls go and open their presents. They were so pleased with everything they got! I love the tradition we use for our girls gifts now. We started it last year and I think it's a wonderful way to point our kids to the real meaning of Christmas. (I posted about it after Christmas last year if you're interested).

Emmy loved her Leapster 2, new book, princess soap, colors for the bathtub, and purple towels!

Addy got a Veggie Tales Sweet Pea Beauty Castle, a Veggie Tales coloring book, Dora soap, colors for the bathtub, and pink towels. She was very pleased!

Still not feeling too hot, but she really seems to enjoy her new tea set! (I think it's adorable, too!) She also got a Praise Baby CD, the new Johnson's Honey Apple baby wash (smells yummy!), and a girly rubber duck.

After opening presents, we had our traditional Christmas breakfast. I always make my mom's breakfast casserole, fruit, and some kind of bread like cinnamon rolls, biscuits, or something like that. It was yummy! As usual, it brought me back to Christmas when I was a kid. I really miss those times, but I'm very thankful for the life the Lord has blessed me with and this little family He had given me!

Our next activity was supposed to be going to my dad and step mom's house about 30 minutes away and then my aunt's house that evening with my grandparents on my mom's side of the family. Since the roads were pretty bad we we decided that we didn't want to risk getting in a wreck. We ended up just staying home and letting the girls play in the snow. The big girls built a snowman outside with Daddy and had the best time! I took Lucy out for a few minutes for a photo session, but she pretty much hated it! Oh well. Maybe next year she'll like now. That is, if we get any snow next year. I hope we do! (We are actually supposed to get a "bunch" tonight!)

Emmy and Addy with their snowman that Daddy helped them build!

This was the best I could do. Hopefully, I can try again tomorrow! Woot!!!

The rest of the day involved a visit from my brother who lives a couple minutes away, a visit from my aunt because she just couldn't wait to give my girls their presents, playing with new toys, fixing a dinner of Hashbrown Hamburger Helper (Don't judge me. Emmy picked it out. Hey, it WAS Christmas! She kept talking about her "Delicious Christmas Dinner!" haha!) and just relaxing together as a family. It was so nice! Even though I hated that we didn't get to see much of our family like we usually do on Christmas, I love the fact that we got to relax in our pj's all day and just enjoy time together.

We resumed Christmas with my grandparents at their house the day after Christmas. My aunt had to work, but was sweet enough to bring over the dinner she had made that we were supposed to enjoy the night before. We opened presents, ate that yummy lunch, and just spent some time making memories with the girls, my sister, and my Mee-mee and Papa. It was very special, but for some reason I didn't manage to get ANY pictures! What is wrong with me?! I will always remember it, though :).

We had our last Christmas celebration the Monday evening after Christmas. It actually worked out really well because my other brother, his wife, and their son all had come into town. Right when we got there we pretty much started opening presents. We all got some really nice things-especially the girls. They are very blessed (ahem...and very spoiled...ahem..in a good way I think, if that's possible.) After opening presents, we ate a great meal that my step-mom prepared for us. It was all so good, as usual! The rest of the night was spent sitting around and talking, playing with my nephew, and just plain spending time together. Something funny that happened at one point was when I couldn't find the big girls or my step-mom, Vickie a.k.a. "Mickie". I finally found them back in the guest/play room on top of the bed under a blanket watching a movie-Princess and the Frog, I think. It was so cute and made me smile! I am thankful to have Mickie to love on my girls especially since they don't have my mom to do things like that with them. She loves my girls just like if I were her real daughter. I am so thankful for that!

All of these things that we did were so wonderful and I am so thankful for all of the family we got to spend Christmas with! The thing I am most thankful for and the reason that we do all of these things is because of Jesus, though. God, the creator of the Universe, came down from Heaven in human form, lived a sinless life, and died for us so that our sins could be covered by His precious blood and we could spend eternity with Him. I am so thankful that a sinful person like me has the assurance of salvation-the greatest Gift ever!