We had lots of great Christmas celebration this year! We stretched it out as long as we could! As a matter of fact, today on January 3rd, you could still have a Christmas celebration here! Things have moved a little slower this year because of the new little girls on the way, but more about that later.
We started our festivities with the Morton's. We enjoyed good food and gift swapping with the kiddos. The girls LOVE hanging out with their cousin Koti, they always have such a good time together. They were very hard to get a picture of this year- silly gooses!
Speaking of hard to get a picture of, Amelia has been exceptionally difficult this year. This further confirms her relationship to her Uncle Lee. Thanks for this, Lee.
Finally I got some grins after saying "pig panties". I think it was worth it.
On to the next celebration! These girls have never actually gotten to meet before because they are always passing through on Christmas Eve and we are usually not traveling down until Christmas Day. They had a ball together! They are all really close in age and had lots of fun decorating their lunch plates and dancing in their conga line together. It was a lot of fun, and good to catch up with their family!
Ricky sometimes chooses to do dishes instead of socializing, therefore we take pictures of him until he stops.
These three are the "prettiest babies on the mountain" according to my Mimi. She didn't make no ugly babies.
Next up was our family celebration with Barb, Dave, Katie, and Landon. We kept it simple this year. There has been a lot of sickness in the family lately with Paw Paw Carver in the hospital all of December, and Maw Maw in and out- a low key Christmas was definitely called for.
We had a fun time eating together and swapping gifts. I always love our Christmas time together, and you know the girls do!
Not too long until we find out what these two love birds are expecting in July!!! Clay and I are very excited to be Uncle and Aunt! I am really looking forward to how much fun our kids will have together. Barb and Dave will go from 2 grandchildren to 5 in the course of 3 months! I have a feeling next year's "low key Christmas" will be a lot more busy!
A little post-present piano time...
It is possible that Clay too has a hand in Amelia's photo antics.
Last, but not least our final festivities at Mom and Dad's when Landon and Paige came in to town! We were all so happy to see them and I don't think I have one single picture of Landon! How did this happen!?!? We also kept Christmas simple with a little hamburger and hot dog action and present swapping. We also handcrafted some exceptional gingerbread houses I will share in the next post. It is always loud with this group, I can't imagine what it will be like next year where we will also have 3 new babies present! Danny and Caryn will welcome their little one right around the time our new girls will arrive! Babies everywhere!
One very special thing we did after dinner was gathering around for the Christmas story. I remember we used to always read the story from the Bible at my Mimi and Grandad's house when I was little. We have always done a Christmas story advent calendar since I was a baby. We got together every night in December to recite the Christmas story together one little window at a time. It was really important to Mom that the girls have their own, so she looked and looked for it. She couldn't find one like it anywhere that she was happy with, so she made us one herself- and she did a wonderful job! Every night in December for the past few years we have gathered around to carry on the tradition. Clay and I were so proud of our Tybee sitting in front of the whole family to tell the story with NaNee. It is probably one of my favorite (and certainly the most important) of the Christmas traditions that we do!
I can't say enough how blessed we are to enjoy such a big wonderful family! We are all also a Savior was born, and we can share him and his love. Merry Christmas, everyone!
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