Tis the Season...

Christmas was great at our house and I hope it was wonderful at your house too! It was pretty crazy because we were missing some family and it just didn't feel the same. We have a very small family on my mom's side. My mom has one brother, Mike, and he is always a part of our Christmas festivities. On Tuesday the 22nd, we got a call that my uncle had a heart attack and was in surgery in Dallas. It sent us all for a loop and mom, my nana and papa headed straight for Dallas.

Unfortunately, he spent Christmas in ICU but I am happy to report that he is at home now and recovering! We spent the last 2 days in Dallas celebrating Christmas with him and we are so glad to see him moving around and feeling better. Praise the Lord he was in Dallas, near his doctors, and got help so quickly!

As for the rest of Christmas...we had a wonderful church service on Christmas Eve and I have to tell you...it was SO darling to see all of the little ones in their fluffy dresses and patten leather shoes! The little boys had on their sweater vests and I could just eat them up! I love the Christmas service for many reasons, but one of the main reasons is because the families bring their children into the service instead of child care and hearing them ask questions and sing along is just precious to me.

After church we headed to my parent's house and had dinner and enjoyed some time together. Then we opened the gifts we had gotten each other. 2 of my favorite gifts I gave this year were the photo book I gave my mom, sister and Coleen for our 3-Day walk, and the video my brother, sister and I gave my dad. We got pictures from his mom of him as a child, and we looked through every single photo of his life that my mom had and we made a video for him of his photos set to music. He LOVED it!! My grandad passed away 10 years ago and I think he loved seeing all of the photos of him and his dad together. It was pretty fun to give that to him!

The funniest part of the night was my brother coming downstairs with his huge backpack filled to the brim. We wondered why he had it, but we soon learned it's purpose. As each person opened their gifts from my brother we realized he didn't have boxes for anything he bought, so he just wrapped random things from his room. My nana unwrapped his personalized/autographed baseball from Nolan Ryan only to have it snagged out of her hand and a wrinkled shirt to be pulled from his backpack. We had to laugh each time as golf shirts, running shorts and wine glasses appeared from his magical backpack. He never ceases to amaze us!!

On Christmas day we headed Southbound 35 to spend Christmas day with my in-laws. It was so fun, and Dave finally got his Turkey!! My MIL made a wonderful lunch right up Dave's alley, so he was a happy camper. We opened our presents and it was pretty uneventful this year because the presents were actually labeled!! Only one person opened a gift that didn't belong to them! ha! We spent the evening playing Yahtzee and decided we need to take my MIL to Vegas because she rolled FIVE Yahtzees!!! In only 3 games! She is an impressive individual.

In all, it was so wonderful and I can't believe it is over!! As I told you guys yesterday, I got a camera from Dave and I am so happy!! Several of you asked what kind I got, and it is a Nikon D5000. If any of you have any tips or tricks send them my way!! Here are like 2 pictures from Christmas at my in-laws. I didn't take any pictures this year because I was so busy charging my new camera! I'll have to get pics from my family and post later. XOXO

"It looks like you STOLE your gifts!" ~ My sister to my brother as he was pulling gifts out of his backpack