Christmas 2010, in part

Happy New Year! I cannot believe how quickly this year went. More than anything this year, I have been blessed my God's goodness, amazing friendships, and such a joyous family. Now that my youngest is almost 4, I realize that time is so short. I want to tell everyone who becomes a mom for the first time that it goes by so fast and not to wish away even one sleepless night. Then I remember how annoying it was when other people said that to me, so I keep it quiet! I am still hoping Rick decides he wants one more, but it looks like only a divine intervention will let us have another one! (:

Christmas was an amazing whirlwind. The time between Thanksgiving and New Year's flew by! Because we were traveling to Germantown for Christmas, we had Santa come early to our house. I will post those pics/video soon. It was good to have our small family time together. Once we got to Tennessee, we hot the ground running...literally.

We had a Jingle Bell Run the morning of Christmas Eve for all family members interested in running a 3 mile route together. Lisa made us cute matching bandannas. Being the first year, we only had 7 people participate( out of about 30-35). Hopefully next year we will have more and add a Walker Group as well.


Then everyone, runner or not, met at my Aunt Dottie's house for breakfast and to decorate Christmas cookies. The kids love this.


They also got some good cousin bonding!

Once that was over, we had a few hours to rest up and get ready to have the whole family - aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, kids, etc. over to my parents' house. We always dress up, have a fancy dinner, and then we sit around and sing Christmas carols and have those that are actually talented sing solos. It is one amazing emotional, laughter filled night!


Abbie ate up the attention from her 2 pregnant aunts!

The next morning was Christmas!

We had the grandkids line up and walk down the stairs one at a time to their stockings.


We skipped my grandmother's this year, which was a bit sad, but it left time for us to spend as a smaller family. I never thought I would call a group of 15 smaller family! That night, we had everyone over again for soup and leftovers.

The week at my parents' house was well worth the 2 day drive there and 2 day drive back. Seeing my kids enjoy the family I grew up with and their cousins is such a blessing.