Merry Christmas from the Family

This year we stayed in Texas for Christmas. Our first family Christmas started on Saturday, Dec 21 at Carol's house. It was great to see all of dad's side of the family and Tucker loves hanging out with Marlowe and Erika. Somehow, I didn't get any pictures of us being at Carol's house, but it was nice to be there.

Our second Chrismas celebration was on Tuesday, Dec. 23. My aunt and uncle have a steak house that is closed on Tuesdays, so we had our celebration there. We have about 30 people on mom's side of the family and about half of that are the great-grandkids, so it is nice to be in a place that we can all stretch out...The open bar was nice too! John ended up being the bartender most of the night and he seemed to like that little gig! I don't know if Harold and Sandra will keep up the tradition of letting us have the run of the steakhouse, but it was certainly good while it lasted! We tried to get a picture on the stairs of Grandmama and all of her great-grandkids. I think that we have them all except for Eleanor, but photoshop can solve that problem. :0)

We had a traditional turkey and dressing meal along with our tamales that we made the night before. Yummy!

Our third Christmas celebration was smaller with only Dad, mom, Tucker, Grandmama, John and me on Christmas eve. Dad cooked a beef tenderloin. While dad was cooking Tucker designated him as the "Fry Cook". It was another fabulous meal and I am pretty sure that I am packing on the pounds at this point. Tucker finally got to open his presents from Peaches and Papaw (He had been begging to open presents since we arrived on Saturday!) He received lots of clothes, Spongebob legos, and Star Wars for the Wii with light sabers. We had to immediately set up the light sabers and playing the Dueling Light Saber game. Very fun!

Since it was Christmas Eve, it was time to say goodbye to Peaches and Papaw so that we could get home and get ready for Santa to arrive and give my parents a break.

Once we got home, we opened our own presents to each other and then we got ready for bed so that Santa would come and see us.

One Christmas day, Tucker came into my room upset that Santa hadn't come. (I think that his little heart must have skipped a beat.) He thought that Santa would leave his presents under the Christmas tree. However, I explained that Santa usually leaves his presents by the fireplace (which is in a different room in our house), so Tucker hurried down to check out the family room. His little eyes just lit up as he took it all in. I think that he was also a bit relieved that Santa actually did bring gifts this year! It was so much fun watching him flitter from one gift to the next and hearing him ooh and ahh over his new toys. I thought that it was funny to see him playing his Guitar Hero instruments in his underware like on the commercials, so I had to get a picture of that. :0)

I really don't think he knew where to start first! Merry Christmas Little man! Oh, and then he remembered that the Toothfairy was also suppose to visit, so he then had to check out his Toothfairy pillow. So much to do!

Our last family Christmas celebration ended at my brother's house with his family, my family, and mom & dad. We had a nice lunch and Tucker was able to play with Eleanor and Nick for the afternoon. Whew!

We then took mom with us so that she and I could get up the next day and the after Christmas sales. (Our family in Canada calls it "Boxing day.") Friends and family think that we are crazy, but we have a lot of fun seeing what bargains we can get. I think that we have been shopping the day after Christmas for about 15 years now! We were out the door by 5:00AM on Friday morning heading to the mall. We ended up not needing anything, but getting more Christmas decor and wrapping paper to use for next year. My stuff went directly from my trunk to the attic.

Well, our marathon celebrations are now over! Now it is time to get ready for the New Year.

So Merry Christmas to you and hope you are having a fabulous New Year!