What a wonderful Christmas...

I hope you all had as blessed a Christmas as I did!  I enjoyed my family so much this year...I know that sounds crazy but you know how stressful it can be around the holidays when you are around all of your family and I mean ALL of your family so much in a two day span.  ha ha!  Well I really loved it this year.  Christmas Eve we started with my Dad's side of the family down in the Country.  It's my favorite tradition at Christmas.  We go down for an early lunch and it's just so beautiful there.  Its the one time of year it's not filled with all Dad's hunting buddies, whom I love very much and really enjoy hanging out with, but sometimes it's nice to enjoy the place with family.  Its such an amazing place.  It belonged to my Granddad's Father and has everything a winter Alabama Christmas day should have...old fireplace, creeky floors that are real hardwood, old furniture, mismatch dishes and glasses, surrounded by pecan trees, no neighbors, and so many generations of history.  After our lunch we headed back to town and went to our candlelight service at Church with TJ's parents and Grandmother who came in from Jasper.  It was so great to see her.  We sang good ole fashioned Christmas songs and at the end took communion and all sang by candlelight.  It was beautiful.  It helps put into perspective our real reason for celebration...Our Christ Jesus!  How thankful I am for his grace and mercy.  After that we headed to TJ's parents house in Bellehurst.  Another beautiful neighborhood to drive through during the Holidays...lots of fun decoration and my favorite part is you see so many cars in everyones driveways.  It's like all the older people live there so the familys come to them and it's just so cool to me...you know everyone is sitting around doing the same thing you are with people they love!  After we left TJ's parents house we had one more stop...my Mom and Jeff's.  We didn't even get there until about 9pm.  We had to go home and get Ally so she could come with us and so we put on our pajamas.  It was great to get comfortable.  When we got to my Mom's Ally got the biggest present of all...a radio flyer wagon!  She is still scared of it but I am sure she'll be riding in it before we know it.  ha ha!  We finally made it home...Christmas morning we woke up and TJ and I had our Christmas just the two of us and then headed to Karen's parents house for Christmas with Mom's side of the family.  Kay and Karen have 6 kids between them so the fun has passed form Kay, Karen , and Myself to all their kids.  It's wonderful seeing the excitment on their faces and getting to watch them celebrate Christmas together.  We had an amazing brunch and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and TJ and I came home.  We played with our new Blue Ray Player, watched 3 movies and were couch potatoes ALL day!  Thank you Jesus for all your blessings!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and get 2010 off to a great start!