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!

O Christmas Tree...

Finally some pictures of our Christmas tree...I have been meaning to post them since the second post where TJ was putting it up.  I have just been too busy.  I love our house at Christmas.  It's one of the only times of the year where I feel it looks complete.  I think my living room was made to have a tree in it.  ha!  I do...it fits perfectly and is so beautiful.  Every year when I take it down it appears as something is missing.  I hope one day when TJ and I build a house in the country we can have trees everywhere...a tree lined driveway and a yard full of pecan trees!  For now I will settle for a fraser fir in the living room...oh and the only tree on our street practically, our maple in the front yard. 

Here is a family picture in front of the tree.  Ally wouldn't cooperate...she would look at the camera and turn her head right before it snapped.  ha! 

Bunko Queens!

Last year I joined a bunko group and it has been so fun!  I will admit we rarly play bunko but I really enjoy getting together with these girls.  They have been in this bunko group for many years and some have come and gone but it's a nice way to keep up with good friends.  We meet once a month and usually play bunko or go to dinner.  Last week we had our Christmas party.  There was so much food...everyone brought something yummy and we played dirty santa.  Dirty santa is so funny!  Everyone had a great time. 
Merry Christmas Bunko Queens!!

Shopping with Friends

I had the most wonderful day of shopping yesterday with my favorite friends!  Alison and I went to Birmingham to see Laura and Whitney for some holiday shopping and lunch at Tavern on the Summit.  It was a cold rainy winter day but it didn't matter.  We found some great unique christmas gifts and spent most of the day catchin' up.  Laura told us some exciting news...but I can't tell just yet!!!!  I love getting together with these girls.  We all lived together in Auburn during our sophmore year.  It was a very fun house and something was always going on.  With all of our personalities it was amazing we made it through but we did and came out truly great friends.  I know these girls will be around until I'm old and gray!  Knowing us we'll still be taking trips and having great annual get togethers.  We've been to Nashville, Atlanta, Many Beaches, and I can't wait to see what's next!

Amazing day for On-line Shopping!

I am so excited!!!  I have had such good luck with Shopping on-line today.  There are some quirky little things that I love about the holidays and as a newly married girl I have been on the look out for Christmas stockings that suit TJ and I just perfeclty and let me tell you it has been a task!  I remember my stocking as a little girl and it was so perfect for me.  It was a little blonde headed girl sleeping and dreaming of sugar plums and cute little Christmas stuff.  Well there were some stockings that I found for TJ and I but they were like $135 each or some others that were $48 each...both very expensive and I feel a little too much for something that will hang in our house one month out of each year!  Pottery Barn Kids however came through!!  They have reindeer stockings that are precious and today when I went on-line they were on-sale frome $19.00 each to a wonderful price of $9.99 each!  Needless to day I bought the whole collection...you know we have to have some for our hypothetical children and Ally!!!  Here they are!!!

As well as Stockings I love Christmas China!!!  I love to entertain and can't wait for the day that Christmas morning all of our family will be at our house...Me, TJ, all of our kiddy's, his parents, my parents...just a house full!  When we got married instead of regular China I registered for Christmas China.  I got some but the month or so after the wedding my pattern was not only discontinued the manufacturer was going out of business.  My pattern is Yuletide by Gail Pittman.  Anyway I joined the email list and have found out recently that the outlet store in Destin has announced they are closing their doors.  I called and they were out of what I needed but referred me to the only remaining outlet store in Mississippi.  They had what I needed, gave me 20% off to complete my collection and also shipped it to me for FREE!!!  Saved me over $200 and now I have a set of 14!!!  I am super excited. 

Christmas is such a fun time of year and even though these little material possessions are not what Christmas is all about they give me the warm and fuzzies!!  I have also been spending time today shopping for the family that we are providing Christmas for in our LifeGroup at Church.  Let me tell you shopping for a 7 year old is tough!  I have to get a toy chest (not cheap by the way) and a book and some shoes.  I can't wait to hear how much he enjoys it.  I know it will make a huge difference for this family to have Christmas provide for the kids.  There are twins that are 5 and a little boy that is 7.  What a merry Christmas this is turning out to be!