Christmas 2010

Since I never was able to finish adding pictures, I went ahead and decided to post this since Christmas was well over 2 months ago!!!



Okay, this blog will probably be much longer than I anticipate, but I want to capture every moment from this Christmas so that I can look back on it and remember every detail!!

We started our "4 Christmases" the weekend before Christmas by going to Tullahoma to celebrate Christmas with Dennis' dad and Barbara. We met Daren, Rachel and McHaney down there on Saturday and we all spent the day there. We had a wonderful dinner and opened presents and then we had to head back to Gallatin because we had to be at church on Sunday morning! Here are a few pics from the day. We hardly got any pictures because we were so busy talking, playing and laughing, but here are just a few!

Our next Christmas event came on Thursday night. My dad came by our house to get his Christmas gift and then we all went to Jeffrey and Rachel's for dinner and to open presents!! We had so much fun, as always! My dad cooked a delicious prime rib dinner and we had wonderful desserts as well.

Poppy with the kiddos after he opened his electric smoker.

Sawyer LOVED his train tracks from Poppy! It was definitely the hit of the evening!!!!

Sadie got some great Cabbage Patch angels and a Snoopy puzzle that she put together about 40 times!!!!

Rach, Dad and me!

Sadie rang the "dinner bell"!!!

All of the cousins playing with Sawyer's new racetrack!

Thank you daddy for all of the wonderful presents and memories!!!!

The next day was Christmas Eve. We got up and got ready and headed straight to Grammy and Captain's house. We opened presents right away because Grammy has never been one to want to wait on that. She's always WAY too excited!! The kids got so many fun things! The biggest surprise was for Sadie and McHaney. They both got new 4-wheelers!! Sawyer had already gotten one for his birthday, so Grammy had to get them for Sadie and Mc too! They were both so excited. We ate a wonderful lunch and let the kids play until Sawyer was about to fall over.

Grammy and Captain coming down the stairs with more presents, just as they do every year!!!

The kids having a ball riding their 4-wheelers together for the first time. No more sharing!!!

The girls were sent to the garage to get their "big surprise"!

This was shortly after we gave Grammy and Captain our picture of the kids. This picture says a thousand words. Grammy was touched. She sure loves her grandbabies!!!!

Deda played princesses and horses with the girls. He was cracking me up!! I thought it was so sweet!!! He was really getting into it.

We came home and let the kids take a nap while Dennis and I cleaned and got things ready to prepare for Christmas later that night. When they got up, we went over to my Grandma's house with Rachel, Jeffrey and the kids to visit with her for a while. She's such a precious, precious lady. I love her dearly. Before we left, we hugged her and she said "I love you. I know I don't tell you that very much, but I mean it". Broke my heart. Dennis said she was crying as we were leaving. God bless her soul.

Afterwards we headed over to my mom's house to have Christmas with her! We ate a delicious dinner and then opened lots and lots of presents!!

When we got home that night, we got things ready for Santa to come! We let the kids put out "reindeer food" (new concept for me!) outside on the front lawn. It was oats with glitter in it and it was meant for the moon to glisten on the glitter and attract the reindeer. Hilarious!!! Then, we got Santa's cookies, milk, and cheerios for Rudolph. (We saw Santa at Chick fil A one night and he informed us that Rudolph's favorite cereal was Cheerios. Who knew, right??) The magic was beginning.
The kids took their baths and got ready for bed and we read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" in Sadie's bed. Then, after much convincing that Santa was not going to come until they were asleep, Sadie finally fell asleep.

That's when the real work began! Dennis and I spent hours putting toys together, cleaning, laughing, playing and of course eating freshly baked Monkey Bread!! YUM!!!! It was also snowing like crazy outside when we were getting ready to go to bed. Dennis even went outside and found some real live Rudolph tracks right outside our back door!!!!!!

We finally went to sleep and we woke up on Christmas morning much earlier than the kiddos. We were so excited! We woke up to a White Christmas too!! The first recorded in 17 years!!

When the kids finally got up, they were so excited! They came into the den to see that indeed, Santa had come!! They played, opened presents and had the best time. After the initial excitement and after Dennis and I opened our presents from each other, we started cooking our Christmas Day breakfast. Mornin' Glory Oven French Toast with egg nog syrup, eggs and bacon. I can still taste it!!

Most all of our parents came by to see the kids and what all Santa brought them.

We hung out all day long and let the kids play and rest. Sawyer barely made it to naptime. He was so exhausted.

Dennis cooked a Boston Butt in his new electric smoker and we were supposed to have it for dinner, but it was a bad piece of meat, so we were left with nothing for dinner!!! What a bummer! He ran out and got himself some Subway but I ended up having Cheerios for dinner. Oh well. :)

We busted out the Kinect that I had gotten Dennis for Christmas and we played forever! LOTS of fun!!! I can see many family memories coming from that electronic device!!!

What a perfect Christmas!!!!!

The day after Christmas we had gotten more snow, so hunkered down and decided to stay in and take down all of the decorations. The kids were busy playing all day, so we thought it'd be a good time to do it.

That afternoon, we all went to Grandma and Grandad's for Christmas with them. It was a lot of fun. Sadie was kind of ill the whole time because for the first time that day, we didn't make her lay down and take a nap. Well, that's the last time I will try that! She proved to me that she still needs that rest time!!! But, all of the cousins had a blast playing together for the most part. It was a good ending to the Christmas holiday!!!!