November and December News

It's been a long while since I have posted anything. And this is certainly not due to us not doing anything or having anything to talk about. I have been busy with preparations for holidays, birthdays, and everyday occurrences. So here is a quick review of our happenings.

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving twice at our house this year. We celebrated with both families. The first celebration was on Thanksgiving with my family. My sister's family was on their way back from St. Louis and dropped by while, my brother's family and parents drove in from Chattanooga. We has a lot of fun visiting with each other and of course eating a lot. Our second celebration was the following Saturday with Matt's family. We had hoped that whole family would be able to join us but between car trouble and a wedding not everyone could come. But those who were able to make it had a great time visiting and eating more delicious food than we could consume. I was so thankful that everyone who was able to join us could and hope that next year we can have everyone here to celebrate with us.

Lost Teeth

Abby lost both of her top front teeth right before Christmas. She actually lost them within a week of each other. I knew they were really close and that she would lose them before Christmas. I had even started teasing her that she would be able to sing All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth. She sang it beautifully too!





Christmas Part I and Elizabeth's 4th Birthday

Because of the various travel and work schedules of our respective families we decided that it would be best to celebrate Christmas with my family the weekend before Christmas. This allowed us to spend the weekend with all the cousins, aunts and uncles. We all had a wonderful time visiting, making the annual birthday train, opening presents and of course eating.

We also celebrated Elizabeth's 4th birthday while we were in Chattanooga. She had a great day surrounded by family and being the center of attention. We did our traditional celebrations of decorating the kitchen, having birthday pancakes, opening presents, birthday cake and singing Happy Birthday. It was a wonderful day and all the kids had fun spending time with each other.



Christmas Part II
We decided to celebrate Christmas at home this year so that the kids could wake up in their own beds on Christmas morning. It also allowed us to be able to start some of our own traditions as well. We had a fantastic Christmas Eve and Morning. We made cookies for Santa, tried to put together a Gingerbread house, Gabriel, Abby and I read the Christmas Story from the bible, then I read The Crippled Lamb, one of my favorite stories, opened one present, left reindeer food outside so that Santa could find us, left carrots, milk and cookies for Santa and his reindeer, and then headed off to bed. After the kids were in bed Matt and I finished up some last minute wrapping and then headed off to bed ourselves. Christmas morning was spent going through stockings, opening presents, and having a leisurely breakfast together. Once everyone agreed we packed ourselves into the car and headed to Knoxville for our third Christmas.

Christmas Part III

Once the kids were ready to leave some of their presents behind, we packed up the car and headed to Knoxville to celebrate with Matt's family. We had an awesome time visiting with the family, playing with cousins, opening presents, playing in the snow and of course eating.


I hope that your Christmas was full of the wonder of the season and that you have a New Year better and more hopeful than the last. God Bless!