Surviving Christmas.......

Well, we did it!! We survived Christmas, the last Christmas without Avery. I know I said that last year but surely, surely this is truly the last one. I will not lie and say it was easy, because it wasn't. We really had to make ourselves enjoy the season and the time with family and friends. There were a few tears shed but for the most part we kept on our happy faces and acted as if all was well in the world. Now all we can say is BRING ON 2007!!!!!

We are very fortunate that most of our family lives close by so we were able to make every family gathering and visit with everyone. Not to mention the food. THE FOOD!!!! I think we just practiced gluttony 4 days in a row. Christmas Day alone we went to 3 separate meals with unreal amounts of food. Needless to say the diet starts Jan 1st!!

Now on to the pictures:

The holiday celebrations started on Friday:

I got to have lunch with 4 of my best friends!! We had one MIA (missed you Jamie). We went to a tea room (fancy, smancy) and hijacked a table for almost 3 hours. We has such a wonderful time and even 3 hours wasn't enough. We could have stayed all day!!

Me, Christie, Kelley, Erin, and Valerie


Later that evening we had the holiday celebration of my paternal grandmother. There were over 40 people there and we held the party at the church gym. That way there was plenty of room for everyone!! Grandma is 93 and she had 10 of her 20 great grandchildren there. It was great to see everyone.

Our little branch of the family tree:

Dad, Mom, Chris, Danette, Kelby, Kolin, me, and Paul pose with Grandma.

Since we were able to use the church gym for our gathering the kids had plenty of room to play. They started the evening playing basketball but soon that turned into dodge ball. Some of the adults even got in on the action

One of the dodgeball pics. I am not sure if it comes through clearly but the in the background you may can see that one of my cousins was using another 4 year old cousin as a shield (look for the little body in a white shirt). Don't worry no one was injured during the game.

Christmas Eve we celebrate with my family. My mom always cooks a big meal and then as soon as everyone is done eating we move on to presents. The boys always eat at the speed of lightning and the encourage all the adults to do the same. It is usually a free-for-all opening presents. A couple of pics from the night:

The boys usually play Santa and pass out all the gifts. Sometimes they do get in a hurry and mistakes are made:

Dad mistakenly opened a set of pj's meant for my aunt. Sorry dad purple is just not your color. The sad thing is mom had to rewrap them so she could give to the original recipient the next day.

Especially for all my city friends:

How many of YOUR christmas celebrations included the unwrapping of a life size deer meant for target practice?? Kelby was so excited about this gift.

No family gathering is complete without a little wrestling match:

Kolin proves that sometimes the little brother is not always the underdog.

Christmas Day we woke early and went to Chris and Danette's so we could watch the boys open their gifts from their parents and Santa

"Can we come down yet?"

Kelby and Kolin were banned from coming downstairs until the grandparents arrived, that did not stop them from keeping a good look-out.


Where, oh where, to begin?????


After eating a huge breakfast there we came home, picked up Rowdy, and headed to next round of celebrating. We went to my aunt Kathy's for Christmas lunch and exchanged gifts over there. Our visit was a little short but we made the most of our time.

Early afternoon we headed to Paul's parents for the final family gathering of the day and even more food.

Rowdy was a star in his Christmas sweater!!


Sandra and Clifford getting cozy by the tree.


Grammy and Daddy Sonny show off the loot they received. Bet you can't guess they love to watch movies, huh?


Believe it or not we still have one more gathering this weekend. We will be going back to Oklahoma to see Sandra's family and should have a great time.

Hope your Christmas was wonderful!!!!

And as I said before: BRING ON 2007!!!!!