Christmas, Christmas and More Christmas

Our Christmas was great! It was such a blessing being able to spend time with family. Like many of you, we've had so much going on this holiday season.

We were able to attend two beautiful Christmas Eve services at our church. Jae's class performed (sang) in both services. It was real cute. Jae's not like her Momma in any way when it comes to getting in front of a crowd. Meaning, she likes it....I don't.

The girls opened up one gift on Christmas Eve. I get them pj's each year. I'm not sure why I even bother to wrap these two gifts as the girls already know what the gift is before they even open it. Maybe next year, I'll just lay them out under the tree unwrapped on Christmas Eve. It's getting harder and harder to buy a pair of cool pj's for a teenager, ya know? Picking out Jae's pj's is a piece of cake, though. She still thinks I'm a cool Mom no matter what they look like. lol!

Our Christmas morning started about 7am. The girls were so excited. They got one big gift each and a few small gifts. It seems like they were both happy with their gifts.

We were able to stay home until almost noon before heading out to Dirk's Dad's house. It's about an hour away from our home. We had a fabulous lunch and later opened up gifts from each other there. As usual, we had a lot of fun just sitting and enjoying each other's company.

Then on Saturday (yesterday), we had Christmas at our house with my family. If you read my last post, I had mentioned that I would be inviting my Dad this year. Well, I did invite him, but he was not able to make it. As I was sharing with another friend today, I feel that my Dad carries a lot of guilt and shame for not being around when we were younger. He knows that we have all forgiven him, but it's just something that he's still having to deal with after all these years. It's a long story that maybe I'll share one day. Anyhow, we had a wonderful time together.

Friends, I must admit that, although Christmas was truly wonderful...I am glad to see it come to an end. I was also sharing with a friend today that it seems like I've been in a bad mood the entire month of December. It's totally not my character. I have felt totally unorganized the entire month. This is one area of my life (personality) that I wish I could change. In fact, my prayer during service today was that for 2009 that I would not be so bound to a to-do list and a schedule ALL THE TIME. It's good to have both as long as they are under your control and not controlling you. Not sure if this makes sense to you. lol! Simply stating that I just need to relax more with these two things this next year.

I hope that you all had a safe and joyous Christmas. I am REALLY looking forward to reading your blogs to see what you've been up to.

And you know that I can't end mine without showing you a few pictures of the Christmases that we had. Several of you e-mailed me to ask how Gucci was fitting into our Christmas. He fit in just fine. In fact, he was included in everything we did. Our family members were very happy and excited to meet him. You'll definitely see him in the pictures I'm posting. Sorry....there are a lot of pictures, but keep in mind that we celebrated Christmas a total of four different times. One in the previous post and three more below. So, without further ado...

The girls and I sporting our new Christmas pj's. Since I buy the girls pj's each year, Dirk has started a traditional of his own in making sure that I get a pair too. He's so sweet, huh?




Here's Gucci sporting his pj's. lol!
Isnt' he soooooooooooooooooooooooo cute!?!?!?!
Morgan and Jae are reading their Christmas letter from Santa. No, Morgan does not still believe in Santa, but she plays along with it very well for Jae. Santa Dirk takes a lot of time preparing a Christmas letter each year for the girls to read on Christmas morning. The girls have a good time reading it and at the end of the letter, Santa Dirk always reminds them what the true meaning of Christmas is all about. It's really sweet.


Can you tell that I am happy to receive this gift? I look a bit retarded, but oh well! lol!

Jae and Gucci are watching Morgan open her next gift.
Morgan is smiling proudly as she's examining her new phone.
The next set of pictures are taken at my in-laws' house. Sitting on the couch is Dirk's brother, James, and his wife, Shannon.





This is Dirk's dad and his wonderful step-mom, Karen.




Dirk's brother, James, his wife, Shannon and their two girls, Patricia and Katrina.

Okay and finally....the last set of pictures are at our house yesterday ending our Christmas holiday.

This is my sister, Vickie and her husband, Bill and their youngest daughter, Madison.


We had a VERY CASUAL setting yesterday. The adults ate in the living room and the kiddos ate at the table. So, you will see our plates and cups sitting around in some of the pictures.

My sister and her precious family.

God is good! We are truly a blessed family and there's not a day that goes by that we're not reminded of it in some way.

I enjoyed sharing a little bit (okay...maybe a whole lot) of our Christmas holiday with you all.

Now off I go to see what you all have been up to.