Living in the same town with all of our family does have it's advantages! Our Christmas get-togethers began Christmas Eve. We went to Church for the candlelight service. I always love this service. You see people you normally don't see on Sunday and it is great to see friends home for the holidays! The music is absolutely my favorite! I love being able to sing the songs without having to use the hymn all the time! I love hearing the Christmas Story. You can never hear it too many times!! I am so glad my children will have this tradition in their lives. They truly know we celebrate Christmas because it is the day of our dear Savior's birth.
After church, we go over to Jason's grandparent's house for dinner and to exchange gifts with them. We always have a great time but we seem so rushed because by this time it is 7:00!
Before we open gifts, granddaddy reads the Christmas Story from the bible and says a prayer. This is a very long time for the boys to sit still! You know the only thing that is on their mind is the gifts!! They finally get to open gifts. I don't know who is more excited the kids or Mama Sally and Gramps! This year we gave them a 6 picture collage of our family and a photo book I make for them every year. This year I used the Creative Memories software and uploaded them to CM Photo center to be printed and it turned out so good! And it was no easy!!
The boys favorite gift was the build your own Ultimate Star Wars Light Saber! They also got new tennis shoes, a shirt, and a truck and trailer!
Kate got a baby doll, stroller, a phone and pieces to her luggage! By now it was almost 9:00 and Kate was ready for bed, the boys were too but we still had to go home and get ready for Santa Claus to come.
We got on our matching pajamas and put out Santa's cookies.
Kate went right to the plate a took one of his cookies!!
Then we fed the reindeer and read "Twas the night before Christmas".
Then is is off to bed. Kate, Drew and Ben were out as soon as their heads hit the pillow but Will, I think he was a little nervous that Santa may not come. He said in the car on our way to church that "you know we haven't really been that good this year!" Of course I know this but I am glad he was a little worried Santa may not come because he wasn't a good boy all year! I just told him that he just might not get everything he ask for but that Santa would come see him. He finally fell asleep around 11:00. But then Ben and Kate both woke up crying and coughing. I took care of that and then we were ready for Santa. I think is was about 1:30 am when I heard Santa leave! 5:22am came very early! Will was up but I told him he had to go back to bed. An hour later he is back and we laid there a little longer. About 6:45, Drew comes in. I decided to get up. I went to get Ben and then Kate.
They all have to get in our bed while I go check to be sure Santa came and get all the Christmas lights turned on.
Finally, it is time to go, they are in a mad dash to get to the playroom to see what all they got! It looks like a terrible mess with toys for 4 children!
The boys got this lego table from Santa with the intentions Kate would not be able to get to the Legos, well the first thing she did was climb in the chair and then onto the table, Oh well, It was a good thought!
Here she is checking out some of her gifts with no idea what is going on!
Ever since Jason and I got married we got up on Christmas morning to go to his parents house to see what Santa brought Amy, she was 10. We would eat breakfast and open gifts with them. As she got older and the boys were born they started coming to our house. We exchange gifts with each other and then the boys get their stuff from Neemama and Papa Christmas night when we go to their house.
We also gave Mrs. Vickie one of those photo books and Will is real proud that the 1st page in it is about the 1st deer he killed last deer season. I do it in order of the year and that is the 1st picture moment that happened in January!
Around 11am we load up and go to my parents house for gifts and lunch. Jason's whole family joins us for lunch so we get to spend Christmas Day with both of our families.
Will got his John Madden NFL football PSP. That is all he wanted.
Drew waited very patiently for his gifts. He got a bag full of trucks and trailers. Just what he wanted.
Ben said he did not get anything he wanted but told Bibbie exactly what he got. She got him a load of blocks because Walker wanted some and he got sick of opening boxes of blocks. She felt bad so we went and got him 2 games, 1 for the Wii and 1 for his DS.
He was happy then because he would sit just like this and play video games or the computer all day if we let him. Jason told him tonight he was going to have to start going outside to play, that made him very mad!
After a delicious lunch it time to go home for a nap so we could eat again at
Jason's parent's house. I needed a nap really bad and got a little one before I felt I must get up and try to make sense of my house that looked like a tornado had just come through. The boys were so excited to get more gifts. My gosh they are so fortunate to have so many people that love them and give them things.
Will got this Alabama shirt because he LOVES Alabama football!! Thank God!!
Drew got another truck with a trailer. He loves to pull a trailer on a truck. I think he has every truck that has a trailer from every store that you can buy them and he may have some duplicates! you would think he would get tired of them.
Ben got some little animals to play with. He loves to play with little things like that. He got some Indiana Jones miniatures too! Kate got a baby doll with a bottle and a book about Santa Claus. Mrs. Vickie told Kate to feed the baby and she took the bottle and put it right in her mouth!! She is thinking I am the baby! That thing can't eat!! She also loves to look at books. Mrs. Vickie found this Santa book and thought if they read it all year then next year Kate won't be scared of him! I hope it works!! She did give the Santa in the book love so that is a great start!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Like I said, living in the same town with our family has it's advantages and that is that we don't have to load up and go from town town to celebrate Christmas and we all get to spend it together. The only time we leave is to spend Christmas with Mrs. Vickie's family. I think only having to travel once is great! Each year either the weekend before or after we travel to Pensacola to celebrate! Mrs. Vickie has 2 sisters and 1 brother so they have to plan for just the right time so we can all get together! We play Dirty Santa and it is usually very interesting!! We are heading there tomorrow so I'll try to post some pictures when we get back. It has taken me all day to do this post and I am tired! Maybe tomorrow won't be as much and I won't mind. We hope you have a wonderful New Year!!
The family has grown since we got married. Each year the place we go varies. Last year we went to Verna's house and Vanette's house in Santa Rosa Beach. All the family could not be there for one so we had 2! This year we went to Vickie's Aunt Pat's house! We had a lot of fun. It is just a long trip. We are on the road longer than we are there visiting everyone. 
When we got there everyone went staright to the back yard. Will and Ben went out into the yard to throw the football with Will D. 
This is Will with Major in 2005 I think.
This is Will and Drew with Major this Christmas. Will has grown but Major still looks the same...huge!!
