Christmas 2011

We had a very, very good Christmas. We are so thankful for the holiday season as a reminder to spend time with family and friends, show others how much you care, and to remember to recognize the birth of Jesus and His impact on the world. We had several different Christmas celebrations and are so thankful that our families are able to work to find different times to celebrate together.

The weekend before Christmas we celebrated with Matt's side of the family. We enjoyed the time away in College Station and loved cooking and spending time together. Matt's sister and brother-in-law gave us a very good present in that they are expecting their own little wee one in August. We are very excited for them and cannot wait to see our little niece or nephew. In the mean time, we hope the little one continues to grow and that the parents-to-be are enjoying this special time together. After all, they are parents with a very low maintainance and transportable baby!

Christmas Eve we went to our Church's candlelight service. We enjoyed the special time with our Church family and were particularily thankful for the quiet time singing and listening to a good message. After we went to my Mom's house to celebrate with her family and enjoyed getting to visit with my grandmother, great Aunt, and my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins. Auntie J was there of course and we all had a good time eating and conversing.

Christmas morning we had to wake the girls up (third year in a row for MacKenzie) in order to have our special breakfast and presents. We had waffles, fruit, and sausage and relaxed through breakfast. After, Keegan was too tired to stay awake so she fell asleep and we got to spend time with MacKenzie. MacKenzie wanted to read books and snuggle with Daddy more than open presents so we were glad to let her do so. It took us several hours to open three presents and a stocking for her and we were more than happy to oblige the special time with her. Hopefully we can keep focusing on that family time. Keegan ended up sleeping through the afternoon so she got to open her presents the next day.

Christmas afternoon was spent at my Dad's house with our family there. We enjoyed a tasty feast with lots of snacks and traditional food and opened presents while visiting there too. All in all, a good time was had by all and we enjoyed sharing our blessings with others.

We are so grateful for all of our gifts and hope that we can remember our blessings throughout the year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!