Friday, December 26, 2008

Merry Christmas!































We had a wonderful Christmas this year. What a blessing to be able to share the holidays with family and friends! We are so thankful for a happy and healthy family, and feel that we have many, many blessings to celebrate. These are some pictures of Christmas morning. Quinn got just about everything on her list: a lion cub, a baby alive (or "real live baby" as she calls it), a fur real parrot, pajamas, Hello Kitty goodies, a beautiful musical sugar plum fairy doll, a swim with me puppy, a vet set (to take care of all of her animals, of course!), clothes, shoes, etc. Brad and I were pleasantly surprised that she was truly thankful for all of her gifts, and said, "THANK you Mama and Daddy!" or "Thank you Santa!" after opening each one. We spend a lot of time and energy trying to teach her to be thankful for all of her gifts and blessings, so we were proud that it seems to be working. This is a hard lesson to teach a three year-old, but we will keep it up because we believe gratitude is one of the MOST important character traits. Tyndale got some pacifiers, loveys, and toys. He even stayed awake for our delicious Christmas dinner and gift-giving at Gimmie and Big Daddy's house. Their house looked beautiful and he enjoyed the sights and sounds as much as we did!





















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Christmas Eve







Here are some pictures of our Christmas Eve festivities. We had a wonderful meal at the Simms' house, and lots of fun Christmas activites. The kids made cookies for Santa, and reindeer food to sprinkle on the lawn.

Tyndale enjoyed watching football with the boys!

Eve of the Eve
















I normally just post about kid activities, but we had the Eve of the Eve party at our house this year, and the pictures were so funny I HAD to post them! We had a tacky Christmas sweater contest this year...and as you can see, we found some really bad ones! I think Michael was the unofficial winner (it is hard to beat a women's vest over an ornament turtleneck!) but the competition was stiff: Holly's Christmas dress with the Martha Washington collar... Dorothy was in stirrup pants!! Fun, fun! Brad cooked some delicious gumbo, and we all had a rare night out sans children!

Simms visit











We had a great time getting ready for Christmas with the Simms! We went on a Christmas light tour, ate at Dairy Queen, and played on the playground. What more can we ask for? We always have fun visiting with our cousins!