Christmas & New Years Eve Moments

I know we're into 2009, but I wanted to share some photos from our holiday celebrations with you.

Christmas Eve is always a busy day for our family. It involves "making the rounds" as we call it. We stop in for a short visit with two of Jason's aunts. We then head over to my Aunt Jo and Uncle Wayne's house for an early evening dinner.

For as long as I can remember, Aunt Jo's sewing room has been the kids' and teenagers' hangout complete with it's own table, couch, toys, books and TV. What else do you need?

Here's Colt and his gifrlfriend, Amber, sitting in the sewing room on Christmas Eve.



Joy was busy with the youngest member of our extended family....Jackson. He's a smart little guy, full of energy and curiosity, like most are at two years old. He and Joy became instant pals.





Jackson really loved that snowglobe! Can you tell? Do you have any idea how hard it is for a two year old to NOT touch something so pretty?



I'm telling you she fell in love with this little guy....and I think he loved her just as much!





After Christmas dinner over there, we came home to enjoy the rest of the evening. I spent most of the evening in the kitchen preparing for Christmas Day dinner at our house. The rest of my crew (and my father-in-law) were watching White Christmas in the living room. We also exchanged presents with Jason's dad on Christmas Eve. The kids always look forward to opening his gifts, along with one more that we let them open on Christmas Eve. This year they chose to open the gifts they got from each other. Colt got a Chuck Norris calendar from Joy, which he loved. Colt gave Joy the Jonas Brothers' new CD, which she loved!

Of course, cookies and milk were left for Santa and carrots for the reindeer! (Those reindeer sure were messy this year...they left bits and pieces of carrots all over the sidewalk)!



Here are the kids on Christmas morning. They just finished checking their stockings!



Colt is acting surprised over his new cell phone. I don't think he missed a single day in December asking for it(he was hoping for it early, but I stood firm). :)



And here's Joy beside the desk Santa brought (Dad had to help Santa paint it after Christmas)! :) (I'll share more pictures later of the completed desk).



My mom and dad came over Christmas morning for the gift opening. They always do when they're not in Alabama for Christmas. After all the paper, boxes, and goodies were picked up, we got ready for the mid afternoon dinner at our house. My Aunt Jo, Uncle Wayne, and my cousins came over for dinner (prepared by my mom and me). This is a traditional Christmas Day for us. Dinner was also traditional: Ham, baked beans, hashbrown casserole, corn salad, fruit salad, rolls.....and for dessert...lemon pie, pecan pie and buttermilk pie.

Joy had another fun afternoon with Jackson! I'm telling you she fell in love with this little guy!

We were truly blessed with a wonderful Christmas!

New Years Eve is totally the opposite for us. No running, rushing, or anything is involved with this day. We're usually stocked up on snacks, movies and games. It is very low key...spent here at home eating, watching movies, and playing games. I really don't like being out on the roads on this night. This year Colt was invited to a New Years Eve party, so he wasn't home with us...sigh! That's part of his growing up, but I missed him!

After tacos for dinner, here's what we did. Anyone remember this?



I lucked out. I got to be the official spinner. Jason and Joy got to be all twisted up!





Matty, (one of our cats), was very interested in watching them! I think she thought they were acting a little strange!



Anyone want to guess who won that game? A little hint...it wasn't the 48 year old!

The next game was definitely more my speed! I actually love this game! It's called Word Trio.



Depending on what color you land on, you either draw, explain, or act out whatever word the card says. There are two levels....easy and difficult.

Uh-huh! You see that yellow one? That's mine! Yep, I won.....well the first game anyway! Joy demanded a rematch and won the second go around! (Poor Jason didn't win any games.....he did get a kiss and told he's still a winner in our book)! Maybe that counts for something!



We had Superman movies, Yours Mine and Ours, and The Sound of Music. We didn't get to watch them all, but we have them until Monday, so it's on our list of things to finish!

On New Years Day, we had another dinner over here with my mom and dad and Aunt Jo and Uncle Wayne. New Years Day is never complete without black-eyed peas, right?

Last of all today, as I look back over this past year, I can see how blessed we really are. I am thankful for so much. First of all, I can't imagine a day without my Lord and Savior to guide me. I'm blessed with a wonderful husband, precious children, a great mom and dad (and father-in-law), good health for my family, a cozy home, food, clothes and warm beds, Jason's job, being able to be a stay-at-home mom, freedom to homeschool my children, and much more! I give the credit for all these things to God. I know I'm truly blessed.



As we all begin 2009, I hope we can all remember to thank God for our blessings and evaluate our lives and realize those people (and things) that are most important and remember to be thankful for them everyday. I am also thankful for all my blogging friends and readers.......for choosing to spend a portion of your day stopping by for a visit. I enjoy your comments so much and I enjoy visiting you as well! I wish you all a healthy, prosperous, joyous and BLESSED year in 2009!

Hugs and Blessings,
Tammy

Fun-Filled Fall Days

Every once in awhile, my nine year old daughter, Joy, reminds me of things she's never done....things like never having been to a circus, gone to Disney World, or attended a football game.....yes, can you believe it?......she's never been to a football game. Obviously, we're not big sports oriented folks here, at least not in the football or basketball sense of sports. Both of our kids played soccer and Colt played baseball, and really that's the extent of Joy's going-to-ball-game experience. Therefore...Joy pointed out to me that she had NEVER been to a football game (kind of giving me that deprived look), so when we were invited by Joy's friend, Katie Beth, and her family, to the Jr. High Football game, we decided to go! Now this is also the school from which I attended and graduated, and this was the first time I had been to a ball game there since I graduated (many years ago...1981). I have gone to several graduations there over the years, but never a ball game. Anyway at this game, Katie Beth's brother, Josh, made his very first touchdown, so it was a memorable evening and lots of fun for Joy too (and all of us)!

Here's Joy and Katie Beth at the game (They loved watching the cheerleaders and visiting the concession stand).



They were more into watching the cheerleaders than anything!



Here's the football hero, Josh, ..it was "his" night!



And to make it even more exciting, this was the last game of the season...we won...making the Jr. High team undefeated! So the coach got a surprise attack of ice cold cooler water by the team members. I'm sure he was glad it wasn't as cold outside on this night as it had been just a few days before!

That was Thursday evening.

Friday was a day for costumes and candy (just visited a couple of friends and family members since we missed a festival we thought was going on that evening).

Then Saturday, we began the morning at our local community college for our homeschool group's robotic competition. Joy was on the spirit and sportsmanship part of the team.




Although we were only able to attend for about an hour and a half because of our committment with our next activity, we were happy to be there to support our team, the Eagles, who did a great job on preparing and competing.



Then, from there, it was on to our church for our annual Harvest Festival. Our family looks forward to this every year for different reasons....Joy for the fun games & whole social atmosphere....me for the silent auction (although I didn't win anything this year), bake sale and craft sale.....and Jason for the food! Again, Colt was working, so he wasn't able to attend.

Here's a picture later in the day...our official face painter left the table and some of the kids took over. Joy is painting little Riley's face.



New this year was a costume contest which allowed votes by putting money in your favorite costume's bag. Now Joy had already taken this into consideration and sweet-talked her Grandmama and Pop into bringing LOTS of their pennies they had saved in a huge crock. I guess it "paid off" since she won a trophy in her category. She was dressed as Pocahontas. Here she is in the first picture going across the stage in character. They had to parade across the stage doing something that represented their character.



Here's a picture with the trophy. By this time, she had shed the headdress. She loved dressing as Pocahontas since we had been studying her and reading books about her the last month or so.



And her best friend, Katie Beth, won a ribbon in her cute costume as Wonder Woman.



Here's a picture of the winners. Alot of them had already changed out of their costumes when they announced it. There were three categories.




Can you tell Joy loves little ones? She's very often seen either holding the hand of a little one leading them around, or carrying a baby in her arms! (The other night at a Mexican restaurant...she fell in love with a little Spanish toddler that took up with her and wanted to come home with Joy...and Joy decided she was adopting a Spanish baby one day!) lol! She reminds me of me at that age really...always where the babies were!



And here she is leading little Haley around on the cake walk. Haley was dressed as a forest fairy.



Then on Sunday afternoon, Katie Beth, came home with us after church and spent the afternoon with Joy. They had a great time playing outdoors. Then after church Sunday evening, they had fun playing with this little guy, Levi. He was an arm load, but they loved every minute of it! I didn't get a picture of that, as I didn't have my camera then, but I did get this picture of him the day before at the Harvest Festival with his mom). Isn't he a handsome little guy? I love the hair!



This was actually the bean bag game, but Joy and friend, Casey, found another use for it!



I don't think we could have packed much more into these past few days that would have made Joy any happier....and I don't think I would have had the energy even if we could have! I wish I had just a "smidge" of energy level that my daughter has!

And on the agenda for this week is a week of housecleaning and pulling out the Christmas decorations! Yes, I know it's a little early, but I'm really in the Christmas spirt and since I'm having our church ladies Christmas party here on December 5th, I wanted to get a head start on decorating. Jason is off this week too so it's a good week to get this accomplished. Hopefully, by this time next week, I'll have some Christmas photos to share. Until then....let the Christmas decorating fun begin! :)