Christmas 2008

So... here's is a bit of a belated recap of the big day...

We went to the 4:00 'Candlelight' service at church (good thing there are not any windows in the sanctuary for the daylight to ruin the effect of the candlelight!!) and then out to dinner with Michael's parents... followed by a Christmas eve ice cream at McDonald's (PawPaw's favorite place!!).

Once we got home, the girls performed their version of the nativity story... last year, they acted it out with themselves as the main characters... this year, they decided to do the 'Webkinz' version and all of the pets were called into service-- complete with costumes. They worked on it all week prior to Christmas and it was darling! Abbie read the story from the Bible and Emma placed the characters at the appropriate time. Take note of the cute 'shepards' and our 'angel fish'!!

Emma poured the milk for "Santa" all by herself this year!

Then the stockings were hung (placed) by the fireplace with care....

And the children were nestled, all snug in their beds (or on their mattress pulled in from their room into their sister's room!)....

And we waited on a visit from "Santa"...

Christmas morning was full of fun and lots of surprises. Big hits for Emma were her 'horse trailer', a new soccer ball and a desk for her room.

Abigail loved her new roller skates, a metronome and games for the DS.

They both were excited to receive a portable dvd player so they can resume movie watching on trips in the car again!

We also received quite a few dvd's for Christmas-- I think these will keep us busy WELL into the new year!

This was Daddy's favorite gift to the girls-- a special edition of t-shirt run just for them by one of the main videography guys in the RC Airplane industry:

One of their big surprises (revealed by a scavenger hunt around the house) was that they are going to Disney for a week in January to attend "Homeschool Days". They are pretty excited (but sad because Daddy won't be able to join us on this trip due to his work schedule).

We followed the gifts with our traditional Christmas brunch and afternoon of relaxing. We headed out in the late afternoon for another tradition-- a family movie. We saw the much anticipated "Marley & Me"-- we have all read at least one version of the book (there are 'kids version' of the book which are much preferable for the younger set-- although the original is a good read for adults). The movie was funny but sad (very true to the book)--but I think they could have wrapped it up a bit more 'cheerfully' (and left out a few of the very graphic 'dog being put to sleep' scenes) as they were billing it as such a good family movie-- I had one sobbing girl and all of us had very red eyes by the time we left the theater. In retrospect, I think we would have chosen something different had we known it was going to be SO VERY sad. Anyhoo...

We followed the movie with our final Christmas day tradition-- a visit to one of the fine dining institutions of the South (and the only place open on Christmas day besides TGI Fridays with their 3 hour wait)..... the WAFFLE HOUSE!!! Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a meal at the Waffle House :-)

We had a very blessed day!