Christmas 2013

Our first Christmas celebration was with the Joyner side the weekend before Christmas. Kinley and Ty were thrilled with the fun toys (Dorothy costume and a remote control car) from Aunt Jan and Uncle Jimmy.

   

 But the highlight was spending time with these angel twin girls. Kinley had a blast playing with them.

   

On Christmas Eve our church had a snow slide and we were so excited about it. Kinley went down over and over and over but Ty was content to just watch.

 

The more friends at a snow slide with you, the better! 

 

Then we went to Christmas Eve service with Honey and Boss at their church.

   

and afterward we participated in my favorite Howe family tradition after Christmas Eve service....Waffle House. We used to do this at midnight on Christmas..before we had kids. We had to adjust the time in recent years but, it is every bit as magical as ever. 

 

Christmas morning we woke up to see Santa had come!  

Kinley's favorite things were her new Frozen Elsa dress and her Hello Kitty karaoke machine. We heard "Let it Go" about 100,000 times as loud as possible. 

 What bliss... 

 

Ty was content with a ring pop from his stocking.

   

Buddy the Elf went back with Santa that night but left us one final note with Santa's empty cookie plate and milk glass to remind us what Christmas is all about. 

 

We opened presents from each other and got ready as quick as we could and ran to Honey and Boss's for Christmas with our immediate family.

   

Kinley...still in the Elsa dress....

 

What the what? 

Is that a second doll house for Kinley that stays at Honey's house? and a train table for Ty that comes home with us!? 

 (where is that going to go!?) 

 They were thrilled!!

   

Christmas Day was with the Howe side of the family. 

 We had lots of fun with lots of kids. 

 These two girls have so.much.fun. 

 

 Inie can't help herself but to check on the kids at the kids table. I guess its just second-nature after years and years of raising kiddos. 

 

 I made these little chalkboards for all the great-grandkids, currently 12, and my vision was a photograph of all of them with Inie and Bull holding up (or sitting near) their chalkboard with their name and their number. Ordered from oldest great-grandchild to youngest. But, my vision was totally busted when 4 of the 12 kids couldn't come. Bummer.

 Maybe next time. 

 It made for a couple cute pics anyway. 

 

Time for posed family pics with Inie and Bull....it's kind of a necessary tradition. 

 Here is a group pic with all the kids that were there. 

I love Kinley and Aubrey looking at each other in this picture.

I love that we planned months in advance for all the kids to have matching shirts and pajamas for pictures and never got one pic of them all in their matching clothes. Aubrey and Kinley in princess dresses...this is real life. 

 

How cute is Inie with these angel boys (Byron and Carter) who are the newest family members and only 3 days apart.

   

 The Howes

What a blessing and these people are in my life.  I am so thankful that we get to take time to celebrate the birth of Christ and the meaning of our lives here on earth through reflection on the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ.  Each year I am reminded and humbled about how God used a tiny baby to change the world and save each sinner's soul.  It is a powerful time of year full of activities, family time and lots of love.

We still haven't even celebrated Christmas with the Harrison's yet.  It just all came and went so fast!  We left pretty early that day to go home and pack our bags for Costa Rica because we left the very next day after Christmas.  

More on that to come!