I absolutely love my parents Christmas decorations. They do such a good job making the house look so festive and beautiful. My mom saved every single ornament we made as children so it's always fun to scan the tree and remember pastimes. She lets my dad decorate the back of the tree that nobody sees :)
My mom started her caroler collection many years ago, and this year Santa added to one to the group.
Our family started collecting the Charles Dickens Christmas village when I was in high school. Julie, Mom, and I always had so much fun setting it up together, but now my mom does it solo.
Grant says William will be in good shape if my parents treat him HALF as good as they do Abigail. They are slightly obsessed with that dog.
On Christmas Eve morning, Douglas, Julie, Grant and I went to Northcutt's to finish up some last minute Christmas shopping and then took it easy around the house for the rest of the day. It was nice to have a very low key Christmas weekend. Everything revolved around delicious meals which was just fine with this preggo girl.
Our family goes to the Christmas Eve church service every year at FUMC. It is such a special family tradition that I look forward to every year. We usually have some sort of soup before heading to the 7pm service. This year my mom made a seafood gumbo that was absolutely delicious. My favorite part of the Christmas Eve service is holding candles while singing Silent Night as the congregation progresses out, pew by pew. As a child, we (me, Julie, and Douglas) usually served as acolytes and servers during this service and I always remember looking out in the congregation and seeing my great-grandmother, "Gamin," with a huge smile on her face.
Grant introduced the Shaw family to the Davis family Christmas tradition of egg nog on Christmas Eve. I don't like the stuff, but he sure does!
Sam is THE cutest person I know! He was very excited about his hat and wanted his picture taken with everyone!
Dressed up before the Christmas Eve service.
Christmas morning, we all woke up around 6:30 to enjoy some coffee and "open" gifts. Santa still visits our house and leaves the presents unwrapped :) William stole the show this year even though he's still in the womb, but we all had a ball putting together his stroller, car seat, and swing. My mom has made more baby clothes than I thought was humanly possible...she is a machine and I love it! He's going to be one well-dressed baby boy. Grant has to come to terms with the reality that William will be wearing aprons and possibly a few "dresses" as an infant.
Yes, Grant's PJs are a little small....maybe Santa will bring him some that fit next year!
They are SO excited about being great-grandparents! Sam practiced steering the stroller around the house!
Abigail is in for a rude awakening at the end of April!
On Christmas morning we had breakfast at our house and then went to the 11am church service. We went over to Sam and Juleann's house Christmas night to exchange gifts and have our traditional Christmas dinner. That consisted of beef tenderloin, green beans, sweet potato casserole, oyster casserole, citrus rice, and pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream - YUMMY!!! My grandmother prepares for this meal all year long and has probably already started on 2012 Christmas. She also spends hours decorating her dining room table which is clearly worth every second!
Juleann's big gift this year was an iPhone and Julie's job was to teach her all about it!
3 Generations of iPhone users!
Sporting our new Christmas clothes!
I cannot believe this was our 3rd Christmas together as a married couple, and next year we will have a BABY and be a family of THREE.
Buy Grant some new pjs before next Christmas, please.
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