Christmas Day

We all gathered in my parents living room around

9am to open gifts. This would be after my parents

were awakened by two barking dogs at 6am AND

after Joey locked his keys in his car when he

went to pick up Chrissie. MEMORIES! ;)

Us siblings decided not to buy each other gifts this

year, instead we would take all of our "Christmas fund"

and bless mom and dad. This made for some fun times

shopping and wrapping. We also wrote a clue on the outside

of each of their gifts. I think it will be a new tradition!

For example, we had got mom a pair of Wallabee shoes -

the clue was "Some people call me Joey." It took her a little

while to figure it out, but she finally guessed it. :)

It was a lot of fun!

Tony was really SURPRISED to recieve the

"Witherspoon School of Law" DVD series from my parents!

He has been talking about this for a few months now and

there were a few occasions where he was going to buy it.

Knowing that my parents had already bought it for him,

I would tell him "Oh, maybe we should wait 'til after the New

Year, they'll probably be running some really good sales."

He was really, really surprised!!

Matthew was excited to recieve a box of Electrasol

tablets. My parents are really good at wrapping

things in "wrong" boxes. Haha. He actually got

a clamp that allows him to play his guitar

and harmonica at the same time. Something

he had been wanting to get. :)

We received our very own Waffle Maker!!

Mom & Dad were real happy to recieve updated pictures

of the four of us. It even brought mom to tears

[mission accomplished!]. ;)

That is the blanket that I started way back here.
It matches their bedroom perfectly. :)


Dad pulled the finale gift from behind the tree. It
was a little piece of paper with a picture of
Savannah, GA and Paula Deen. He handed it to
mom and she had to guess what it was.
They will be staying at a Bed & Breakfast in Savannah,
and visit Paula Deen's restaurant while they're there.
Mom was very surprised and this also brought her
to tears. :) Awwww! Very neat gift Dad!!!


Here is the whole crew!

*Sisters*

Dad & I


Us girls!!


With dad!
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After a short visit back at our house, we headed to
Tony's parents house for lunch.

Time to open gifts!

Cayleigh showing me her NC State scarf
that Nanny made for her. :)


Corrine, Cayleigh, Marshall, and Mary Grace
showing me thier neat digital cameras and nerf gun.
They were so cute running around, wanting to take a
picture of everything. The below picture is one such example.
Marshall had shot his nerf gun and the "bullet" landed
standing straight up. "AMAZING!" Marshall got real
excited and said "Wait, wait. I have to get a picture of it."
It was really funny!!! So then all of them gather around with
their cameras and started snapping pictures.


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We went back to our house for a couple hours. Tony
started watching "Witherspoons School of Law" and took
a short nap, while I started working on a purple scarf for Chrissie.
Then we went back to my parents house for dinner [lasagna] and
a game of Scrabble. Below is Kismet, Mia, and Pedro after an
exhausting day of chasing wrapping paper and such. ;)

Christmas Eve

A day off work for Tony - which meant sleeping in until 11am and staying up late the night before practicing his guitar, listening to sermons, reading articles and a new book. He has been so busy lately and is very much enjoying this two week break from school (I am too!). That afternoon we went to visit Ms. Bessie who stays at an assisted living facility. She was so excited to see us and was such an encouragement to us. We read thru the advent reading and sang "Who is This?" - an older hymn that none of us knew. Haha. It was a sweet time of fellowship.

My family came over that evening. :) We had veggie soup and sandwiches with chips and fresh salsa. Then we each opened one gift - tradition. Tony & I received a popcorn maker! Then we watched the planetarium show, "A Created Cosmos" by Answers in Genesis. That was the second time I'd seen it and it just leaves me in total awe of my Creator! Matthew & I made some very sweet butter rum drinks and we all played a [lengthy] game of Scrabble. ;)

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God

An amazing fact from Jason Lisle's book Taking Back Astronomy - "At the incredible distance of 93 million miles, we cannot fully appreciate just how far away the sun is. An analogy may be helpful. How long would it take to drive 93 million miles? If we were to drive 65 miles per hour, it would take 163 years to drive this distance. We couldn't drive this far in our lifetime."

It is the seventeenth of December already ... only eight more days until Christmas. And it is hard to believe how quickly this month has passed by. Or even this year. Busy. Busy. is what we've been as of late. A ~fun~ busy though. First thing Saturday morning I made a big mess in the kitchen - producing 11 cups of cranberry jam and some fresh 'cranberry orange apple juice' for my sweet husband and I.

While Tony worked on an essay for his Western Civ class, I put up our Christmas tree. I am in the process of making some "Jesse Tree" ornaments.

That evening, we were able to spend special time together in town - celebrating 71 months of togetherness. :) We discovered that our local park was having a little Christmas event, so we walked around the park for a while and passed out some gospel tracts. Then we enjoyed a yummy pizza at Illiano's. I am so grateful to God for my husband!!

After church on Sunday, we went to Madison & Morgan's birthday party - they were celebrating ONE year of life. :) Tony & I bought them "Horton Hears a Who" the movie and stuffed twin elephants. Cute!


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Yesterday the four of us got together to do some gift shopping and to take pictures. :) Here is just one of them. When Brittany & I were picking out poses, the boys kept saying - "Come on - we're not the brady bunch." Haha. Unfortunately, Joey missed out on the shopping because he wasn't feeling too good. When he got home he discovered that he had a temparture of 102. :( But I talked to him today and he says he feels much better. Praise God!

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"In The First Light"

In the first light of a new day no one knew he had arrived
Things continued as they had been while a newborn softly cried
But the heavens wrapped in wonder knew the meaning of his birth
In the weakness of a baby they knew God had come to earth

As his mother held him closely it was hard to understand
That her baby, not yet speaking, was the word of God to man
He would tell them of his kingdom but their hearts would not believe
They would hate him and in anger they would nail him to a tree

But the sadness would be broken as the song of life arose
And the firstborn of creation would ascend and take his throne
He had left it to redeem us but before his life began
He knew he’d come back, not as a baby, but as the Lord of every man

Hear the angels as they’re singing on the morning of his birth
But how much greater will their song be when he comes again to earth
Hear the angels as they’re singing on the morning of his birth
But how much greater will their song be when he comes to rule the earth!