Thursday, January 07, 2010

#1 Favorite Christmas Memory

I left a memory out yesterday. It is so special it deserved its own post!!!

The week leading up to Christmas I had Anna and Chris at home with me. Chris was in between jobs and Anna was out on Christmas break. Anna and I bought Chris a little something even though he and I weren't getting each other something. I wanted Anna to get him a little something. Anyway, I was in the floor doing the last of my wrapping including the present for Chris and several other things. Anna said, "Mama, where is your present". I told her that I wasn't wrapping one for myself. She said "OK , wait a minute" with her little mischieveous smile. She went behind the tree, took a present out of a gift bag that I hadn't closed up. She grabbed a Santa from the Polar Express movie that my Mom gave her a year or 2 ago and she put it in the bag. She then came and got the tape and proceeded to tape up the bag! She did it very efficiently going all across the top so that I couldn't peak! lol She then came around the tree and said "I got you a special present Mama." She has no idea that SHE is my special present!!! All I need is her and her Daddy! I didn't need a present but the thoughtfulness of that gesture really touched me. God has blessed me with a very precious little girl!!!

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Christmas Memories 2009

What a crazy Christmas holiday we had this year! We discovered how truly blessed we are and what an awesome God we serve!!! These may not be in order. I just wanted to jot them all down so we wouldn't forget.

In Oct. Chris found out he would be losing his job Dec. 18th. We knew that we would be ok. We both just had a peace about it all. Which I can assure you didn't come from either of us! We did continue life as normal, buckling down in a few areas financially. About a week or 2 before Chris's last day he got a call from a tech school and they wanted to see him that day. He was dressed casually cause they were packing up the school etc. So he ran home and changed and drove out to the interview (a little more than an hour away). Long story short he found out he was getting that job on the same day that he was signing his termination papers. By the way I should add in there he was not "fired" he was laid off cause they were closing the campus that he was working at. They probably knew they would do this when they hired him... That doesn't matter because our God is such a mighty God He had everything planned out perfectly!

Back to Christmas...

Yia Yia & Pop & Aunt Casey:

They all came to spend Wednesday afternoon through Sunday with us. Wednesday night we had a Low Country Boil! My friend Denise and her son Dustin came over and did that for us. Now I know that I am a southern girl and I live on the coast but I do NOT like seafood lol. However, the corn and potatoes were delicious lol. Everyone else raved about the whole thing and we heard about it all weekend!

CHRISTMAS EVE:

We had a lazy day. Yia Yia and Pop took Anna shopping so that we could put together the lego table they were giving Anna and also the Princess table from Santa. After we did that we (Chris, Casey and myself) went to grab lunch and to pick up a shrimp platter for the night. (yuck ;0) We came back home & I pulled together some spinach dip and some queso dip and opened the shrimp platter and a chicken nugget platter (from Anna's favorite place, Chick fil a). That was our dinner! It was yummy! We had a few peanut butter balls for dessert. We opened up all our presents and Anna was so funny! The second present she opened was the Cool School computer from a few ladies Chris had worked with. A very wonderful and thoughtful thing for them to do! She saw what it was and she started going " O O O I WANTED ONE OF THOSE FOR MYSELF!!!" She squealed with delight after each gift she opened. I wish I could have captured it on video! We finally got to crash at some point and she was almost instantly asleep!

SANTA:

I was able to find a Princess Jeep online for $75 for Anna from Santa! I was so excited about it and it was barely used! Pretty much perfect!!! Santa had a hard time getting it out of the garage and into the house. lol I didn't realize it was so HUGE. Chris brought it home and put it in our garage so it didn't look so big in there. Santa also brought her a Princess table with a dry erase table top. Oh and we can't forget a Cinderella baby. When she came out of the bedroom she zoned straight in on the baby that was sitting in the car. It took her a few minutes to even register the car! She got in it after that drove straight into the coffee table. She didn't have any room really! She eventually made her way over the the table where Santa had left her a note. He wrote on it "Merry Christmas Anna thank you for the cookies! See you next year. Santa" She loved that!!!

CHRISTMAS DAY:

After Santa was enjoyed for a while we ate a biscuit that Pop had bought from Anna's other favorite (Hardees). We also had a cookie cake kinda thing and lit candles and sang happy birthday to Jesus! We then played with some of her other toys until Grandma & Grandpa came in with more presents to open! Anna is definitely lacking for toys! She had a great time playing with them and opening more presents. Her favorite things were trying to run over Grandpa and sitting in the chair with Grandma listening to music. We had a non-traditional lunch of a mexican chicken dish that is super yummy! with mashed potatoes and green beans and a dump cake for dessert! Everything was tasty! That night Yia Yia, Casey, Chris, Anna and I piled into the car to go see Christmas lights at this house that is totally awesome! They blink lights to music they have set on a radio station. I can't even explain to make it as cool as it really is. Anna liked it so much that we had to go see it probably 6 times over about 2 weeks!

RIDGELAND LIGHTS:

One night a few weeks before Christmas we piled into Denise's car with Hannah and Nancy and all of us. We headed about an hour or more away and looked at some very cool lights set on a trail. We walked it and then had dinner at a place called Jasper's Porch. The food was pretty good but we were in there for almost 2 hours! After that we walked the trail again and then headed towards home singing all the way! It was a blast. We had to go by Denise's sisters house (her Mama said we had too lol) Her house was done up very cool including reindeers on the top of the house! Then we went out to the same house we went to on Christmas day! That was our first visit of the year there and I think it was probably the most fun. The group of friends we were with were just THAT much fun!!! We went to McDonalds afterwards and went through the drive thru. I am sure they thought we were drunk even though we hadn't had anything!!!

NEW YEARS EVE:

We went over to Denise's house and had pizza and played cards. We had a great time. laughing and cutting up. It is great to have such good friends! I am truly blessed and honestly they are the only thing that makes me sad to have to move. Hmmm, you think I could convince them to move with me? lol Denise let us spend the night at her house so that we didn't have to go out on the road.