When I said that Christmas is a week long event in this family, well, that is just what I meant. We started it off with Christmas with my dad's side of the family at my grandmothers. Everyone was there except for a couple of cousins, but the most exciting part was the children that were there. You see there are 17 grandchildren in our family and well multiply that by two parents, a spouse, and maybe a child of their own and you have a large get together!!! Anywhoo, my cousins and I were sitting around watching the toddlers and the babies and realized that history had come full circle. We reminisced about the old times when we were around the little kids ages and had many laughs!!! It was truly a great time, no bickering, no argueing!!!! We were truly excited.
On to Christmas Eve.....You see Lauren and I were truly blessed this year!! We were able to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Ray!!!! So we made this a huge deal!!! We started out at my parents house to open gifts with them. Lauren absoulutely enjoyed unwrapping everyone's gift. My sister said that all she is going to buy her next year is wrapping paper and tape because she had so much fun. It was truly a blessing to see all of us enjoying each other's company. Lauren was overwelmed and really didn't know what to play or open up first!!!! One gift that she absolutely loved was the coasters her Aunt Sammy made for her. Lauren, has a small obsession with coasters at everyone's house, so Aunt Sammy had some made for her. After a couple of hours, we went to my grandmother's for Christmas Eve dinner. We had a scrumptuous dinner; prime rib, baked potatoes, lobster claws, and boiled shrimp. Let us not forget the birthday cake for Jesus (we taught this to Lauren to let her know the real reason that we celebrate Christmas.) She was all about and enjoyed telling everyone that it was Jesus' birthday!!! We opened gifts and Sammy and I got the Wii. Yes I said Wii, and have played with it since!!!! It is so entertaining and you get such a workout. I also got the Wii Fit which I will be start January 1. That is whole another post!!! As we wrapped up opening gifts, we played Wii for a minute and then on to getting Lauren's things ready for Santa. Lauren wrote Santa his letter, and also put out reindeer food for the reindeer snacks. We also put out Oreo's on Santa's special plate that Lauren made at daycare this year. Once all of that was done, Lauren was off to bed and we were there to wait up to help Santa with Lauren's gifts.
Christmas Day, Ray had it all planned out. We were to get up at 5:50; set the video camera so we could get Lauren's first expressions of what Santa had left her. Well Lauren had her own plans!!! We were woken up at 4:45 to, "Mommy, Daddy, there is a baby in here!!!!" She was so beside herself!!! It was too cute and immediately went to playing with her new baby and new house. It was the beginning of a long day. You see, we do all of our Christmas on Christmas Day. We spend the whole day doing our own family traditions, which is playing with the new stuff we received for Christmas or catching up on some rest!!!!
After spending Christmas Day together, we headed to the Delta to have Christmas with Ray's side of the family. There we spent the whole weekend with the Delta family. Lauren was super excited when she received her bike and her big dog named "Biscuit". We feasted all weekend on foods and snacks. Once again she loved opening everyone else's gifts for the joy of ripping the paper and tape off. On Sunday we left a little early to get back home so we would have time to put the new gifts away and to give Lauren time to play with all of her new toys.
Well that is an end to our Christmas journey for 2008. It is amazing how we prepare for weeks for it to get here and then in a couple of days it is gone. We, the Daniels' family does have a perk, at least we can extend it and make it a week long event!!! I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Christmas this year!!!
1 comment:
It looks like y'all had a really wonderful Christmas. I love all the pictures!!! I also love your new header. I have yet to work on doing one for my blog. I really need to get you over to my house to teach me some tricks of the trade. Happy New Year!
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