Christmas Eve, Day, and Day After

Well here is the Christmas posting for all of you "stalkers" that read this Blog. Let me say, I think that blogging is really neat and--for reasons unknown--my fiance' thinks that I am a stalker because of my blogging obsession. Anyway, back to Christmas. I have posted pics of the craziest three days in December: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and THE day after. Here we go, hold on tight:

1)Christmas Eve: The morning started out by attending our normal service at Grace Church. The service was great and we got to see everyone and wish them a Merry Christmas as Brian and I were greeters that morning. Afterwards, we went to my house and had a huge lunch--just the Stones. It was great! After lunch, I went over to the Davenport's house to hang out until church that evening. We then had Christmas Eve dinner at Brian's house--which included the traditional Christmas Ham, Mac and Cheese, and Jello Salad(minus the cat food). After eating we went to Heritage United Methodist for the Christmas Eve service. It was especially beautiful when, during the last carol, the entire congregation stood with candles lit and held them high--to remember the reason for the Christmas season, the light of the word, Jesus Christ. After Service we hit the road to Roanoke, stopping for the traditional visit to the Elks' Home. It was wonderfully lit and many memories of my childhood came back as I told Brian: "that's new", "that's been here forever", and "roll the windows down." After the exterior illumination show we continued to Granny's singing Christmas songs all the way. We arrived in Roanoke in time to get a plate of food. Granny's house was full--as always--and I had on my festive red cheeks which Granny and I have in common. Then it was picture time...read below:

This is just one of the 10,000 pictures that Mom took over the holidays. Granny with all of the grandchildren that were present except for Zach--who is now in Germany with the Army--and Danielle--who spent the holidays with her new hubby Jon. Left to right: First row-Lindsay and Keri; Second row-Alex, Barbi, Laura, Me, Granny, Alan, and Franklin.

An exciting game of Pass the Pigs, which quickly caught on a couple years ago as a holiday tradition! We have the best time playing! Linds even got in on it this year! Brian was a little over-confident and didn't play as well as last time.

2) Christmas Day: Christmas morning arrived after a longer-than-normal Christmas Eve slumber. The older I get, the easier it is to sleep! I had to drag Keri out of bed to get started on our stockings and then we got to the presents. More below:

I got an iPod! And to make things better, it's green! I was so excited, but unable to enjoy it as it was empty and had no songs loaded. Keri gave me the docking system that plays the music! It is so cool! I love it! After we had done our family stuff, Brian came over and we did our gift exchange. But first, we got a special gift from Mom...

Our very own VT gnome! Now we can roam a gnome all year long! Funny story, new tradition made short: Mom got me a Christmas gnome this year and it was moved just about every night to a new location. Brian, Mom, Me, and even Missy were in on roaming the gnome. Perhaps I'll share more about that in a later post, just know that my love for fantasical magic creatures is wearing off on those around me...Hooray!

Brian and I then gave each other our presents. He gave me a new watch, which was a great surprise...I ended up needing links taken out so we took the watch back to Macy's and got another one at Belk. I got lots of nice new clothes for my upcoming semester of student teaching. I also got tickets to the Celtic Woman concert! I'm so excited! Well After presents we went to Jeff and Jen's house for more presents and lunch at 4. After eating a quick lunch, we drove to Roanoke and enjoyed a dinner an hour later. We were stuffed, and Brian tried to have a roll eating contest with my cousin' s husband--Brian won--big surprise! We hung at Granny's until about nine and then headed back to L'burg. The day was such a whirlwind of business.

3) THE day after: Brian and I decided that to celebrate our last dating anniversary of four years we would chip in together and buy a Christmas tree for our own place the we will have next CHristmas. So Mom and I were on a mission and we met Mrs. D and Missy at Target bright and early at 7am. We couldn't believe it, but there was a line waiting to get into the store and we ran in behind it. We made our way through the store like it was a matter of life and death if we got behind any more people. Then I saw the trees and none of them really jumped out at me. Disappointed, Mom and I went and bought my iPod accessories and then walked back to the holiday section again. There it was--just sitting there all by itself, one more of the StayLit 7.5 Bavarian Fir trees Pre-lit with 800 staylit lights. After examining it I decided it was our tree! Mom lugged it through Target without a cart, which--believe me--was quite a sight to behold. We checked out and took it home! Later that night my Dad's side of the family came over for food and a movie. We watched Cars and ate lots of junk food! Yum!

Here's the whole crew: Below-Tyler, Keri, ME, Laurie with Carter on her head; Above-Dad, Kenneth, Mom, Josh, Trevor, Bradley, and Sherry. We had a great time and it was fun to catch up with the Aunts on the wedding plans.

WOW! What a long blog...No wonder that I procrastinated it! O well, it's nice to remember all the good times with friends and family during the crazy holiday season.