Christmas in Mississippi

We celebrated Christmas with Trey's side of the family the weekend before Christmas. We had three fun filled days of opening presents and eating way too much food. On Saturday we celebrated with Walter's family. This year was the first year that we did not have to drive to Prentiss (Society Hill) for the Christmas festivities. Walter's brothers, sister and mom all came to Meridian for the party. The kids all opened presents and got way too much, as always. The adults play dirty Santa. Savannah gets presents from everyone, but also plays Dirty Santa. This year we came home with a picnic/wine basket, makeup bags, and an I-Tunes gift card. It was a great time to spend with everyone.



On Sunday, Becky's family came to Meridian to celebrate with us. This year we got to meet Matthew's new girlfriend, which became his fiance the next day. Her name is Kelly and she is super nice. My kids absolutely adored her, especially Savannah. Aunt Betty always does something special for the kids for Christmas. This year she knitted Julia a cap and Jack a new boggin. I can't remember what Savannah got. They also got magazine subscribtions from her. For this celebration, Walter made is famous gumbo. It is wonderful.

On Monday, we celebrated Christmas with Walter, Becky, Kelly, Chris and Noah. We had a great time spending time with each other. Walter and Becky fixed shrimp and grits for everyone. The kids got really cool presents. Walter and Becky were very suprised with the picture of the kids the Kelly and us got for them. It was a great Christmas and everyone had a really good time visiting with each other. The kids are very spoiled now, but that is what this time of the year is for.


On Tuesday morning we went shopping in Meridian before we left to come home. The kids had a great time shopping with Trey for my Christmas presents. They also told me everything they bought me before we made it back to Walter and Becky's house. They are wonderful, they know mommy does not like surprises. The kids also had a great time playing on the soft playground at the mall. We meet Walter for lunch at Chick-fila before we headed off back to Alabama. Chick-fila was a mad house. On the way back to Walter and Becky's we saw a wrecker service that had an old wrecker fixed up like Tow Mater off of Cars. The kids had to get their picture made with that before we could leave.

Christmas Parties

Savannah and Jack both had Christmas parties at school. Before the parties they both got to participate in the Polar Express. Jack was very excited about Santa coming to his school. They both were excited because Trey got to come the parties at school. He was out of town the entire week so they enjoyed spending the day with him.

Friday, December 19th Savannah's friend Anna Kate had an ornament swap party. They decorated Christmas cookies and played a game to swap ornaments. Savannah got a very pretty pink ornament.

Julia's First Christmas Performance

Julia had her first Christmas Performance at Kingdom Kids Daycare on December 18th. She was adorable and I am not saying that just because she is mine. She sang her heart out. She didn't know all the words to all the songs, but she sang and swayed to all the music. They all wore shirts that they made at school with their handprints and the antlers of the reindeer. They were very cute. She even left her bow in until we were in the car. She is not like Savannah wanting to wear a bow at all times. The only down fall of the evening was she was so tired that she did not want to get her present from Santa. Mrs. Keisha got her present for her. We are so very blessed with a great, Christian daycare for her to attend. The best thing is that Julia now loves her school.

Natchez

The first weekend in December Trey and I went to Natchez for the weekend. We had a great time. The kids stayed with Becky and Walter. They had a really great time there as well. We visited many of the antebellum homes in Natchez, shopped at Kelly's Kids and ate really great meals. The kids stayed with Becky and Walter. They had a really great time there as well. The homes in Natchez are unbelievable. I could not imagine having a home like these now, much less hundreds of years ago. It would have been nice to have a house like one of these and the servants to take care of you all the time. We had dinner Friday night at the Magonlia Grill. It was really good. Saturday for lunch we ate at the Carriage House. Oh my that was a treat. For dinner Saturday night we ate at the Castle Restaurant with some of Trey's customers for a Christmas party. The houses we visited were: Longwood, Stanton Hall, Magnolia Hall and Dunleith. Trey's favorite was Longwood and my favorite was a tie between Stanton Hall and Dunleith. It was a great weekend.

Christmas Traditions

I copied this little questionaire from my friend Merry. We were friends in high school and now she lives in Canada. She always has very interesting things on her blog I love to read. Since I don't have anything about Christmas on my blog yet and it is now Christmas Eve I decided to steal this from her.

1. Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? We open all presents on Christmas morning. Although by then the kids have opened a ton of presents from Trey's parents, grandparents and aunts/uncles.

2. Donner or Donder? Donner

3. Turkey or ham? My mother always makes both. She is an awesome cook and always has so many good things.

4. Gifts opened all at once, or one at a time? We open our presents one at a time so we can see what everyone has gotten. Well at least this is how we start out opening presents.

5. Christmas tree: live or artificial? Artificial. Never had a real tree. My mother is extremely alergic to them.

6. Cards: boxed cards, family photo cards, or e-cards? Family photo cards. This year they are just of the kids. No one wants to see pictures of me and Trey.

7. Christmas lights: incandescent or LED? Incandescent.

8. Re-gift or not? I have but usually with kids gifts that we got more than one of and never get around to returning to the store.

9. Gift wrap or gift bags? Gift wrap of course with beautiful hand made bows. Only a few go into gift bags.

10. Best Christmas song? Happy Birthday Jesus, especially when my precious babies and neice and newphew are singing it.

11. Best Christmas movie? This is a hard one. I can tell you everyone elses favorite but I can't really pin point mine down to just one. My dad's favorite is "The Christmas Story" and Trey's is "Christmas Vacation". My real favorite is "The Worst Christmas Pageant Ever" and I cannot find it on DVD.

12. Favorite family tradition? I think it is now being at our house on Christmas morning. When we were in Atlanta we were always in Mississippi on Christmas morning and then we went to Alabama on Christmas morning.

We are having a great Christmas so far. I will post more about our 3 Christmases we have already had later.

New Tubes

On Friday of last week, Julia got a new set of tubes in her ears. She did very well. Last time she had them put in she would not take oral medicine so she did not get the medicine. This time they gave her some medicine to make her calm before they put her to sleep. Bless her heart she could barely sit up alone. She was as drunk as a skunk. It was very funny, but very sad at the same time. She did lots of funny things while we were at the surgery center. When she woke up all she would say was "get me out of this room." The only time she was happy after the surgery was when they got her a Coca-Cola. She would take a sip and then cry, take a sip and then cry.

She is much better now with the new tubes. She even spent last weekend with Grandma and Granddaddy.

ENT Visit

We went back to the ENT today and Julia is getting a new set of tubes on Friday. Yeah!!!! I hate for her to have to be put to sleep again, but that is better than her being in constant pain. I will post later on how it goes.

Journalist Jack

Every year the local newspaper ask the Kindergarteners at the local schools how to cook a turkey. Jack's recipe for a turkey got chosen to be published in the Journal Record. We are so proud of him.

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged by Tammy to do the following:
1. Choose the 4th picture folder on my computer
2. Choose the 4th picture
3. Explain the picture
4. Tag 4 people to do the same.

The pictures on my computer are organized by date they are uploaded so the 4th folder on my computer was when we were at the beach this summer and the 4th picture was of Julia playing in the sand. We were at Destin the week after the 4th and this is where you could find Julia most of the time we were there. She loves to play in the sand. She would build castles and then jump on them. She said "It is fun, Mommy!"

I tag:
1. Merry
2. Amanda
3. Robin
4. Heather

Blaine Thomas Bowen

Blaine Thomas Bowen was born on Sunday, November 30, 2008. He is precious. He weighed 7 pounds and 9 ounces and was 19 inches long. Davis and Meg are so excited to have a new baby brother. Rhonda and Tommy are very excited as well, but when I saw Rhonda she was in a lot a pain. I think this c-section was a lot tougher than the other two have been. She was trying her best to be in very good spirits and that is saying a lot for Rhonda. Julia was very uncertain about the new baby. I don't think she was jealous, but very quiet and clingy while we were at the hospital. She told us she did not like Rhonda in that bed. I can't wait for them to get home so I can see him a little longer

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Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful this year, but we did miss Brian and Erin. They spent Thanksgiving in Ohio this year, so they can spend more time in Alabama for Christmas. We had lunch at Mama Tommie's house and it was wonderful. Savannah, Julia and I made handprint turkey cookies for Thanksgiving. Savannah saw the directions for this project on Disney channel and insisted we make them as well. I agreed, but I don't know if I will ever do this again. It looked much easier on TV than it actually was. Here is a picture of the final project.

Thanksgiving afternoon we went to Meridian to Trey's parents house. The annual tradition for Becky, Kelly and I is to go shopping at5:00 in the morning. We were at Wal-Mart at 5:05 this year. We did not get the deals we usually get there this year, but you can't not go to Wal-Mart on Black Friday. While we were gone, Walter and Trey had the kids (Chris went shopping with the girls for a while and then Trey went in the afteroon. That way Trey would not be in the house watching the Egg Bowl Masacre.). They did really well with them. Here are a few pictures of the kids eating breakfast at the new table at Grandma's house. Noah loved sitting at the table with is big cousins.

Last night we had a hot dog and marshmellow roast at WC and Becky's house. The kids all think this is great. They had way too many marshmellows, but you always get to do things at the grandparents house that you wouldn't get to do at home.

Sunday morning always means going to church. Below are a few pictures of my babies before church. I can't believe how fast they have grown up. We are so thankful to have two wonderful families we can spend time with. My mom and dad, sister, brother, grandmother and uncle are the best. I love them so much and could not imagine life without them. Trey's family is just as wonderful. I do not have in-laws, I have another family that I can count on and trust just like my own. I am tremdously blessed with a wonderful husband, 3 beautiful children, and lots of other family and friends. I am rich beyond measure because I have them in my life.

Trip to Atlanta

Last weekend we spent the weekend with Brian and Erin in Atlanta. Oh, how we miss Atlanta, especially our church. On Saturday, Erin and I took the girls to the American Girl store at Northpoint Mall. They loved it. It is a little girls dream store. I was very overwhelming for Savannah though because there was so much to choose from. She could not decide what she wanted to tell Erin what she wanted for Christmas, but she didn't have any problem deciding what to get Meg.

On Sunday, we got up early so we could go to church at Eagle's Landing First Baptist. It was wonderful as usual. The presence of God is always evident in the services. It was great to be able to see some of our friends from there especially Mike Burt. We love the Burt family and we miss them so much. They were not just our friends, they were our family in Georgia. We could count of them for anything. We were very lucky to have them in our lives. I hate that we only got to see Mike on this visit because everyone else in family was gone to Louisiana for Thanksgiving. The message from Pastor Tim was wonderful as well. Jack was thrilled to see him. After the service we got to talk to him for a few minutes and before Jack could even say hello he already had Tim in a hug.

It was a great visit. I can't wait to go back and maybe we will get to see more people this time.