Is it really already Christmas Eve? This is one of my favorite times of the year and the only thing I don't like is that it goes by way too fast. We had so much fun celebrating the season last weekend. Friday evening I spent time with my girls from work. Shelly hosted us at her lovely home in Caddo Mills and the 5 of us had a time playing spoons and other festive games Shelly had organized. We ate, and exchanges gifts and enjoyed each other out side of the office. Saturday we went to Tyler to do some more shopping and then to my Pa's side of the family Christmas dinner. Bree was such a ham at the party. She played with all the kids and thought she was as big as them. Although, they were all way older than her. Nona brought her a present to open and she was so good at opening it. She really has it down, now. She got a tea party set and loved it. Her and the other kiddos sat there playing tea party for the longest time. This was a very good time and then Kerry and I left Bree to spend the night with my Mom and went to Lannie and Amie Dugan's for a party with some of our friends. Sunday we relaxed and worked on wrapping the presents. I noticed at this time that at some point Bree decided to add some decorations to our family tree. She had hung her pink bracelet on our tree and left it there. I guess she wanted to add her touch to the tree. I thought it was very sweet and left it hanging there too. This week has been flying by. Bree is really into the presents and last night while I was wrapping some she pointed and said, "Mine, mine, mine". I explained that at Christmas we give gifts to those we love just as gift were brought and given when baby Jesus was born. We celebrate his birth by giving. I could tell this was all way over her head because she pointed again and like a broken record was saying, "Mine." We will continue to work on the meaning of Christmas, but I am thrilled she is big enough this year to open presents and really get excited about everything. I am so excited about Santa coming. I use to love this as a child and I love sharing it with Bree. Kerry and I layed awake in bed talking last night til like 1:30 am about it. I couldn't sleep I was so anxious. This morning I asked Bree, "Who is coming to see you tonight?" She replied so sweetly, "Santa Claus, he brings presents." I just love the excitement in her face and voice. And, yes I know there is a much more important meaning to what this special day is about and we teach Bree about that, too. But I also love the magic of Santa. And it is way more fun playing Santa and sharing it with our daughter than I ever knew it would be. As A child it was a tradition for Malena and I to fall asleep in the same bedroom together listening to 106.1(they play nonstop Christmas music on Christmas Eve). We had a deal that whoever woke up first would wake the other person and we would run into the living room together to see what Santa had left for us. I remember the glow of the presents under the Christmas tree and the magic of the unwrapped gifts Santa had left for us sparkling in the dark. Malena and I would usually wake up around 3 or 4 and our 'Santa" almost always came really early, so we would look at all our gifts and play with them for a while and then around 5:30 or so we would go wake Mom and show her what Santa left. Then around 7 or so Mema and Pa always came over to see what Santa had left for us and share this special time with us. This was so much fun and Malena and I enjoyed it so much that my Mom told us that as long as we believed, Santa would come to see us. So we "believed ", and even today Santa still comes to Mom's to see us. The magic of Christmas morning is something I can still feel in my heart and I can see the glow of our tree in the house we grew up in. I am so excited to share this magic with my daughter in our own home. I hope everyone has warm memories that feel your hearts at Christmas and share the magic of the season with those you love. Merry, Merry Christmas!!

I absolutely love Christmas time. Last Friday and Saturday night we spent with friends at holiday parties. Saturday was the "Magnificent 7" as my girlfriends and I were called in high school, party at Audra's house. We gathered around 4:30 with all the children. There are 5 girls and 1 lonely boy. We are working on a second generation of Mag. 7's. All the girls are really close in age so it is so fun to watch them interact. And Hardy, well he is our ladies man!! One day he will appreciate being the only boy, but for now he is surrounded by dolls, pink toys and girly bows. Poor thing!! The kiddos had fun exchanging gifts and enjoyed decorating sugar cookies Audra made for them. Then the little ones all went with their Daddy's or grandparents so the 7 of us could enjoy an all adult dinner. We ate at Posados in Lindale and man was it good. I had a blast spending time with the girls. We went back to Audra's and played the white elephant gift exchange, which is always interesting and enjoyed our time visiting. As always the night flew by and the next morning it was sad to say farewell. I really love these girls and we all share a very special relationship that seems to thrive even with us all living in different areas and in different stages of our lives. These girls and I have been friends since elementary school and are the kind of people who I know I can always count on...good or bad. We are so blessed to have each other. Sunday we celebrated my SIL b-day at Kerry and Debbie's. I am also very fortunate for my in laws. I am definitely surrounded by wonderful friends and family. We took Bree to MSBC Festival of Lights. The program was great, but Bree is still too little to really enjoy it. She slept thru the whole thing. Little doll!! We have had a pretty busy week. I have officially gotten all my presents wrapped for Christmas. Lets just hope I haven't forgotten any one. Bree has helped us do a lot of baking and candy making. She loves to help. She is so funny. I just love this stage in her life. She is talking so well. Wednesday was my office Christmas lunch and our theme was mexican food. I made 7 layer dip and we all enjoyed our party. The staff all exchanged gifts which was fun and very entertaining. While I am counting my blessings, I am fortunate to have a career I love and to work in a lovely office with wonderful people and a great doctor. I really do still love scanning and it is nice to get to know my patients and their families. Tonight Bree is spending the night with Bebe and Gramps, so Kerry and I can have our weekly date night. Thursday nights are officially are time together as a couple. We usually have dinner somewhere or do whatever we chose. I am not sure what we will decide to do tonight, there are a couple of movies out that interest me. So I guess we will see. This weekend I have a party in Greenville on Friday evening and then we have a family party and one with some of our G.S. couple friends on Saturday. I can't wait! I love all the festive parties. Have a great weekend!! XOXOX

Christmas Memories

Well I am copying this from my girlfriend Holly, thanks for the great idea. I loved reading your memories. Now, I am going to tell you about some of my favorite Christmas memories. Christmas in my house was always so much fun growing up. With Christmas music loudly playing in the radio my Mom would let my sister, Malena and I help decorate the tree and put up the lights outside on the house. We had theses lil wood characters and so many lights I use to think it looked like a Christmas wonderland at our house. And then we would go inside and spend the evening making Christmas sugar cookies from scratch. We would cut out trees, bells, gingerbread men, santa claus, and stars from the most delicious dough. So good we would get into trouble for eating it raw. Then we would cover them in our choice of sprinkles and bake them to perfection. We also helped Mom make peanut brittle, fudge and my favorite, peanut butter balls. These memories are so precious to me. My mother and sister both love to cook and are very good at it, I must say. As for me, well I didn't inherit that gene, but I do love to make Christmas cookies and candy with some of my favorite people. This is one of my very favorite memories and I was so thrilled to include Bree in the baking this year. May we have many more wonderful memories.

Holiday Fun

We spent the weekend getting caught up on sleep and settling in our home. Bree enjoyed relaxing around the house in her Christmas pj's. We read her at the time fav. book for the gillionth time. It's the Princess Fairytales. She picks that book every night to read. Talk about getting old, but she won't have anything else right now. Saturday we had some family pictures taken and Bree was such a lil ham. She really likes to have her picture taken..wonder where she gets that from? For those of you who know me, you know I don't go anywhere with out a camera. I am very picture happy! Cara at Magical Memories gave her a candy cane when we were done and she ate the whole thing before we pulled into our driveway. I think she might have liked it! Now when she sees them hanging on Nona's tree she thinks she has to have one. I told her no, and she asked me "why?" I had no idea that all would start this early. She has been asking me why a lot this weekend. It makes me laugh, I just had no idea she would start that so early. Kerry got our closet shelves finished so I unpacked the boxes in our closet. It was so cool finding all my clothes, shoes and purses that I hadn't seen in 6 months. It's like I have a whole new wardrobe. I love it!! Saturday afternoon we took Aubree to see the Christmas parade downtown. Bree loved the tractors and horses and of course the candy she picked up. We asked if she wanted to go see Santa and she said,"yes"with a smile. So we followed the crowd to the depot to see Santa but when we got to the front of the line and it was our turn Bree started to panic. She held on to me as tight as she could and started to cry hysterically. There was no way she was going to sit in Santa's lap. Needless to say I had my picture made holing Bree next to Santa. We really enjoyed the Winter Bizarre and all the fun Christmas activities. Sunday we started our holiday season off with the 1st Christmas Party. We had the Miller Family Christmas. This is my Mema's mother's side of the family. It was a big turn out. My Mema's Uncle Timmis Miller who is 91 was the only sibling who is still alive of the 8 siblings of my Mema's mother. It is really neat to see all the extended family from my Mema's side and I am blessed that everyone is so close. Bree enjoyed lunch and playing out on the slide with all her distant cousins. But I must say I think her favorite part was present time. Mema gave her present to her and she immediately tore the bow off and started to unwrap it. This year Christmas is going to be so much fun for her. She knows all about presents now and how to tear into them. It was so fun to watch her tear into the package. Sunday evening Bree and Nona made Christmas cookies. Bree actually ate mor than she made, but she was still a good helper. Nona always makes the best Christmas cookies and candy and it was fun for Bree to help her like her Mommy use to do. I can't wait for the rest of our Christmas activities. We have 2 parties next Friday, 1 Saturday, 2 the next weekend and then who knows what all we will be doing the week of Christmas. We always have a very busy holiday season and I wouldn't want it any other way. I love seeing all the friends and family for the holidays! Speaking of family, Kerry's Grandmother Burnett received some, plain out BAD news from her oncologist this last week. She has lung cancer again. For those of you who know Gigi, she is one of the strongest women I know. Please pray for her as she will be going thru a lot this holiday season. May everyone have a blessed week. XOXOXO ( Oh, I found these pictures from Bree's 1st b-day and decided to post them since I never did. I can't believe how much she has changed in just a few months.)

We had such a blessed TG. Bree was such a joy. I was fortunate enough to have Thursday and Friday off to spend with my family. Wednesday night we ate supper at Kerry's parents with the family that had already made it to town. Kerry went duck hunting with his brother and family early Thursday morning and amazingly, Bree and I slept in til 10:00. She is such a good snuggler and we both enjoyed the time of resting together. Bree and I got ready, Bree wore her turkey shirt that Aunt Jen made for her. Talk about cute. Then we met Kerry at my Mema & Pa's for lunch. Bree was such a joy at lunch. She loved all the food and especially loved to share a piece of Mommy's favorite, million dollar pie. My Mema does most of the cooking for our family and as always it was delish. Bree really was entertaining. She is such the talker these days. We watched some football and then went to the Kindle's for supper. Both sides of Kerry's family were there so it was definitely a full house. Bree had a blast playing with all her cousins. There are 3 little girls now...so they are making a come back to catch up with the boys. We are so blessed by our family and really enjoyed spending time with them. Lights went out at our house around 12pm and I was awoke by my alarm at 2:30 am to enjoy a family tradition that was started with my sister. We love bargains, so we would always get up super early for black Friday deals. Every year the stores open earlier and earlier and if you don't get there when they open, chances are you won't get what you want. So Mom and I left GS at 3am to arrive at JCPennies at 4am when they opened. I know it sounds crazy, but it is really a lot of fun and something my family has been doing together for about 15 years. We look thru the sale adds and make a list of where all we want to go on Thurs. night so we can be prepared for the big sales. It is exciting to see all the good sales and then to try and cross people off my Christmas shopping list. We got all our shopping done ( we hit like eight places) by 8:30am. I was so thrilled we were able to get everything we went for. Mom and I had such a wonderful time and are still laughing at the memories we made. Once we got home I was going to go take a nap when Bebe called to see if I wanted to go to 1st Monday with some of the family that was in town. Not wanting to miss out on a girl shopping trip I decided to join them. Aunt Beth, Aunt Julie, Allie, Bebe, Jennifer , Kate and I had a good time shopping and I am almost all finished with my Christmas shopping. That's what I love about black Friday, the bargains and getting most of my shopping done. The sleep deprivation hit me Friday evening around 7pm and Bree and I were asleep on the couch by 9pm. Poor Kerry, we had rented movies, and he was the only one who stayed up to watch them. I just could not stay awake any longer. Sat. Mema took Bree and I to Ivan Smith Furniture to get a new breakfast table. The two tables from our other house are too big to fit in my new breakfast area. So for Christmas Mema offered to get us a table that will fit. We found a really cute one and Mema didn't even make me wait til Christmas to unwrap it. Bree actually did help us pick it out. We were looking at tables and it was between two and I ask Mema which she thought would be best. Then I walked over to the one we didn't pick and was looking at it and Bree said"NO, no, no!" and that was that I knew she liked the other one best of all. Thanks Mim! It looks great in our breakfast area. I also put up the tree in our family room and Bree's room and most of our other decorations. The ones I could find anyway. Bree loves the trees. The one in her room is a white tree with pink and silver girly ornaments. She thinks it is so special to have her own tree in her room. I tried to do some wrapping too, but Bree wanted everything I was wrapping so I decided to do that at a later time. Our house is 90% decorated for the holidays. I love this time of year and can already tell it is going to be so fun for Aubree. Sunday was baby/child dedication at MSBC. We committed in front of the congregation and God to raise Bree in a Godly home and do our best to teach her and train her up for the Lord. It was very special time for us. It is very important to Kerry and I for Bree to know the Lord and to some day commit her life to Him and be saved. Bro. Ronald did a really neat dedication service and gave the 7 children personalized Bibles. It was very cool. Kate was one of the other babies dedicated, so it was even more special for us. Also, every year Mom sends flowers to the church to set out on the Sunday after Malena's b-day in honor and remembrance of her. The flowers were absolutely beautiful and I know the congregation enjoyed them. After church we had lunch with Kerry's family and then spent the afternoon relaxing. Bree has been using the potty like such a big girl. She tells me almost every time she needs to use the restroom. She is such a big girl. She loves our new house and is so proud of her room. She has already discovered how much fun it is to jump on her bed. We put it on the toddler bed this time instead of the crib. It is low to the ground with a side rail so she can easily get up and down. Every time I go in there she is on her bed either playing with her dolls or jumping on it. I can usually tell when she is jumping by the loud laughter coming from her room. She is just a bundle of joy for sure!! Happy Monday to everyone!XOXO