All is Calm...All is Bright...How About Exhausted?!

Our Christmas was the best one ever....we received our gift on Rachel's surgery day, November 24th! It has been a wonderful, month long celebration! I hope that your Christmas was merry and bright and filled with Christ too!

But, this girl is a little exhausted...how about you? I don't even know where to begin with our Christmas 2009 recap, so I'll just dive in with some pictures:


A few family shots before the Christmas celebrations began.

On Tuesday, Rachel invited several of her high school buddies over for dinner and a movie and Hannah had 3 of her closest Bff's over to spend the night:

They included a fun "White elephant" gift exchange:

Early Wednesday morning my Uncle from Oklahoma surprised us a day early...I think he was the one that was surprised though...I still had a house full of pre-teen girls and all of my baking and cooking to do. My kitchen was a mess and I was a vision in my pink bath robe!

I had 14 pans ready to fill with Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls. While the rolls were rising I made my Granny's Brown Sugar Pound cake....look how beautifully it turned out (just keeping it real). Thankfully, it tasted delicious....I hope my cinnamon rolls turn out better!

It wasn't long before the delicious, cinnamon rolls were ready. Rachel called one of her buddies to come over and have a fresh from the oven cinnamon roll....he is a friend and also one of my students...and yes, I was still in my pink bath robe (oiy-vay!). The rolls cooled and then I carefully packaged them for the neighbors (sorry Darci-ya'll were already gone).

I finished all of my baking and cooking and finally showered. We went out to lunch with my Uncle and Mr. Incredible, ran a few errands, ran home to cook dinner, and finally fell into bed at about 11:00. I still didn't have one present wrapped!

The next morning I set my alarm extra early. To our surprise, there was snow on the ground. Yippee! Mr. Incredible went to work, the girls were sleeping soundly and I finally had my moment to wrap the presents. I was so thankful that the gifts all came out even (my girls still count...didn't you?). Christmas Eve at last! We always celebrate with my parents on Christmas Eve.

My mom & dad and my 3 favorite girls in the whole world!

Mom's table was set so beautifully. I love the bows on the chairs!

Here is Uncle Tony and my brother(who traveled 11 hours to get here-it should have only taken 4 1/2 but he ran into a lot of ice).

On Christmas morning the girls woke up early to find their gifts:

Hannah wanted her first hunting gun (Mr. Incredible could not have been more proud) and Rachel wanted boots. After our celebration at home, we headed to Mr. Incredible's parents house for Christmas with his parents, his sister and brother-in-law and their 2 boys.

Look what I saw in the kitchen:

Here is the culprit-Nonnie! The girls with their cousins:

...tired of taking pictures:

We feasted-lobster and steaks-yum!
My mother-in-law is a caterer. Have you ever had asparagus wrapped in prosciutto? It is delicious!

It wasn't long before my youngest nephew looked at me with those beautiful eyes and said, "Aunt Kiki, is it time to open presents yet?" How could anyone say "no" to this face?

It was a wonderful Christmas week....and this Momma treasured it all in her heart!