The Celebration Of Our Savior~ Christmas 2011

We had such a beautiful Christmas season celebrating our Savior's birth! We were able to spend lots of time with our families and make lasting memories together!

Christmas Eve is always spent at my parents. We all get together for appetizers and plates and plates of all kinds of cookies and Christmas treats.
We exchange gifts with each other...


each one simple, but sweet...

and enjoy time together eating, laughing, and sharing stories!

My favorite girls...

Love my Brooklyn under the tree...

It's hard to believe she was just days old last Christmas:)

My beautiful Grandma...

My brother Tim...

(We missed my brother Steve sooooo much again this year. We were all hoping he was going to surprise us by coming home! Ha!)

My sister and her family...

My amazing Dad and Mom...

And look at this picture...

LOVE it...

And next year there will be two more cousins in this picture! What a blessing!

Since the kids were up pretty late on Saturday night they slept in until about 8:15 Sunday morning. We didn't have to be at church until 10:45, so we still had time plenty of time to open presents, have a small Christmas breakfast, and get ready to go.

Brooklyn taking in all the goodies that Santa left for her...

Jake and Brooklyn opening their gifts...

Light Sabers and a remote control car were at the top of Jake's list...

I guess Troy gave Santa a super good report because he got both!

After presents were opened, we went to church. What a special morning it was to actually be able to go and celebrate Jesus' birth on Sunday! It doesn't happen very often and it was wonderful!

The next stop for us was Matt's parents house for Christmas lunch.

We were a little sad because Matt's brothers and their families didn't make the trip to Charlotte this year. We missed seeing them dearly and being able to celebrate with them.

We had a delicious lunch together of honey baked ham, honey baked turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, mac and cheese, black eye peas, and rolls! Whew! We were all so full after eating all that, that a chocolate pie and a pumpkin pie got sent home with us!

We exchanged gifts with each other...

Jake was in heaven when he received his pirate ship!

But most of all enjoyed just being together!

We had a very Merry Christmas 2011

and we look forward to all the blessings that 2012 will hold for us!