Christmas 2008

For the first time in quite a few years we celebrated Christmas with my dad's side of the family on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas day. Instead of going to Mimi's house, Shannon and Matt hosted the gathering. The grandchildren also changed things up by doing a lottery ticket exchange rather than gifts. After eating lots of good food we went to celebrate with Rich's side of the family, where we ate even more!

Christmas morning my parents walked Gracie and Holly down to our house for breakfast. Rich cooked eggs, bacon, and crescent rolls. Apparently Santa was quite busy or a few elves short because he skipped our house. Instead of opening gifts we went to Harrisonburg and watched "Yes, Man". I would have rather seen "Marley and Me", but the movie was pretty funny.

Mike picked Hailey up at 5:00 and after getting her dressed in her dress, we all went to my parents house for Christmas dinner. We had turkey, stuffing, potatoes, peas, and lots of other yummy stuff. Hailey had fun feeding some of her peas to the dogs. I'm glad that she has learned to share at such a young age..."one for me, one for you or the dogs" is pretty much how every meal goes. She had a really long day, but hung in there for presents after dinner. After practicing all day she had opening her presents down! She ripped off tiny pieces of wrapping paper and then handed them to one of us. Grandma and Grandaddy gave her lots of Little People which she really enjoys.

Mike saved playing Santa for the day after Christmas so that Hailey would have presents to open in the morning. She just about dove into the gift bag after her new remote and cell phone! I spent much of the afternoon rearranging everything in Hailey's room so that the new toys and clothes had a place to go. She will be back this evening until Monday! (Yes, that is Hailey with her feet hanging out of the bag!)

Last, but not least the dogs got to open their presents and Maddie as usual was the quickest even with one eye! She gets her stitches out on Monday, thank goodness!

You can't really tell in the picture below, but Rich gave Tank a new haircut on Christmas day...a Mohawk! If you look close you can see the hair standing up in the middle of his head!