A Look Back At Christmas 2010 -Part 1

What a Christmas we had this year. It was so nice to be back home with family and friends. We had so many wonderful guests come to stay with us. I thought I'd share a few high lights of our holidays. Hugh had an odd schedule this month, but, we found a way to work around it. He worked most weekends,but, he was off the 18th so that is when we had our first Christmas celebration with his mom and Loyd, and sister Demetria and family (Kevin, Kaden and Russ.) It was my first time to host a dinner in our new home, and I was so excited that I'm sorry to say I didn't take many pictures, and Hugh was behind the video camera. Around the house at Christmas time. Here is my coffee station set up with goodies. I snapped a quick picture as I was setting out hors d'oeuvres and snacks on our new buffet. I picked up the platters and decor at my first visit to Mistletoe Market this year and combined it with a few McCarty pieces I already have. I'll have to show a better picture of our new dinning room later. We tidied up the house a bit on Sunday in order to prepare for our annual get together with "The Family," a group of some of our very dearest friends in the world. We lived together back in college (guys with guys-girls with girls of course.) We have been through everything together, and I do mean everything; graduation, first jobs, marriage, children, career changes, moves across the state and nation, illnesses, infertility, adoption, loss and death within our families, and yes I could go on and on. We will always be there for one another Proverbs 18:24. . . there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. We all have children now, so our yearly celebration is very family oriented, and we've started a few traditions. We open in prayer and enjoy a great meal together. The parents continue to eat and visit as the children play, but, then we gather everyone together to read the Christmas story, as we bring out the nativity for the children to touch and play with. We sing Christmas carols and we have a birthday party for Jesus. This year my friend Suzanne made a special cake for our celebration. Thank you so much Suzanne. She is so talented. Here is a link to her business blog (really cute cakes!) Our beautiful children. We tried to get them all together for a picture, but, we seem to be missing a few. Hey, they're kids -we just did the best we could. (hee-hee)Our Precious Girls! -Playing in the floor with the plush nativity set, while John read the Christmas story.
It looks like this is going to be longer than I thought so I'm going to split it up into two parts. I'll be posting part 2 soon. ~Blessings!