A few Christmas Highlights

David and I drove home on the Friday before Christmas to get settled in for the holiday. After the Christmas Eve service on Saturday night, we tucked in at Mom and Dad's...anxious for Santa to come! When we awoke on Sunday morning, the gifts were all in the den - Santa must've been tired! We loved being there on Christmas morning with my parents, brothers and sister.

This is my parent's tree. Santa came to see us! And still leaves each of us our "piles." :)

What could be in the box?

Brince and David each got a set of corn hole boards...score! I got some really awesome stuff too...a few surprises, and several that I already knew about! Thank you so much Santa!

After opening gifts, we gathered for breakfast. My grandfather and Aunt D joined us for biscuits, egg frittata, grits casserole, ambrosia, sausage, and bacon wrapped tater tots - shown above. Everything was wonderful!

Our Christmas morning table!

Mom's narcissus are beginning to bloom!

Two of the cutest helpers ever!

After finishing up at Mom and Dad's, we moved over to my in-law's house to meet them, Amanda, and our nephew Ben.
 We had an amazing dinner of filet's with baked potatoes, layered salad, squash casserole, and coffee ice cream for dessert. Pammy and Pop really outdid themselves - the house looked beautiful, and we received wonderfully generous prezzies from Santa. ;)

Baxter was excited too!

Little Ben with his Big Box!

Pammy and Pop's tree

Ben and I in his new game chair from me and David

On Monday morning, we awoke and had breakfast there too....grits and coffee cake! Yum!

That night, we headed out to the Coody Cabin to celebrate Brince's 27th birthday. He was born the day after Christmas, and we always gather together again to enjoy cake and singing Happy Birthday over the holidays. My parents, Abbye, Gongaman, Jill, Asa, Sydney, Brince and Laura Lyn all joined for a dinner of steaks, peas, mashed potatoes, wild rice casserole, crescent rolls, and DELISH red velvet cake for dessert.

Happy Happy 27th Brince-O!

Merry Christmas From Home!

And a few more of our faves!

Merry Christmas!

A few of my favorite cards...

David and I both love getting Christmas cards in the mail during the holidays! For the past few years we've displayed them in our kitchen, and this year I did the same thing. I would have loved to have found the time to make something fabulous to display them on....but oh well, there's always next year, right?

Here are some of our fabulous friends and their adorable cards...

This is, of course, my and David's card this year. I LOVE the way it turned out!

And here's the back! We did so many fun things that I had to show a few of those too!

Coody, Hardin, and Barron Christmas

On Friday night of this past weekend, David and I drove home and got ready for the Lamar Christmas party at Connie and Bob's house. Sadly, we didn't get any photos of the fun night, but lets just say we had a late-night dance party til' 1am at Mom and Dad's - it was a good night. :)

On Saturday, the Coody family gathering was at my parent's house with my Aunt Dinah and her 4 kids. Then, it was time for the Hardin Christmases on Sunday. But first, here's some of our Saturday night:

The Coody Side of the family....a more traditional pose.

And a silly one!

On Sunday, we began with church, a lunch with my Aunt Jill and her 4 kids at the HorseShoe, and then another family gathering at my Gongaman's house - the Barron Family Christmas.

Miss Mary and Susie made the most delicious meals for us all to enjoy!

 Before the extended family got there, we exchanged gifts (we drew names) with my Aunt Jill and her kids.

And this is the Hardin side of the family....again, the traditional photo...

And the silly one.

And then, about 6pm, we had dinner with about 20 of the extended family members before David and I got back on the road to Gainesville.

It was a great, fun weekend with family, friends, and lots of love. We are heading back to Hawkinsville on Friday!
Santa, we've been really good this year!

My new MAI Member

For the past two years, my hubs has been working towards his MAI Certification, and he's been approved as a new MAI Member right here before the holidays! What a sweet Christmas present!

I am so, so, so proud of him! The MAI is the highest certification one can receive from the Appraisal Institute. You all may remember our two trips to Chicago in 2011 and our trip to Fort Lauderdale...he was taking classes so as to speed the process along. Many classes are offered in Atlanta, but it would have slowed the process because they're only offered at certain times. And how fun is it to take a "work trip" to Chicago?

Now, all of David's hard work has paid off, and he's got his whole career ahead of him.

Congratulations to my honey!!! and Merry Merry Christmas!

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