Christmas 2014

Other than our Christmas service at church, family gatherings are my favorite part of Christmas time.

I'm never that mom who finishes Christmas shopping weeks before Christmas. However, this year I finished up my shopping days before I usually do. It's a great thing I did because I was hit with the flu 2 days before Christmas Eve. The doctor told me I would be contagious for 5 days which meant there was no way my crew was traveling this year. After two full days in the bed, I worked up enough energy to wrap all of our gifts...

and spend a few hours at Nana and Poppa's on Christmas Eve.

{Heath and the kids stayed with his parents so the flu didn't spread like wild fire through our house. The sweet hubby was back and forth taking care of me, running last minute Christmas errands, and making sure to spend time with the Littles.} 

I was determined to spend Christmas Eve with family and thankfully Heath's parents were willing to risk getting the flu so we could all be together. 

 

 After a fun evening we came home to get ready for Santa. My pictures this year didn't turn out as well as they normally do. I'm blaming it on the sick photographer and not the camera.

It was an early bedtime for Santa's elves. The bikes were pre-assembled and I'd wrapped all of the presents while in quarantine. We were just praying that the early morning risers would wake up fever free.

 

 I was so thankful when I saw these healthy, smiling faces early Christmas morning.

 

 

 

 

 I think they were pleased their goodies!!

Christmas Day was a lazy one and thankfully the rest of my crew made it through Christmas break flu free!!

The day after Christmas we had Christmas dinner at Pop's and JiJi's. The siblings decided to draw couples this year and each couple ended up getting the exact same thing....dinner and a movie date! AR and Westin scored Frozen on Ice tickets for May!

 Memaw's crew finally got together the day after New Years!

This was not the Christmas I imagined nor did it follow the "tradition" we had set. I have to admit that I had a few "feel sorry for myself" moments and secretly I shed a few tears. However, holidays like this make us realize how important it is to us to be with our family. Life gets so busy and the days fly by way too fast but being with the ones we love is what makes us truly happy!