Our Christmas Holidays...Starting in Kingston

Sorry for the long delay in my posts. Boy have we been busy! I don't even know where to start. This is going to be a long post with lots of pictures so here I go! Stay tuned for more about our Christmas within the next couple of days.

We had a great Christmas and stayed busy the entire time. It all started on Friday, December 17 with a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party that Caleb, Kathryn and I threw for our friends. We had 9 children here as well as there mom's to celebrate. I told the Christmas story, we made ornaments of baby Jesus in a manger, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and we ate birthday cake. We even all brought toys to donate to Toys for Tot's. It was so much fun and was a great way for the children to celebrate what Christmas is really all about. I hope to make this party and annual tradition.

Here we are making the ornaments

The birthday cake - all the children got to put their own candle on the cake and then blow it out. This signified how Jesus came for each of them :)

The kids singing Happy Birthday to Jesus

After the party, we quickly cleaned up, packed up and headed to Kingston Tennessee to celebrate Christmas with 3 different families on Saturday. We stayed at my grandparent's house, so it was fun getting to spend some good time with them. We went to Russ' Aunt's house on Saturday morning to do Christmas with Russ' mom's family. There were 10 different kids there and it was wild! The kids all got to open there presents and they had a blast!

Caleb got a new dinosaur Hot Wheels set - 2 of his favorite things!

Here's Elijah helping Caleb with his new toy

Kathryn got 2 new twin dolls. She absolutely loves them!

A few hours later, we headed back to my grandparent's house to celebrate Christmas with them. My parent's as well as my dad's family all came to eat lunch and spend time together. It was so great getting to see all of them. Caleb and Kathryn took naps most of the time, but they did get to spend a little time with everyone.

Caleb and Kathryn with great-grandma Stephenson

Here is my grandfather. He is 89 years old and recieved his first pair of dress blue's for Christmas this year from his children. He served in the marine's for 4 years in WW 2 and he never could afford to buy him his own pair back then. He always regretted that. So my dad and his sibblings went in together to get him his own dress blue's. He was shocked when he opened it and he LOVED it. He actually acted like a 5 year old child at Christmas. He put them on and modeled them all afternoon. It really was priceless!

What a couple - married for 65 years!

Here is my grandmother showing off her new quilt that my mom made her for Christmas. It has all of the flowers mentioned in the Bible on it as well as the sripture verses. It is beautiful and my grandmother loved it!

Kathryn got another baby doll - she is really into babies this year!

Here are my children with my cousin Jennifer's boys Andrew and Owen.

It was the best picture we could get!

We headed over to Russ' grandmother's house later that afternoon to spend Christmas with Russ' dad's family. We had a delicious dinner and watched the children open all of their presents. They really were spoiled with more toys, but of course they loved it!

Kathryn got a new vaccuum cleaner from Aunt Sally. It was a hit! Caleb and Roane had to keep taking turns with the vaccuum as well. Who would have thought? Kathryn also got a new baby doll, a sleeping bag and an adorable piggy bank.

Roane loves his new motorized car...

and so does Caleb! He also got his own digital camera, a sleeping bag, a big construction set and a dinosaur.

Flynn racked it up on toys too!

We got home from Kingston on Sunday evening and started to get ready for 3 more Christmas's! Stay tuned!