Christmas 2009 Wrap Up...

I can't believe it's already over! It seems every year it goes by quicker and quicker!

I've already blogged about the 1st Annual Tacky Christmas Sweater Party, which was SO much fun. The next night we had the Singles Ministry over for their Christmas party. Sorry, I didn't get my camera out, so no pictures. It was a really good time. We had lots of food & fellowship. We played the traditional dirty Santa game. And then we finished the night off with a fun night of Mad Gab. That game is HARD! Especially if your spokesperson for your team has just had 1 cup of coffee & 3 Red Bulls in about a matter of 5 minutes! Yes, Kendall Bell is no longer allowed that much caffiene at one time.

Then it was time to get ready for Christmas Eve. This year we had Christmas Eve with Steve's family and we decided to do it at our house. I was so excited! We've never done anything during the holidays with our family at our house. So, I got off work early to get started, but of course God had a different plan! There was a horrendous wind storm & it knocked a power line down! Perfect! Just as I was getting started, our power went out. So, I did what I could, and we were going to pack everything up to go to his parent's instead. But then God smiled on us & the power came back on.

It was great having them here! It gave his mom a break and I think it was a nice change.

This was our table for the night. I think we need a bigger table! It was packed!!!!

The girls gave us a new camera for Christmas. I started realizing I wasn't taking as many pictures now that Elaina was around. I started thinking about it and realized it's because with 2 girls I don't want to lug a BIG camera around. And we have 2 pretty big trips planned for 2010 and I don't want to be lugging a big carry on bag around to have pictures.

Steve and I have never been good at waiting to give each other our gifts so we opened ours before his family came over. I had a hard time getting the camera to focus, so the pictures didn't turn out as good as I wanted. But I'm getting much better.

Once we finished with gifts, we pulled out the Wii and played a little bit. Then it was time for everyone to go home so we could get ready for Santa.

Emily helped me put out the reindeer food she had made at school and lay out the cookies for Santa. She was so excited!

Santa was really good to the girls! Emily got a dollhouse & some clothes. Elaina got some sort of keyboard toy thingy and some clothes.

They had so much playing with their new toys! Although I think Elaina had more fun playing with the tissue paper the gifts were wrapped in.

After we opened our gifts, we had some breakfast. Our sweet neighbors gave us Apple Barn pancake mix for Christmas, so I fixed those. They were AWESOME!!!

Once we ate, we headed to my parents for Christmas.

We hung out for a little while and had some snacks.

Then it was time to start unwrapping more gifts. This was Elaina's first gift she opened. It's a stuffed animal that turns into a pillow.

As soon as she saw it, she laid her head down. This picture is her in action!

My sister got Emily a Cake Bakery. It's kind of like Easy Bake Oven meets Ace of Cakes. I'll blog more about it later.

We took Sampson (our new puppy - I don't think I've mentioned him yet so more on him later). Here's him and Steve.

My dad told the grandkids how when he was their age his favorite thing he got was a goody bag from the church. It had fruit, mixed nuts, peppermint sticks, orange slices, and chocolate covered raisins. So, he had a bag for each of the kids. And I have to say, all us big kids were sneaking in the bags for the orange slices! Always a favorite around the Mckinney house!

I know I've lost most of you after all this. Thanks for sticking around if not. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!