Christmas In the Atl

Six Christmases have been completed. I am so exhausted I can hardly move! But we had a really really great time. If only we didn't both end up sick with horrible colds everything would have been perfect. Now we are both laid up on the couch sniffling and coughing and trying not to wince in pain every time we swallow. Ugh. Lord help me!! So what better time to catch everyone up on the events of the past few days?

I should back up all the way to when we landed in Atlanta last Thursday. We had dinner with all of our parents Thursday night, spent the night at Deaner's mom's house, and headed to Virginia on Friday morning to visit Deaner's grandparents. Since there were going to be 10 extra people staying at his Grandparent's house, we opted for a hotel room this time. I was a little sad at first not to be in the hustle and bustle of things but it became clear quickly that it was the best decision that could have been made. We actually got to sleep past 5:30am when all the kids would wake up and we got to enjoy long hot showers in the morning without worrying about hot water! Too top off the chaos of the weekend, the snow started around Greensboro on the way up on Friday and didn't stop until Saturday late afternoon. 13 inches of snow later everyone got their fill of sledding for the year! I don't remember seeing snow like that in awhile! It was definitely a good time.

Sunday we headed home for the marathon to begin. Monday evening we had Christmas at Deaner's dad's house with his sister, brother-in-law and nephews. Tuesday night we had Christmas with my Dad's side of the family in Covington, Georgia. Wednesday night we had Christmas with Deaner's Mom's side of the family in Lawrenceville. Thursday we had Christmas Eve with my Mom's side of the family at my parent's house. Friday night we had Christmas night with Deaner's Dad and Stepmom. We finally returned home this morning completely worn out! It has been a long fun week and it has been great to spend it with all our family. Now it is time to sit back, relax and try and get better!! Oh yeah, we have some friends we want to see too!

Remember me bragging about how good my gifts turned out? I wasn't lying! Here are a few shots of how they looked when I was done.So, now you understand what I am saying? Some people are just GIFTED at wrapping presents and I happen to be one of them! I wish I had pictures from all 6 of our Christmases but unfortunately my camera was left in Germany. Therefore I only have pictures from my parent's Christmas that I was able to steal from my Mom's camera. Look how great her house looks decorated! I hope one day I can do the same with our house!I want my Christmas table to look like this and my bar to look this fantastic when I grow up!It just isn't fair!! One of these days I guess (way in the future!). We have a family tradition at Christmas dinner of having Christmas poppers at each place setting. Each popper has a little toy but most importantly a paper crown. If you are going to eat dinner at our house, you must eat with your paper hat on.Pretty funny, huh? Here is my husband chowing down on the uneaten clams after dinner.No hat, no food. My cousin in the background wasn't allowed to eat! Ha. And that about wraps up the first 10 days of our trip. We had Mexican for dinner tonight and have been on the couch watching football all night with raw noses and congested heads! I hope we start feeling better by tomorrow because this stinks. I will post picture of our gifts as soon as I can take some because I have been dying to share what we gave everyone this year. I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!