Christmas 2009

Here it goes. My big Christmas post chalked full of pictures! We stayed here in town this year and spent Christmas with Brad's family. We went to Atlanta last year and I suppose we'll continue this trade-off thing until my parents move to NC in 2012.

This post begins on 12/23 where Brad and I decided to invite a few friends over for a last minute dinner/get-together.
Nothing fancy but something to do on Christmas Eve Eve.

Here I am in my Heavenly Hostess apron! Perfect for a dinner party!

It wasn't a big crowd since most everyone had already left to travel home for the holidays.

We ate and drank some wine and more wine. LOL!
Here me, Kelly and Dana are in front of our tree.

Bestie Dana..we'll be hanging with this same crew and a few more on NYE.

Kelly with Dana's dog Reilly. She and Buddy had a ball playing together..as usual.

Then we move on to Christmas Eve. I woke up and started baking and cooking. Two pies, a batch of cookies, and breakfast casserole for the next day.

Then we went out to my future SIL and brother in-laws house for dinner. We always bring Buddy out there and the kids love him. Maybe a bit too much actually! Check out this picture below.

Reed kept chasing Buddy that he actually jumped up in my lap for protection!

Of course, more wine. Robyn has these MONSTER glasses. Too fun!

And.. before we left to go home we were there when Reed put out cookies and milk for Santa.

We woke up Christmas morning in our own home which was so different but I LOVED every minute of it.

Normally, I would miss my parents and feel nostaglic but this year I was really excited about starting my own traditions and memories. I guess I'm an official adult now?

Yes, even Santa visited Buddy. A few toys and treats.

As I mentioned in a previous post Brad got me new UGG boots and as you can see I was flabergasted!

I kept to our $60 limit.

And got Brad a video game he mentioned to me weeks ago that he had played at a friends house.

Buddy kept looking for more gifts.. and playing with the ones he had...

Then.. got a little love from his Daddy. Christmas morning love!

Then after opening our gifts we enjoyed the breakfast casserole I made. I used ham instead of bacon and it was GREAT!

Then we went back to my SIL's house to open gifts with the family. Check out Brad's big gift! A toolbox for the garage. He spent time yesterday getting it organized.

And.. his parents got him a cooler that floats for the lake. We'll never have to get out of the water again to get a cold one!

His parents knew what I would like. I got a wine themed gifts with this flag, a bottle of wine, grape earrings, wine glass charms, a wine stopper and the best of all? A piece of artwork that Ms. Becky bought me while at one of the wineries we visited on my bachelorette party.

I'll post about it later.

Then.. we did the invitations which I've already posted about and then started on dinner.

The table all set and ready to go.

A prayer. They were trying to get Reed to say it.

And dinner time! Isn't Paige a cutie? She wasn't too into actual Christmas dinner but she had a few bites.

Reed as well. Not too into it but he had a bite of a roll.

Then we just hung out, drank wine and talked and played video games.

A GREAT Christmas indeed.

Now it's just time for a New Year's Eve celebration.

BTW - don't you just love this ornament I got? Me on the front with a dog and a glass of wine in hand.

The back says.. DOG PERSON. So me indeed!

Hope you all had a GREAT holiday!