More Christmas!In keeping with tradition, the family gathered at Dad's/Grandpa's on Christmas evening for supper.
As you can see, Grant was the center of attention and his grandma had the camera handy - for a change. :)


After a nice meal of ham sandwiches with a side of lasagna, we spent the evening visiting. A nice time was had by all. Hard to believe that after so much preparation, the holiday is over for another year! But, it was a good one and now we look forward to 2008!
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day began at home. Natalie and David spent the night and woke up waiting to see what Santa brought them. :)

Matt, Whitney and Grant arrived before 9:00 a.m.

Let the festivities begin!
Grandpa held Grant while gifts were opened.
Then we ate breakfast - Gary's traditional sausage and eggs and this year we also had a wonderful coffee cake made by Whitney!
After breakfast, there was time to play with the new stuff! Stuffed toys are edible, right?
Abby even got into the act. Check out that snazzy bandana.Natalie and David left to go have Christmas with David's family.
And, Whitney, Matt and Grant went home to have their own family Christmas.
I've never seen a baby love a car seat like Grant does. He loves to go, go, go!From here, we all head to Grandpa's for the full-family celebration!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve . . . . . . flew by in a blur! We began at our house where we exchanged family gifts.
Everyone got a little something. Obviously, Grant is not old enough to open his own gifts, so his Dad and Mom helped him out. :)
After our family gifts were opened, we headed for church - then on to Grandpa's for more gift giving. As you can see, Grant was quite popular.

We had a great time, then we all headed home to wait for Santa. Alissa and her boys headed home to Hopkinsville and actually saw Santa over Bernheim Forest on their way. I know he made it to our house - I hope he made it to yours!

Merry Christmas!

Grandpa Is Home for Christmas!Grandpa (or, in this case, Great Grandpa) came home from Panama City Beach for the holidays. The kids decorated his tree on Wednesday of this week and on the 22nd, we resumed our Saturday visits. I think Grant enjoys his great grandpa!
I went shopping and while I was gone, evidently everyone wore the poor little kid out!
Look who's learning to sit up!
Merry Christmas!

Y

Festivities

On Thursday before Christmas, the girls and I splurged and went to the Macaroni Grill to eat, then to the movies. We saw Enchanted and really enjoyed it. I had a bit of a problem with the rodent/roach scene, but other than that, I was 'enchanted.' It was a really cute movie and a good choice for the season. On Friday, Whitney and Natalie came over and we baked cookies - 21 dozen total. We baked chocolate chip, peanut butter, snickerdoodles and lemon spritz cookies - then divided them amongst ourselves and Grandpa so we could all gain a few pounds!
Grant kept us entertained while we baked until he got sleepy. Contrary to popular belief, I wasn't the only one who took time away from baking to spend time with him!
Grant finally got so sleepy, but he wouldn't give up and take a nap. So, when Gary returned from his errands, he took Grant and held him while telling us of his morning's adventures. Grant fell sound asleep! Hmmm - is that the effect Gary has on everyone when he talks??
The last of the snickerdoodles - a baked reminder of the reason for the season (the cross, not the cookies)!
Cookie baking was a success! Thanks, girls, for your help. It's a lot more fun to bake with the ones you love than it is to bake by yourself!

Congratulations, Graduate! Matthew received his Masters of Science in Educaton and Human Resources (I hope I got that right) from the University of Louisville on Thursday, 13 December 2007! He graduated with a perfect 4.0, although there was no mention of it in the program or no recognition of it during the commencement. I thought they at least used to make note of it in the program, but not this time. Oh well, we know what a good job he did and we are the one's who count! :)
To say his father and I are proud would be an understatement!Grant won't remember being at the commencement, but the rest of us will. He had a coughing spell and I guess the appropriate word is "spewed" his dinner all over the place. He was sitting in Grandma's lap when it happened, which is a good thing. He'd been fussy when I had him over my shoulder, so I turned him around and sat him in my lap - in the nick of time. Can you imagine what kind of damage he could have inflicted on the row behind us if he'd been over my shoulder when the "fountain of milk" started? We definitely would not have won any friends! He certainly made a mess, but it was just one of those things. Grandma didn't mind getting soaked and I actually enjoyed taking him to the rear of the auditorium to rock and sing him to sleep. David came and took over in time for me to see Matt receive his diploma.We had a surprise visitor while we were there, too! Doug and Kellie were attending the graduation to see Kellie's sister receive her diploma. This was a great photo opportunity! As was this! Doug took our photo so we could have a whole-family shot. How nice is that?
And, after all was said and done, look who perked up? I'm sure it was just so Grandma could get a cute picture. :)

Congratulations, Matt, on a job well-done! You are a fine young man and we are proud you are ours!

Y

Tree Trimming

Last Sunday the kids came over to help decorate the tree. It makes it a lot of fun to have them all around to help!
As you can see, Matt the Pest, was also decorating Whitney!
Dad even put on an ornament! First ornament in 30 years, I think! Good picture of the top of his head (a.k.a., the bald spot). :D
Grant enjoyed the festivities, too.
We found out that he liked the green icing on the sugar cookies! I think he got more on his face than he did in his mouth, but it matched his cute green outfit!And, here's the finished product! Beautiful, right? Well, last night it fell over and made an awful mess. I finally got it upright and thought it was pretty stable, but this morning, it had fallen over again!! It has now been tied to the wall and redecorated. So, with a few smashed branches, it doesn't look quite this good anymore, but we were lucky that only three ornaments were broken and two of those can be glued. So, all's well that ends well. We don't usually put the tree up until 15 December, anyway, so I guess we are still on time!

(P.S. It wasn't the cat's fault, either, because she was with me both times it fell. Just wanted to set the record straight.)
Merry Christmas to all! And, to all a good night!