Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2009

Our celebration of Christmas began at The S&S House in Archdale. Thank you to Sherman and Sandy for hosting our family get-together on Christmas Eve. With Jenny and Family in SC with The Depps, with Matt B in Apex with Kristen's family, The Vasbinders, we had one child home with us, Adam! He worked in Boone on Christmas Eve, but drove down the mountain in time to join us at my brother's home. Sandy's family was there also and it was great to see Mike, Peggy and their children.
Brandon (Mike & Peggy's son), Sherri, Savannah (Brandon's
daughter), Tommy and Sherman. Lots of wonderful, delicious
food...and desserts!!!
Belle had a good time too! She's such a sweet dog!
Kit and Adam waiting on my laptop to work correctly so
that we could watch "the elfing" video clips!
Sherri is cleaning up. Sherman and Gladys Ann are in
conversation. So happy that GA could be with us this year.
Sandy and Peggy having conversation. Great to see Peggy
once again. Peggy and Mike graduated from HS with me.
We were Bulldogs together!!!
Sherri cleaning up again...she usually has a smile on her face!

Christmas Day! Adam went to Melissa's for a wonderful
breakfast with her family. Kit and I ate the can of 8 cinnamon
rolls all by ourselves! Thanks for fixing them Kit! We enjoyed
a skype videocall with Matt, Kristen and Turner! We put the
food together and traveled in the pouring rain to Julie and Joel's
house for The Boones to be together. We love that Jenny
called during lunch to say Merry Christmas!
The food was great, as usual! Here we have Emily, Bryson,
Katie and Jodie posing on the couch. I'm so blessed with 4
beautiful, inside & out, nieces!! We love our great nephew,
Bryson, too! Background folks are Marilyn, Adam & Kit. I
think that is Jay & Paul on the left.
Emily and Bryson live in Alabama now. We were blessed
that Doug was able to come home for a few days from
serving in the Army in Afghanistan. It was great to see all
3 of them!
Doug, Jay and Paul - Three great guys!
Kit is playing with Bryson's Transformer gun...dangerous!
Marilyn and Ron - love them!
Emily and Doug - love them too!
Adam tries to help his Dad with Bryson's gun!!!
Opening presents! Of course, Bryson got the most and
he should! He was our only grandchild present on this day
as the others were with their other grandparents having
fun! It was a good Christmas Eve and Day with family. We
are so blessed!

Celebrating Christmas 2009 - At the Beach!



Here's the beach house that we love! Last Jan., there was a beach across the street. There has been so much erosion, that huge rocks have been put into place to slow it down. No beach to walk on here, but some beach down the street that was walkable. Amazing how powerful the ocean can be!
We decorated the area around the fireplace to make it more Chrismasy. Putting out all of the presents was fun too.
Each child had a snowflake with their name. They liked that!
This was our Christmas Day morning at breakfast. Jenny and Matt D made us a pancake breakfast with homemade syrup! YUM!!! Jenny is a great cook! Our tradition is to have canned cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, so those were made also.
Here's Jenny working on the pancakes. She's a great cook!
She must have gotten it from both of her grandmothers, not
her own mom!!
Melissa and Adam enjoying their breakfast. Melissa is a
great cook also. So is Kristen! I guess I just lost my desire,
or maybe I never had it to begin with!!!
Maddox is our biggest pancake eater! I don't know how
many he ate this morning, but he and Uncle Adam had a
competition going on as to who could eat the most. Our
Maddox won!!!!
Turner enjoyed the pancakes also! No syrup though! Poor
little guy, he had a cold w/a cough during our Christmas
weekend. But he was still so good natured.
I don't think that Cyrus had any pancakes, but he was still
such a happy boy in his Christmas suit!
Addi enjoyed helping Uncle Adam give out the presents!
Uncle Adam enjoys giving out the gifts so that he can look
for the ones with his name on them!!!!
Cyrus enjoyed part of the gift opening, but then had to
take a nap.
This was the quietest that we had seen Maddox! He just
sat still as his presents began to surround him!
Turner got a big gift and decided that he needed to see
what was inside!!!
Grandad Kit waiting patiently until it was his turn to
unwrap a gift. We take turns opening one gift at a time
beginning with the youngest to the oldest...oldest was Kit!
Ah!! That big box was Turner's lawnmower!
It was hard to get a good pic of Addi so that it wasn't blurry!
She's always on the move!
Matt D playing with Addi and Cyrus
Matt B, Kristen and Turner...looking serious! A rare moment
during this family weekend!
Maddox loved putting his ABC Train puzzle together!
We all loved our gifts from one another. Great morning!
Pic from the top floor of our house. Friday evening, we left
snow behind in Greensboro. Only harsh, cold, rainy winds
at the beach. Rain stopped on Saturday morning, but there
were still gray skies most of the day with peaks of the sun.
See how close the water is to the beachfront homes! There
were surfers out there in the water for most of the day.
The dolphins were swimming up close also.
Saturday late afternoon...peak of sunshine on the beach
in the distance. This area down from us still has some beach.
Thank goodness!
Uncle Matt, Aunt Kristen with Turner B, Addi and Maddox
Lunch was delicious with sweet potato casserole, corn casserole
stewed apples and a veggie dip tray that the ladies each
prepared. Then dinner was steak, baked potatoes and salad.
Here is Adam cleaning up after the meal.
Sunday morning was sunshiny and glorious...but still cold!
Addi and Maddox posing in front of the big rocks on the beach.
Beautiful blue everywhere! Watching the waves splash
upon the rocks. This was a little splash. Some were so big
that you had to run back or get really wet!
Big splash was missed by my camera...or by me using the
camera!
Grandad, Gran, Maddox and Addi making memories.
Obviously, with all of these pics, the waves splashing was
interesting to us!
Adam and Melissa - love them!
Stay there Adam. We'll let you know if a big wave is coming
so that you can get away, not get wet!!!!!

We had a great time together as a family. We are so blessed
to have one another, to be together and make lots of great
memories. Thank you kids for a great weekend!

Maddox's Birthday - December 8th, 2009

Jenny, Matt, Addi, Maddox & Cyrus arrived in Greensboro
on the night of December 5th! They are here for 6 months
and living in Mom's house in Trinity. The house is now
quite different with 3 little youngins running around!! I
can see Mom and Dad smiling about that!
We celebrated Maddox's birthday several times! His
birthday is Dec. 8th, so Kit and I had dinner with The Depps
and opened presents. Then we celebrated again on the
following Saturday as The SC Depps arrived in Trinity to
visit. Maddox loved the Thomas Train set that they gave
him.
He loved the chocolate cake that Jenny made him too!

Cyrus is such a good baby! Easy-going and happy most
of the time. Here, he enjoyed Aunt Elisabeth holding him.