more Christmas hodge podge

The next Christmas event was the brunch that my mom and her friend, Pam, have every year. This has been going on since before I was born, I believe. It has always happened on a week day when, as kids, we were in school (on purpose, of course - grownups only!). So it has been neat to get to go and be a part of this tradition for the past few years!

If you follow me on twitter you may remember me mentioning how there was a mix-up about the date of my hair appointment and I ended up missing it. You can tell by this picture below why I was not thrilled to have to wait almost 2 more weeks to go in! Serious hair cut was needed!!

Me, my sister Kelley, my nephew Bennett, my niece Madelyne, my sister's mother-in-law Esther, and my mom at the brunch.

When did she get to be so grown up?? (Have I already said that multiple times? Seems like she grows up more and more every time I see her.) Madelyne loooves her baby dolls and takes such good care of them. I was the same way as a little girl. She's so very much like me it's scary sometimes!


Bennett had had enough smiling for pictures.

Santa baby...

They love being silly with the hats on Grandolly's hall tree. After this, M found our old fabric-covered broom-stick horse and rode around with this riding hat & some leather gloves. Bennett got to ride on the back once too. haha Did anyone else have those "horsies" when you were little? Isn't it amazing that these days we think kids have to have all these electronic toys and nonsense...good old fashioned imagination never runs out of batteries.


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The brunch was on a Thursday. That Saturday (12/12) was Bennett's 2nd birthday party! (That will have to be a whole different post.) After his party we went straight to the home of our friends, the Kirks, for the 6th Annual Merry Christmas Party. This has always included a huge, delicious dinner where we all bring our Christmas favorites, but it has evolved from being held in a tiny college apartment with folding chairs when none of us were married, to being held in the Kirks' beautiful home! I must say, I think we have all become better cooks too. We always have such a great time eating, socializing, playing Dirty Santa, and in recent years playing one of our favorite games - Things! This year we also got to watch as our own Mark Ingram brought home the University of Alabama's first Heisman Trophy! It was very exciting and so great to be with these sweet friends.

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The next day was Sunday and we met at my parents' house to take pictures for Christmas cards. Is getting a good large family Christmas card picture stressful for everyone else, or is it just us?? We have opted out of putting all the pets IN the picture with us these days and now just do them in a separate part of the card. That seems to work out a LOT better and makes everything much less stressful!

Cullen got to be my subject before we got started so I could find the right lighting & camera settings, etc. He's so handsome. How did I get so lucky blessed?!


I've already posted our Christmas card, but this is another one of my favorite shots.

This was the final product for my parents' Christmas card picture (note the pets at the bottom). It went inside an adorable card with a candy cane on the front and also had the Legend of the Candy Cane inside. If you're not familiar with the candy cane legend click here. They used the 3rd version on that page. So neat!

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On Tuesday night of that week (12/15), we had our annual Sunday School Christmas party. We really love our Sunday School class and always enjoy spending time with everyone. Our sweet teachers were kind enough to have us all over and do all the cooking. We love them!! This was our 2nd time to play dirty santa for the year. Cullen ended up with an Alabama Snuggie!! I believe I've posted before how much I love my pink Snuggie. Cullen had been wanting the Alabama one, so we were very excited. We came straight home and bundled up in our snuggies! Haha I think it's ok that we're such nerds sometimes. :-)