Christmas 2010

Here are some pictures from decorating our house for Christmas.  We were worried that Isaiah would be so interested in the lights and ornaments of the tree, he would break something or hurt himself in the process of checking it out, so we opted for a mini tree this year that we could block off with a baby gate.  Surprisingly, he wasn't that interested in the tree at all.  In fact, his favorite Christmas decoration was the nativity set.  Hmmm...something about babies being born around this time :)

Our Mini Tree



Matching Family Stockings



I had several days off for Christmas, so we made the trip to Hickory.  We stayed at Dad's overnight on the way to break the trip up, so we celebrated Christmas with he and Marie that night.  Isaiah took his first step without holding on to anything that night but then went straight down to hands and knees to crawl.  We're hoping he'll repeat that more often in the coming days, but he's proven to us on many occasions that he will when he's good and ready.  I didn't get as many shots as I would have liked, but here are a few...

  

Stalking Gracie

Buddies

Once we got to NC, we enjoyed lots of quality time with the family, and Isaiah and Hallie got to know each other better.  (Great) Aunt Peggy came over for Christmas Eve dinner.  We did our own little family gift exchange Christmas morning and I made pancakes for my boys (Isaiah's first and he loved them...I'm sure the syrup helped!).  We had brunch with Chris' parents, Melissa, Jason, Hallie, Richie, and Aunt Anne.  We had planned to drive to Lexington, NC for Christmas with the Starnes side of the family that evening, but we got so much snow that we opted to stay put.  We exchanged gifts with his immediate family that night and then celebrated Isaiah's birthday (will post separately).  We had to head back on the 26th, but thankfully most of the roads were clear enough for passage by then. 

This was a very bittersweet Christmas with Chris' family as his cousin and friend, Liz Helms, was in the hospital during this time.  She went home to be with the Lord on December 28th.  Liz was one of the spunkiest, most courageous people I've ever known, and we will all sorely miss her.  Visiting Hickory will never be the same, especially for Chris who grew up with Liz and shares so many memories with her.  We're thankful for the life she lived and the blessing of knowing her for as long as we did.

Four Generations: Chris, Ginger (Grandmom), Isaiah, and Great Aunt Peggy

Christmas Morning

Finishing up Christmas Pancakes

If you're thinking this doesn't look good, you're right.  It started with a couple of gentle love pats, and then Isaiah got brave and put more force behind it.  Sorry Hallie!

We drove back to Murfreesboro on the 26th and spent another night at Dad's.  Can you tell who the favorite uncle is...

Jared with step nephew and niece, Bailey and Taylor

We headed on to Waverly on the 27th and celebrated with Mom, Aubrey, Austin, Jared, and Mom's friend Debbie.  Jordan, Meagan, and Jude had planned to come, but poor little Jude was sick and they couldn't make it.  At Thanksgiving Isaiah watched Jude climb the stairs but wouldn't try it himself, this time he went straight to the stairs and did funny little dances on the way up.  A couple of times he bent over and looked back at us through his legs--so funny.  I got some of it on video, but somehow I missed getting it on camera.

Did you notice the theme of pictures with this billy goat puppet?  It sings one of the silly songs from The Sound of Music, and he loves it!  Actually, we all thought it was pretty hilarious.

We headed back home on the 28th to return to work on the 29th.  We really enjoyed our time with family, and though it was truly Isaiah's second Christmas, in most respects, it felt like his first and we treated it as such.  It's so crazy to think that this time last year we were speeding down the interstate to get back to Memphis late Christmas Eve/early Christmas morning after my water broke at Mom's house.  It was totally and undeniably worth it!