Christmas 2011

Just like the weeks leading up to Christmas, Christmas itself was filled with lots of events.  Every holiday of the year, we typically spend them with one of the two families, if not both families.  This year we decided that we wanted to spend our Christmas Eve's at our house with Luke each year and wake up to spend Christmas morning at our house as well to start OUR Christmas Tradition.  Luckily, my mom & dad, my granddaddy, and Stephen's mom & dad were all able to come up to enjoy Christmas Eve and Morning with Luke.  Stephen cooked pork chops and I made a green bean casserole, a corn casserole, and homemade mac & cheese.

Growing up, my family always did presents from my parents and grand parents on Christmas Eve and then Santa on Christmas morning.  Knowing that we were going to be rushed on Christmas morning due going to Booneville for church, we decide to do the same thing with Luke this year.  So, Christmas Eve Luke got to start opening presents.  He was so funny!!!  Five months ago at his birthday, he wanted nothing to do with opening present but this time, he was good with it.  As he would unwrap the present, he would pull off one piece of paper at a time.   Each piece of paper he pulled off, he took it to the trash bag that his Poppa (Stephen's dad) was holding.  After he had thrown that piece away, he would go after another piece.  It was so precious!  Below are some pictures of us trying to capture all of his excitement!

Yay!!  All these presents are for me!!

Notice that there is NO paper on the floor!!  I love this kid!  I just wished he would clean up his toy mess in the living room this way :)

After Luke opened his presents, we ate supper and then put him in the bed.  This was around 7:30.  We were kinda loud (all the adults) while eating desert (chess squares, chocolate fudge pie, Oreo balls or just a 2nd helping of supper) so it was around 8:15 before he finally laid down and went to sleep in his bed.  Since we had all the company, Stephen and I decided that we would sleep on an air mattress in Luke's room but waited until about 10:30 before going to bed (seemed like plenty of time for him to get good & asleep for him not to be aware that we were in there).  Well........ you can probably tell with all the details here that things did not go quite as planned for the remainder of Christmas Eve night :).

So, about 11:00 pm, Luke decided that he would wake up.  When he woke up and saw us laying there on the floor in his room, we heard a little giggle and then a "Hey".  In efforts to allow the rest of the house to sleep that night, I got Luke out of his crib (I knew that there was no way he was going back to sleep once he saw us) and let him lay down in the bed with us.  Which, for us, was not a problem.  It was a king size blow up mattress so, there was plenty of room (or we thought).  Luke is a WILD sleeper - He flips and flops all over the bed and so with others in the bed with him, that made it hard for him get to sleep good (my opinion). This went on until about 1:30 am.  At this point, he sat up in the bed with us, gave one of "his laughs" and was ready and wanting to play!  (So far, I think that Stephen and I were the only ones in the house that had not slept - Neither sets of parents or my granddaddy had heard Luke so all was good with everyone else.)  So, it was clear that this sleeping arrangement was not going to work if Stephen, Luke or myself were going to get much sleep.  Therefore, Stephen and I decided that it may work better if we moved the air mattress into the dinning room and put Luke back down in his crib.  Luke did not think this was a good idea at all!  He sat in his crib and threw several fits, woke up both Mimi and Grammy, and got several spankings from his daddy (which broke both Mimi & Grammy's hearts) before deciding about 4:00 that it would be okay if he went to sleep!  So finally after 4:00 am on Christmas morning, all were sleeping soundly at the Burks household.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that neither Poppy (my dad) or Poppa (Stephen's dad) EVER heard Luke scream and throw his fits that night!!!

Good Morning & Merry Christmas!  

Stephen got up at 7:00 to start cooking sausage casserole and I got up at 7:30 to make cinnamon roll.  Our party animal was up and ready to see his Santa at 8:00 am!  Below are some pictures of Luke with his and Reeses presents from Santa!

Hey Ya'll - Look what Reese got!  Yes, this was the first thing he went to :)

Yes, Luke is still holding on to one of Reeses's milk bones while checking out his Rocking Dinosaur

Oh - I almost forgot to share this story!  One the presents that Luke opened on Christmas Eve was MSU Snowman outfit that Mimi made for him.  She had it in a gift bag with tissue paper.  Luke pulled out the tissue paper and took it to the trash.  And then, he pulled the outfit out of the bag and took it to the trash can as well.  I promptly pulled it out, told him NO, Mimi made that for you!  At this point everybody in the room started laughing and therefore he thought we were playing a game.  So, he pulled it out of my hands and took it back to the trash can!!  He kept doing this over and over and just thought that it was the funniest thing (And of course so did everyone else in the room!!).  I will admit, I was laughing as well - This kid is a hoot!

Luke with Mimi in the outfit she made for him

After we got back from 10:00 am Worship service at the church in Booneville, we loaded up the truck to start our journey south to spend Christmas with the Burks Family and then with the Jones Family.

First stop was at Stephen's mom & dad's house for Lunch and Christmas with them, Mary Beth, Michael, and Thomas. The lunch menu included grilled chicken halfs, dressing, cream corn, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes casserole, and rolls.  Here are some pictures of Luke & Thomas while opening presents....  (please ignore the shadow in these pictures - I do not know why my camera kept snapping pictures this way - I missed several photo opportunities trying to figure out what was going on)

Well, that is one way to empty a stocking!!

AWESOME - 100 extra balls to go with the 45 balls that came with the MegaHut tunnel and tent set!  THANKS Grammy & Poppa :)

Thomas is loving all the balls!!

Is the banana peel good for you just like the apple peel??

Look daddy - more books for us to read together!

After we finished enjoying Christmas with Stephen's family, it was time for a Steak Supper and Christmas with the majority of the Burks family (Nanny, Pa, Uncle Stan, Uncle Doug, Aunt Cindy, and Uncle Keith).  Sadly, none of the other cousins were able to join in these festivities this year due to other family gatherings.  We were able to video chat with Becca, Bryan, and Martin (there stayed in Arlington, TN due to being "attacked" by that awful stomach virus.

Hey Becca & Martin - we missed ya'll!

Luke is so proud of Uncle Doug's shirt!

Grammy and Luke playing with the LeapFrog Fridge Farm Animals!

Thanks Martin for my very own music set!

Thomas knew exactly what this present was and neither one of them could wait until we got it opened!  These two boys LOVE them some music!

When the Burks' Christmas wrapped up around 8:30 pm on Christmas night, we loaded up the truck with all of "goodies" and headed south for Christmas with the Jones on Monday.  So before I knew it, it was Monday morning, the day after Christmas, and time to spend some time with all my sisters, nieces, nephews, parents, grandaddy, and even all the brother in-laws!  This is a rare occasion for all us to be able to get to spend time together!  Luckily, I was able to take an extra day of vacation and therefore we were able to spend 2 whole days in Forest.  I love this time and just wish we could spend more days like this together - there is just something special about that sisterly love!!!  Tradition for Jones Christmas is finger foods, pizza, and entirely too many presents!  And, as expected, this year was no different (even though we were "cutting" back).  Below are some picture from Jones Christmas....

Grandaddy with all of his Great Grands!  Such a special picture!

It was goofy smile time!  This kids are a hoot - including the "center of attention"!

Elizabeth Tew (Kristin's oldest)

Corban Tew (Kristin's middle)

Joshua Tew (Kristin's youngest) - sorry, he was too busy opening presents to actually look at the camera :)

Madeline Henderson (Ronda's oldest)

Katie Ann Henderson (Ronda's youngest)

My sweet baby boy (sitting on his awesome Zoo Talkers!)

Well, I hope that you enjoyed our Christmas 2011 Story but more importantly, I pray that each of you truly enjoyed the "REAL" Christmas story - Celebrating the Birth of Our Lord & Savior!!!