Well I guess I will wrap up Christmas this year. After our great weekend with all the Oney's we spent the rest of the week preparing for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I must have been on a peanut butter kick this year because on Christmas Eve we made peanut butter pie, peanut butter cookies, and peanut butter fudge! It was all yummy too. That evening we headed over to my Dad's house for Christmas Eve with the family. It was great as always! Here are all the cousins and spouses minus Chelsi and Bobby who couldn't be with us this year. (sad)
It was sweet baby Gracen's first Christmas! Here she is with her pretty Mama, my sister Mandy.
She looked adorable in her holiday wear tutu! She has the most adorable, chubby legs I have ever seen! Her big sister Leighton and cousin Lyla had a great time dressing up in their Cinderalla gear that Aunt Kylee got them.
So I really have no words to describe how much Leighton loves her big cousin Kyle. I mean she LOVES him so much. She always wants him to hold her and follows him around. She is always giving him hugs and kisses. It is so cute and funny to watch. Kyle loves her too and ususally accomodates her every whim.
Here is my sweet girl on Christmas Eve.
After getting tons of loot at Grammy and Poppy's we headed home to get to bed so Santa could come. Here are my sweet babies on Christmas morning getting ready to go down and see what Santa brought.
Santa brought Lyla a musical princess vanity and Kyle a Kindle.
They had a great time opening presents and playing with their toys all day. Nana and Papaw spent the whole day with us and Marlene and Tom came over for Christmas dinner. We cooked a turkey on our Holland Grill and it was delicious!! We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you all did too! I am blessed with such a wonderful family. Here are some more pictures. Enjoy!
Every year the weekend or two before Christmas my mom's extended family, The Oney's get together for our Christmas. Aunt Teresa (TT) flies in from Florida and we are all so excited to see her! Mamaw comes down from Eastern Kentucky and Todd the youngest brother comes in with his wife and kids from Nashville. It is one of the only times (sometimes the only time) we all get together throughout the year. We had a great time being together. Here are the four cousins. (Todd' kids and my kids) Sam, Maya, Lyla and Kyle.
Maya loves Kyle! It was such a mild day they got to go to the park and play for a long time together.
My dear Papaw passed away in 1997 so Mamaw is the glue of our family. Here she is with all the kiddos.
We all went to our favorite family tradition dinner place to eat, Giovanni's in Nicholasville. If you haven't ever eaten at one I strongly suggest you do! Here is a group photo of all us after we got home. This is such a special picture because it has all of the generations. Mamaw is on the couch with all of her children and the grandkids and great grandkids are on the floor.
I am always sad to see our time together come to an end, especially with Teresa because we don't get to see her very often. I have so many wonderful memories of spending our holidays together at my Mamaw and Papaw's when I was growing up. My grandparents are wonderful people who instilled such a sense of faith and family in us. My papaw would be so proud to know that all of his children and grandchildren are Christians. That is all he ever wanted for us was to know Jesus. He read the Christmas story from Luke Chapter 2 to us every year, a tradition that Todd has continued since his passing. I miss him so much, especially at Christmas.
Time flies when you are having fun and the week with Teresa here was gone before we knew it. We had a blast and laughed a lot. One night we drove through Southern Lights and laughed so hard and had such a great time. Here are some pictures we took before we headed for the airport.
I already can't wait until we can all be together again!
This posting is not an update on our family, but rather some things I've been thinking about lately. With Christmas fast approaching I have been thinking a lot about the reason for the season. I know that sounds cliche, but it is true. JESUS. There seems to be a lot of attention on Jesus in the media lately, thanks to Tim Tebow. Kind of funny that Tebow is causing the hoopla about Jesus but yet we are in the midst of the season that celebrates his birthday. Which has also got me thinking about why non-Christians celebrate Christmas. Obviously it has become a secular holiday but for me it is a religious holiday. No one knows what day Jesus was really born but December 25th is the date that was chosen to celebrate His birth. Because of His birth we have a Savior, but what does that really mean? To me it means I have someone that loves me no matter what I do or say. To me it means I have an advocate who is always on my side no matter what. To me it means I have an intecessor to God. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Without him NO one can come to the Father. So to me his birth is pretty darn important.
In church we have been studying the verse John 3:16. Sounds pretty basic as it is one of the most famous verses in the world, one that most people know even if they are not Christians. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." So what does that really mean? It means that God loved us SO much that he wanted to save us, even though we messed it up with our sins. He is still giving us the chance for eternal life with him. And what do we have to do to get this eternal life? BELIEVE. That's it. We don't have to do anything, go anywhere, do any rituals, perform any acts, nothing but just believe. Sure there are good acts we want to perform because we are Christians and want to demonstrate Jesus' love, but none of these acts gets us the eternal life. What did we do to deserve this gift of Jesus? Again, nothing. God's grace is the only reason we get this Savior. He loves us so much that he does not want anyone separated from Him, and sin separates us from God. Jesus came and washed away those sins and if we choose to believe in Him, we will never be separated from God again. We will have eternal life. That's it. It's that simple.
I love Christmas time and all that it brings with it. I love my Christmas tree, I love Christmas carols, I love spending time with my family. But most of all I love celebrating the birth of my Savior. I hope this Christmas if you don't already you will choose to believe also. I promise it will be the best gift you will ever receive.
"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."
Luke 2:11
Here is Martina McBride singing my favorite Christmas carol.
Well it's been a rough couple of weeks around our HouseHould. Along with Kyle recovering from his tonsillectomy, Chris got a nasty virus. He has been sick for almost the whole week and has barely slept. I feel sad for him. I think he may be on the mend finally though.
Kyle has finally turned the corner on his recovery. He has started eating again and has been able to stop taking pain medicine. He returned to school today. I have missed him a lot! The one good thing about this surgery (besides hopefully eliminating strep throat) is that I have been able to stay home from my part-time job for two weeks. I LOVE staying home with my kids and always have. I have never been one of those who get fulfillment from a job. True, I never really had much of a "career" or job I liked before having the kids so I am sure that makes a big difference. But I am really hoping to be able to stay home permanently soon, thanks to my hard working hubby!
In other news Kyle had a RIDICULOUS project for school, especially for a 3rd grader. We ended up building a monument to Johnny Appleseed with the help of my wonderfully artistic cousin Missie. She and I did the whole thing and Kyle did...nothing! I don't blame him though because it was way too much for his grade level. I actually received an email from another parent today saying she found the project on a website for SEVENTH GRADE level!! What the heck?? Add to it that is was due during the holidays and for us in the middle of a tonsillectomy. Anyway here is the finished product. I hope Missie and I get a good grade.
In holiday news I avoided Black Friday like the plague but did get our Christmas Tree up. My bff's daughters who were visiting their best bud Kyle decorated my tree so fast my head spun. I am definitely inviting those girls over next year for a tree trimming party! Kyle gets bored after hanging like three ornaments and usually I am left decorating the whole tree myself. Here is the finished product.
So my favorite time of year is here, and no it's not Christmas. It is UK basketball time!!!!!!!! And the Cats are #1 going into the big game against UNC tomorrow. Go Big Blue!
