Family Christmas '09

Right before we left to join all of Aaron's family for Christmas we took an evening to have our own personal Christmas.  This year really showed me the joy of Christmas.  I am so very blessed to have kids that are thankful for just getting a present and are joyful over whatever they are given.  All of their gifts came from garage sales, thrift stores, hand-me-downs, or craigslist.  In fact the two toys they loved the most cost me a total of $3.  You know as a parent you want the best for your kids, so having to head into this Christmas on limited funds was sad, but my kids made it wonderful.  One of my favorite things about this Christmas was the new tradition we started.  We decided to take the kids to the Dollar Store and give them $1 for each member of the family they were to buy a gift for.  It was really amazing to see their thoughtfulness and creativity.  They actually got some really great gifts that were perfectly fitting to the recipient.  And let me tell you that those were the gifts they were most excited about - and it was about seeing how much the person loved the gift they had picked for them.

Early Epperson Christmas '09

(Kids jumping for the first time on there new trampoline from Mimi and Papaw)

This year we had an early Christmas with my side of the family.  We once again had a fantastic time together.  It wasn't too rushed and my brother, sister, and brother-in-law were able to visit from Friday, Dec. 18 - Monday, Dec. 21.  We all packed our bags and stayed under the same roof so that we wouldn't miss a moment together.  We planned our activities just like it was the real Christmas and had a blast.  We even got to fit in a special photo shoot so that we could have lasting memories of our family at the time in our lives (thanks mom and dad for that special gift).  This I loved about this Christmas were: spending time with my sister being pregnant with her first precious baby; having my son grasp the concept of Santa and being excited; watching Aaris love the season but also showing great appreciation and kindness for everything she was receiving and experiencing; giggle over how Skylyn toddled around trying to mimic everything her sister and brother were doing; getting great quality time with our extended family; having the help of everyone with my kids; and of course eating my mom's homemade candy.  :)

The Real Santa

Well, we had heard about the real Santa that lives in our neighborhood.  We happened across his very decorated house one night while looking at lights and got a copy of his schedule to visit with him.  One night after eating dinner we suddenly decided that if we were going to see him, it had to be right then or it wouldn't happen due to scheduling problems.  We headed over unprepared really, but it was totally worth it.  He was just wonderful.  Very, very kind.  He attentively listened to each child and waited patiently for parents and grandparents to take as many pictures as they wanted.  The kids were cold, but kept their hands warm by holding onto the Christmas lights in the line.  Aaris was very happy and comfortable talking to Santa.  Titus was about to not sit down with Santa, but after a little persuation he sat and slowly warmed up to Santa.  By the end he actually was making eye contact, talking, and smiling.  Skylyn cried the whole time and didn't like being held by anyone other than me.  I look forward to getting to meet the real Santa again for years to come right here in our own neighborhood.

Early December

We were really blessed to have so many fun experiences this Christmas Season. At the begining of December we got to have our first snow. It only snowed hard for about 30 minutes and then was gone and blue skies shined bright, but it was Titus's and Skylyn's first time to see snow. Aaris's teacher took their class outside during the snow so she too got to have fun in this rare sight in Round Rock.

The next day we went to Burnt to walk through the Main Street Bethlehem village the First Baptist Church runs. It was like walking through what it would really have been like in Bethlehem when Jesus was born. There were venders, houses, the inn, jail, live animals, bread to eat, fireside activities, Jesus in the stable/cave, and so much more. The kids really liked it as did all of us adults. Aaron's parents took us because they had been before and we were so happy to have our newest cousin, Janae, and her precious boy Julien join us. Main Street Bethlehem was a great way to start our Christmas season off with the right frame of mind.

Light Up The Season

We have had so much fun this Christmas season and stayed so busy with all our friends and family making it impossible to have time to get to the computer to post anything. So...now it's catch up time.

Aaron spent most of every weekend from Thanksgiving until Christmas on other people's homes putting up their lights. Therefore, he got a head start on ours and put our lights up mid November. As is now tradition, the kids got to get up on the roof. The BIG, HUGE, ALL IMPORTANT difference this year - we now have a one story house!! So this time they actually got to let go of Daddy's hand, stay up with him most of the time, and truly help out a little. My nerves were not as strained this year, but I still had to stay inside most of the time to not get anxious.

Titus cracked me up, and well, made me feel quite empathetic for him most of this Christmas season for one reason. He never really understood why our house didn't play music with the lights this year. And, he didn't understand where all our previous outside decorations went this year. He was always asking, "When are we going to turn on the music?", or "When are we going to put up the red lights and the Christmas trees?" Titus even told me several times that he wished we could move back to our old house so that we could have all our lights and music. No matter how many times I told him that our music and lights were not at our old house, but instead here in our storage room, he never understood. Sweet boy.

FABULOUS FAMILY PHOTO SESSION

This past weekend we had an early Christmas with my family (Eppersons). While with them my parents bought us a photo shoot because it had been about 3 years since our last all inclusive family picture. We just received the slideshow of our session. My family loves TEXAS and AUSTIN so we had our pictures taken up at the state CAPITAL. Wanted to share the pictures with you all. The slideshow expires in 2 weeks.

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Epperson/



:)