Merry Christmas from Texas!

Merry Christmas from Texas! With our official first home purchase this year, one of the many things I was excited about was putting out Christmas lights! I didn't go crazy this year, especially with baby Rhodes on the way. Just did the front bushes. It really looks much prettier in person.

Kyle & I both worked on Christmas Eve. We then had Billy, Paula, Brett, Amanda, & the Herd Grandparents over for a Christmas Eve dinner. I made mom's recipe for beef burgundy (yum-O!), rice, broccoli, salad, homemade monkey bread, with Christmas cookies for dessert.

Here is a group pic of everyone before we started to chow down. Don't we make a cute crew? After dinner, we went into the living room to exchange gifts & had lots of fun.

Paula with her parents on Christmas Eve. Grandma & Grandpa Herd had just celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary on this same day! Amazing! God has been good...what a blessing their marriage has been!

On Christmas morning, Kyle & I woke up in our own house, which was really fun! For the past 5.5 years we have been married, we have woken up on Christmas morning at either one parent's house or the others. So we actually felt like real "adults" waking up in our own house this year. Don't get us wrong, moms, we love you, but were also happy to have our own time together on Christmas morning this year. Here is a pic of us in our PJ's on Christmas morning before opening our gifts.

Mom even sent some special surprise gifts for us to open from Ohio. A few of them were our first few items for baby! We got a baby name book, some bibs, and an ocean sound machine. The sound machine is from Doug & Vicki, the preacher I grew up with in Ohio, who performed our wedding, & who we have shared several great memories at Norris Lake with over the years. Thanks so much, guys!

We then celebrated Christmas with the Rhodes side of the family at Billy & Paula's for dinner on Christmas. Paula had all kinds of good stuff on the menu: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, squash, salad, homemade rolls, cinnamon rolls, pumpkin pie, raspberry pie, thumbprint cookies, etc. (I'm sure I left something out). She cooked ALL day and it was delicious! Don't worry, my contributions were corn casserole, a relish tray, a cookie tray, & a tray of homemade fudge. We definitely didn't eat "calorie-free!"

After dinner, everyone got together & attempted to sing a karaoke version of the 12 days of Christmas, which I got on video. I may try to upload it if it will work within the next day or so. Let's just say it's pretty funny, especially Paula!

We then had a "white elephant" gift exchange. Even the kids took part. What we discovered is that the saying "one man's junk is another man's treasure" really can apply, especially when kids like cousin Alaina are involved.

Overall, we had a great Christmas day. We did miss Grandmother Rhodes at our get togethers, as she was sick with the flu. We also missed our Ohio family....it's tough to be in two places at once!

We look forward to celebrating more holidays with our families in the future. Merry Christmas, everyone!