Christmas Day with Family

 We were able to be home till mid afternoon on Christmas Day and then we headed to see my Grams, Aunt Sheree and cousin Emma along with Mimi, Pop and Aunt Ashelyn.

 These girls are becoming a lap full for Grams.

 Pop almost convinced Allie to take a nap while we were opening gifts.

 Allie got lots of Mimi and Grams snuggles on her first Christmas. After visiting at Grams's we headed to Mimi and Pop's for a visit also.

 Bekah liked her ruby red slippers from Aunt Ashelyn

 Rachel got a head start on reading her new books while the rest of her sisters opened gifts.

 Pop got Allie to take a nap twice on Christmas Day, which was a nice Christmas gift for her mom!

Thankful for Jesus and the blessing of celebrating His birthday with family!

Family Christmas 2017, Part 1

 Christmas Eve evening we headed to see my dad's side of the family for Christmas Eve supper.  Here is Bekah getting hugs from Boom Boom Papa and Nanny Joyce.

They got lots of Aunt Ashelyn snuggles and got to help Aunt Sue and Aunt Janet put birthday candles on the birthday cake for Jesus.

They loved singing Happy Birthday Jesus with the family!

We enjoyed a great meal and it was good to catch up with all of the family

This teething little lady had a good first Christmas Eve. We headed home in time to get into their new Christmas pajamas and read a Christmas Story before bed.

McGuirt Family Christmas 2017

The Saturday before Christmas brought the McGuirt Family Christmas celebration. It was these two little ladies first Christmas celebration.

First , we had all the family over for lunch and ornament decorating.

Then since it was 73 degrees on December 23rd, we spent most of the afternoon outside.

There was basketball playing

 and lots of cousin time.

 This was as close as I  got to a full cousin picture this year. Inman was not into coming to have a picture with the girl cousins, he wanted to play in the Cozy Coupe!

 We got almost all the girls smiling

 and some of the Grand girls with Nana.

 After most of the little ones had naps, we headed to Nana's for supper and presents.

 We had more cousin time while the lasagna was cooking. Inman showed us how strong he is and had fun playing ball with Uncle Brent too.

The lasagna cookers did a great job again this year

 And almost all of that lasagna was gone at the end of the meal!  McGuirt lasagna for Christmas is definitely a tradition!

 Nana, Brent, Jason and Jared

 After supper, we opened gifts

 Rebekah was just a little bit excited about her new sleeping bag and pillow from her aunt and uncle.

 Bekah and Saylor had fun opening presents together

Overall, we had a good family day. It was not without its hard moments as we missed Papa with us this year, but hope in Jesus is such a blessing. Hope, while it doesn't take away the hurt and hard, keeps us looking forward at the good of the day and looking back remembering doing all of these things and making wonderful memories with Papa. Papa loved eating together, playing ball with the boys, playing in the yard with the grandkids, eating Christmas lasagna and bringing out a gift for each of the kid's and grandkids. So our day was spent together doing all the things we enjoyed with him. Hope, most of all, reminds us that Papa didn't just celebrate Jesus's birthday this year, he actually celebrated with Jesus Himself this year and in Hope, we know that one day because of Jesus coming as a baby, Emmanuel God With Us, living a perfect life for us and taking our sins in our place,we will be able to celebrate Jesus forever in heaven too.

Ornamental Occasion 2017

One of our family traditions that we have done around Christmas time for the past several years is our ornament decorating party. This year's ornament party was special because we were able to share in with some of our long time friends here in North Carolina. Mark, Miriam and I grew up the same small town and in the same church and our moms were all friends. Mark and Anna have 3 daughters, Miriam and Kyle have 3 daughters, so between all 3 families, there are 10 daughters.  Yep, 10 daughters ranging from 12 years old to 8 months!
Miriam and Kyle and their girls were in for Christmas from out of state and Mark and Anna drove in a couple of hours to join in the fun too.

We ate lunch together and all the girls played together. We laughed a lot today to

 We sang and had birthday cake for Jesus

and then it was time to decorate some ornaments!

We painted, glittered, sequined, sparkled and all around made those ornaments shine!

Here is some of the glitter and glue

and a couple of the finished ornaments too.

Bethany loved hanging out with all the big girls today.

All the parents had a good time visiting together too!

Thanks Ellis and Blevins families for coming to join us for Ornamental Occasion 2017! We had so much fun!

O Christmas Tree 2017

One of the first things we do to start the Christmas season is to choose and cut a live Christmas tree. We have done this every year we have been married, except the year Rachel was scheduled to arrive 2 weeks after Christmas and Brent wouldn't have me that far from the hospital that year, in case she came early. This year we were in the Greensboro area for a couple of days and we headed over to the North Carolina mountains for a morning to pick out our tree.

This year was really a tale of two trees. First, it should be noted that our girls name the tree every year. Yes, it's tradition and just something fun and cute that they do (last year was Frank the Frasier) Well, they decide on the way up the mountain that this year's tree will be Fiona. So off we go to look for Fiona. We look maybe 10 mins and the girls are all asking if they can get a tiny tree just for their room. Suddenly, Bethany stops right where she is and announces that this little tree is Fiona. Well, I tried "how about this one, it's a little taller" or "this one has more branches, wouldn't this be a nice one." Of course, no, nothing else would do but THIS Fiona. So I went to the old standby " you will have to ask your Daddy, sweetheart." Well, she asked sweetly and looked her Daddy with those big brown eyes and Fiona the Frasier was going home with us.

 Now the big girls had a dilemma...what to name the bigger tree for the den. Meet Freddy Frasier. Rebekah was helping measure him.

 This cutie loved helping pick out her first Christmas tree!

So we got the trees baled and tied securely on top of the car for the ride back down the mountain.

 We made several different ornaments and were gifted with some ornaments as well.

 We finally got our tree inside.

 and sure enough, Fiona is just the right size for her!

Fiona is finally fully decorated and they are thrilled having a little tree in their room too!

 It looks us a couple of evenings and Bethany even napped through tree decorating one evening, but we did finally get this one decorated too.

 Nana came over one night while we were decorating too.

 Love, love, love their first Christmases! It is such a special time!

 " O Christmas Tree 2017"