Happy Christgiving and Merry Thanksmas!

We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas in one afternoon while we were in Tennessee last month. This was the day after Anna-Claire's birthday party. Our weekend was fast and furious--but also lots of fun! I'll let the photos tell the story of our celebration.


A Christmas Miracle! Seriously, the girls willingly sat on the sofa and smiled for the camera. (Don't expect it to happen again anytime soon. LOL!)


So did Grammy and Grampy! Except they were sitting on the love seat for this picture.


Johnny carves the ham prior to consumption.


Enjoying the delicious meal


The annual turkey photo. Seems like the collection grows a little each year. Pretty soon, we'll have to rent a storage unit for them all. ha! This year, I conned Johnny and Anne into keeping most of the turkeys at their house--they have a lot more room than we do. LOL!

(I got a little carried away with the red-eye fixer in iPhoto. Sorry about that!)

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The Gift Exchange! We don't "do" gifts for the adults (with the exception of Grammy and Grampy). Every year, we say this, but we do end up getting each other trinket gifts--"just a little something." It has become a family joke.


The presents were plentiful!


It was a bla bla Christmas for the girls! I got Riley (pictured above), Rebekah and Abigail these cute kangaroo purses as part of their gift. (I did a lot of shopping at the big ol' bla bla sample sale last month. Just ask Tanna--he was very interested in what I had bought when he saw the credit card statement. ;o) Seriously, though, if you saw everything I came home with, then you would be impressed. Very impressed.)


All the girls got bla bla finger puppets, too. Here's Rebekah with hers.


Abigail (and Anne) with her bla bla goodies. She got a lot of dog finger puppets because she *loves* dogs.


Anna-Claire enjoyed opening presents this year!


Grammy and Grampy--looks like someone's been good this year.


Robin got Grammy this personalized canvas bag from L.L. Bean. She loved it! (Grammy loves dogs, too, and the one on this bag looks like her dog, Dakota.)


Awww, who can resist that smile?


Remember that bucket full of CNN goodies I won at that silent auction?


Well, guess what I did with all the fun CNN stuff ...


Here's Steven on trash patrol. What's a gift exchange without a trash bag full of wrapping paper at the end?


These rolling suitcases were a hit with Kate! Thank you, Skaggs family! Kate also received some great play food and Little People things, all of which she looooooves. Thank you to our generous and very thoughtful family!

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After the presents were opened, it was time for individual family pics by the Christmas tree:


Grammy & Grampy


Steven, Robin, Rebekah & Riley


Tanna, Karen & Kate


Johnny, Anne, Abigail & Anna-Claire

We missed Joe, Cindy and the kids (Joshua, Sarah, Hannah, Caleb, Marianna, Isabel, Jonathan and Joanna)--but we sure hope to see them again soon!

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Soon, it was time to pack things up and get ready to start our drive back to Atlanta. It was also time for the little ones to take a nap.


Anna-Claire was so excited about this new book she received, but she just couldn't make it all the way through its pages.


Love this pic--I sapped it as we were walking out the door.

Happy Thanksgiving! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! BLY!