Christmas 2010.

This past week was a busy week, full of Christmas festivities.  Monday evening, we drove back to Arkadelphia to celebrate Christmas with Gary's parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins at his grandparent's house.  We had taco soup and exchanged gifts.  Between the wedding and Christmas, we got to spend some quality time catching up with the Grant side of the family.  (Unfortunately I forgot my camera and we didn't get any photos of our Christmas gathering.)

Tuesday evening we drove to Warren to attend our friend Hunter's Christmas party.  We enjoyed meeting some new people and catching up with Hunter and his parents.

Wednesday after work, Kristin and Meghan came over to exchange gifts.  Kristin is here visiting from Delaware for a few weeks.  We laughed, snacked, watched The Grinch, tried (unsuccessfully) to hook up with the 4th member of "The Order" on Skype, and made earrings.  I'm looking forward to more time with these two this week.

Thursday evening we celebrated Christmas at my grandparent's house with my mom's side of the family.  Instead of exchanging gifts, we played games and over ate.  However, the games did provide each person with a cash prize, and I, somehow, won the big one!

Friday we were both off work, and spent the day running last minute errands and cleaning house before heading to my parent's house for dinner.  Mom made a traditional dinner of chicken and dressing, and we watched old home videos from past Christmases.  After dinner, Dad let us each open one gift early.  He had gotten Jessica and I each a Smith and Wesson 38 special revolver, and John Allen a muzzle loader for hunting.  This is my first gun, and I'm looking forward to going to the shooting range to shoot it soon.

When we got home Gina and Zach were at our house waiting for us fresh from Chicago.  We exchanged gifts with them and enjoyed looking at pictures from their honeymoon, before heading to Epoch's first ever midnight Christmas eve service.

Christmas day we woke up early and exchanged gifts with one another at home, before heading to my parent's to exchange with the rest of the family and eat brunch. 

After a restful afternoon at home, we had Christmas dinner at my grandparent's with my Dad's side of the family. 

Today we spent the day resting and shopping.  Gary got a good deal on a TV for our living room at Best Buy and we are looking forward to it arriving Wednesday.  This evening we went to see True Grit with my family.  It was excellent!

Whew, what a week.  I love all the traditions of Christmas and the special times spent with friends and family.  Now tomorrow I begin the undecorating...

We got more than we needed this Christmas. I'm reminded of how very blessed our family is at this time of year.  Hope your Christmas was merry and bright.