Christmas...play by play...

Okay, here are the pictures finally!

To start things off right, I must begin with this picture. It speaks for itself pretty much. Let me just say that Mom and I started out shopping Christmas Eve morning and we passed by this sign...I laughed SO hard! Matt and I went back to Mom + Dad's that night to exchange gifts so I told him he must drive to this special place and view this wonder...

...needless to say, he got quite the kick out of it too! Haha!



The girls had so much fun! It was fun just watching them! See my mom? She is chompin' on some candy! Every year we give her that Old Fashioned Hard Candy and we always manage to get her in the background of pictures chompin' on a piece! Haha! I love you, Momma! :)



We tried to catch them up to speed by getting them a DVD player! Haha! Mom is totally stoked! Dad's looking to see if it's an XBOX or Playstation...sorry, Daddy! But he did get one of those Pac-Man games that you plug directly into the TV...and he was totally stoked about that! Haha! I love you, Dad!



Here's Dad trying to enjoy his new PacMan game while the girls try to "help" him out a little! Haha!



I think this is my most favorite picture of Kaylee to this day! It shows her in her true state! Haha! What a hoot she is! I'm not sure what was going on here...but I'm glad I had my camera handy! Haha!


After exchanging gifts at Mom and Dad's, we went to the Christmas Eve service at 11:00pm at church. It was really great! I love it every year! It's not Christmas Eve without it! Matt and a few of the guys from church did a Ricky Scagg's arrangement of Away in a Manger...they did a super job! We left the church and went over to Ralph + Regina's for a bit just to hang out. We came home and were so hyped up at this point and it was around 1:30am...we briefly discussed breaking tradition and exchanging our gifts right then since it was "technically" Christmas Day and we'd have to get up in about 4 hours anyway...so we went ahead and did our Christmas then! It was so much fun! Here's some of what we got...


This was sort of a joke gift from me to Matty...a Bob Ross t-shirt! Haha! I knew he wouldn't wear it since it was a ringer tee, but we always joke about "Van Dyke Brown" and "Happy Trees" so I HAD to get it for him...even if we did just end up taking it back to the store...which we did! Haha!



Here's me opening up Slinky Dog! Sweeet!



Bllllaaaahahahhahha! This picture makes me laugh so hard! Hahahaha! I got this at the Sam Goody store at the mall and thought it was a GREAT stocking stuffer! Hahaha! I made sure that the little cashier guy knew that it wasn't for me, so I made it a point to say, "What a great stocking stuffer for my husband!"...he apparently didn't hear me because 10 seconds later he asked me if I wanted it in the bag with the CD that I bought. "Ummmm, well, since I'm not really one to walk around in the mall drinking "Pimp Juice", then yeah, you can probably just go ahead and put it in the bag!!" Hahaha!



Mmmm...lookin' pretty rough around the edges at this point! Ha! But proudly displaying my gaiters and sporting my new bibs! Hahaha! Thanks, Matty! I mean, Santa! :)



Slinky Dog with a hairbow! Haha!



The aftermath...this was not pleasant to wake up to the next morning...2 hours later...hahaha!


I've maxed out on the number of pics I can upload to Flickr this month...so in Jan, I'll post the rest of the pics from the day! Hope you enjoyed these!

The Element gets Accessorized!

Yay! Our roof rack arrives tomorrow! Whoohooey! The Element will be pimpin' fo shizzle my nizzle! Haha! We got the LoadWarrior about a month ago...just no roof rack to attach it to! Ha! Here's what the LoadWarrior looks like (on an XTerra...so Lindsay, you can see how pimpin' you could look too! Haha!)


I'll post pics of ours when we get it up! The LoadWarrior has resided in our kitchen for the past month, so that picture wouldn't be very exciting...haha!

Hope everybody had a great Christmas! We sure did! It was wunnerful! :) I'll post those pics later too!

Happy Early New Year to everyone!! :)

Christmas Eve!

It's here! YES! I LOVE Christmas Eve...almost more than Christmas Day...the anticipation is so great...and just rushing around getting last minute things, seeing everybody else doing the same, then finally getting together with my family tonight to exchange gifts! I love it! And it's funny how your reason for excitement changes from childhood into adulthood! I'm excited now about what I'm giving...more than what I'm getting...and looking back on when I was a kid, you couldn't have told me that day would ever come. But growing up just brings that, I guess. And when you're an adult your "wish list" is MUCH shorter and less exciting than when you were a kid...if it still exists at all. Matt asked me to come up with one this year...I did, but it was hard. I remember when I was a kid asking my parents what they wanted for Christmas, and they'd say, "Well, I really don't need anything...I can't think of anything I want." I thought they were CRAZY! WHAT?!? How can you not think of ANYTHING!! Well, that has come for me, and Christmas is different, that's for sure. But not different in a bad way, at all.

Holly + Stephen are having their Christmas this morning with the girls so they (the girls...haha) will have time to play with all of their toys...tomorrow they'll spend at Holly's parents in Easley. I can't WAIT to see them this morning...they are getting power wheels...both VW Beetles! HAHA! I'm going out there to pick up mom and we're going last minute shopping, so I'll get to see them, then...wheelin' it up! I bet they went absolutely nuts when they saw them! Haha! I'll definitely post some pictures later...

Hope you have the best Christmas you've had in a long time! We received a Christmas card yesterday with this verse on it...hope it touches you as much as it did me...

Jesus humbled Himself.
He went from commanding angels to sleeping in the straw.
From holding stars to clutching Mary's finger.
The palm that held the universe took the nail of a soldier.
Why?
Because that's what love does.

The gift of God.
The birth of Christ.
This is Christmas.
This is love.

-Max Lucado


"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us..."
I John 3:16 NIV

T'was the week of Christmas...

...and I have once again, gotten very behind in my blogging! Thanks, Rita, for keeping me on my toes! Haha! This will be a short post, because I have to leave for work in 3 minutes...but I'll be back with pictures and re-caps later.
Since I last posted, Matt and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary! Wow! Where have those 3 years gone!? It's been a blast though! So much fun and so much to look forward to! I love you, Matty! :) He surprised me with flowers at work, and an ice cream cake when I got home (and not just any ice cream cake, a Spill the Beans white russian AND black russian layered cake!! OH YUM!) Well, I'll have time to post this one pic...



I gotta get to work...more to come! :)

Time to Decorate!

Well, it's Saturday morning, and I still haven't gotten all of the ornaments on the tree. I found that the bottom branches are VERY flimsy, so I'm going to have to rearrange and put all of the light ornaments down there. Rudolph was the first ornament to meet his demise on the bottom branches...Sunny and I were decorating and we put him down there and off he slid! He suffered quite an injury...what a travesty!


Oh well, I'm sure I'll find a replacement one. Sunny liked the breakable ornaments, but before we had another ornament injury, I thought I'd give her (what I thought was) a non-breakable plasticy rubber type ornament...what better suits her than Curious George! Haha! I had no more handed it to her and took her picture with it before she had the front wheel and handle bars completely dismantled (you can see her working on it in the picture...I didn't realize it because I was too busy trying to get a good picture!) HA! Quite the mechanic, just like her Papa! Although, there was no fixing this mechanical mishap! But atleast I got a cute picture before Curious Sunny lit into poor Curious George! Haha!

"Oh, what a cute, little ornament...I think it'll be cuter if it's destroyed!!" - Sunny



Caught in the act! Haha!




In other news, Tom Brokaw signed off tonight. How sad! I really like Tom Brokaw. I think a lot of it is just that I grew up with him. Most major news that has happened during my life, I can remember watching him report the stories. And since I had my camera handy, I caught his last words from his broadcast...just to put on my blog, of course...it's not like I'm going to frame it or stick it in the photo album or anything...haha!



Ben came over tonight for a bit. He's a trip! For those of you who came to our wedding, he was our pianist! He's awesome! Can give Liberachi quite a run for his money! Haha! He was married in April and he and Tami live right up the road from us!
Matt snapped his picture...now this we WILL frame! Haha!



Welp, that's about it! Matt is working today, so I'm just cleaning up around the house. I got our wreaths put on the windows outside. I'm going to give the yard one last mow for the year and head to the dump...oh, doesn't my Saturday sound exciting! Haha!

Have an awesome weekend! :)

Christmas Tree Hunt '04

We went and cut down our tree again this year...I think this will be a tradition. There's just something about cutting down your own tree...very cewl and Griswald like...haha!
Well, I took a good many pictures, so I'll just let them tell the story...

Back with more pics!

Here are some cool pics that Matt's mom took of us at Grandmother's Thanksgiving Day...

I'm Baaaaack! (Pics have been added!)

UGHGHGHG! I had just written a BOOK and accidentally hit Command+R which means Reload Page...I lost everything!!!! UGHHGHG! I'll update throughout the day...I must get busy...I'm at work and have a 100 or so page Soccer Manual that I'm laying out...I need to knock a lot out today...I'll take a break from it and work on my blog for a few minutes...be back...

Okay, it's lunchtime now, so I'll take a little break! Whee!

What I was saying, before I deleted everything.........

Yes, I have gotten quite behind on my blog. Let me see if I can wrap up the past few weeks without boring everyone to tears...

Matt got home and boy, was I glad to see him pull in the driveway! I made a delicious feast...wait...a NOT-SO delicious feast of Baked Ziti and salad to surprise him. Just a little word of caution...if you every use "fake" meat in a dish, such as, Baked Ziti...ADD LOTS OF WATER! We use Morningstar Farms Veggie Crumbles (it taste just like ground beef! without all the fat and random cow parts!)...I know you are dying to run out and buy some, so here's a little visual aid...haha!

So anyways, we didn't mind so much that it was dry...we were just happy to be eating together! Awww, how mushy and sweet! Haha!

Thanksgiving was great, as always! I LOVE the holidays!! We went to lunch at Grandmother's (Regina's mom), then to Ma + Papa's for some leftovers and a round of tag-football in the street...that was fun!


Matt, Ralph, David (cousin), and I VS. David (cousin), Danielle (cousin-in-law) and Rick (uncle)



Ralph setting up the endzone...




› Here are some pics from Grandmother's ‹
Here's Ralph + Regina posin' in front of the barn that Regina's daddy raised chickens in back in the day...



Left to Right › Johnette, Mark, Kerry, Linda, Regina, Ralph, Kathy + Kendall (FYI...Johnette and Kathy are Regina's sisters...Kerry is her brother)



Left to Right › Matt, Kristen, Grandmother, Angela, and me!



Then we went to Simpsonville and had supper/snacks with my family! That was fun...we were stuffed, but we managed to stuff more in! Haha! Mom, Dad, Stephen (my brother), Holly (sister-in-law), Kaylee + Sunny (nieces), and Carey + Jack (aunt and uncle) were all there! What fun!

Friday, I didn't go out and go shopping...I worked at Chick-fil-A. That's right! The other manager's wife works the day after Thanksgiving to "spread some holiday cheer" and "boost the moral of the tired shoppers who were up at 6am". Well, I was up at 3:00am and no one boosted my moral! Haha! Matt and I got there at 4:30am and they opened at 5:30am! Ugh! It wasn't that bad! I'd find myself wandering out into the dining room and noticing that people were still eating biscuits! "What?! It's GOT to be 12:00!" Then I'd look at my watch only to discover it was only 7:13am! What the hooey!!? Needless to say, it was quite a long day for me...I left at 2:00pm and Matt followed around 3:00pm...no, I couldn't tough it out for one more hour! Hahaha! The only brainless thing (well, one of the brainless things) I did all day was go around and give about 10 people unsweet tea refills when I announced that it was sweet tea that I had in my little pitcher! Ugh! Ha!

Saturday was Smith Family Christmas in Cheraw. This is my dad's family. He is one of 9 siblings, so it is always a full house! It's so much fun though! I look forward to it every year! There's always someone new that you might not know...but hey, they're your cousin, so you better meet them! Haha! This year was kinda weird...it was the first Christmas since my Uncle Tony and Grandpa passed away, so it was sad without them there...especially Tony. Grandpa would usually only come for a little bit, if he made it at all...but Tony was ALWAYS there, and you always knew he was, because he had the most distinctive voice and you could bet he was just around the corner with a great big hug if you hadn't gotten to him yet. They were both awesome, and I miss them a bunch.

Left to Right › Mike, Daryll, Angie, Jeanette, Dad, Kathy, Debbie (and Dad's holding Sunny) These are all dad's brothers and sisters...well, except Sunny, of course...haha! And Jeanette is Tony's wife.



Yeah, I'm not EVEN going to attempt a Left to Right on this one...these are SOME of the cousins...yes, there are more that aren't pictured! :)



Left to Right › Me, Michelle, Jason, Megan (all cousins)


Well, I guess that about wraps things up...this has gotten really long, so I'll do another post about us going and cutting down our Christmas tree last night!

I promise to write in less than a month! Haha!

Over and out!