Lauren's Second Christmas

I must confess, I started this post a week or so ago, but I never finished it.

So to catch everyone up on Lauren's second Christmas here are the highlights. However, before I begin I must remind everyone that last year she was only 10 months old so she didn't really grasp the whole present concept. This year she's almost two so she understands somewhat. Also last year she was just getting over being sick and Patrick and I were still pretty bad off. So this year we were all well, which added to the festivities.

Christmas officially began as it always does, with everyone gathering at Maw Maw and Paw Paw's house for Christmas Eve. Patrick, Lauren and I got into town around 10 a.m. and we hung out at mom and dad's house for awhile. We went to early Mass at OLS and then over to the great-grandparent's house.

Here is an aerial shot of the chaos that we call present opening


I knew we would be over there pretty late so Lauren attended the event in jammies. They were Christmas themed so it was okay. I was right we were there until about 9 p.m. (10 p.m. Columbus time). We then took our tired infant home and deposited her in her crib. After which, Patrick, Jeff, Holly and I exchanged presents with each other and gave gifts to mom and dad. We always do this on Christmas Eve night. We then hit the hay so a jolly, fat man could make his appearance.

And make an appearance he did. There are only two words to describe the amount of stuff Lauren received this year and those two words are GOOD LORD! Okay, to be fair I should clarify that this Toys R' Us annex is a collection of stuff from me and Patrick, mom and dad, Jeff and holly -- not sure that helps, but whatever.

Lauren enjoyed all of her gifts, but she particularly liked her new books...

...and puzzles...

...and of course...her bus :)

After our traditional Christmas brunch with Maw Maw, Paw Paw and Uncle Nat it was time to head over to Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Charles' house for a Henderson Family Christmas.

Here are Lauren and Dadda enjoying the yummy strawberry cake from Ashley Mac's Bakery -- we are TOTALLY getting that cake for Lauren's b-day party.

In the days following Christmas we traveled to Pell City a couple of times to see Mark, Candacey, Abbey and Emma, as well as Mary and Steve. Lauren commandeered Emma's swing on both visits and she was NOT happy when she had to vacate it.

During our stay in B'ham I took some time to locate all of the original Little People Jeff and Holly played with as kids. Lauren seemed to like them, even though the Little People have gotten quite larger over the years.

We rang in the new year at Aunt Da's party and decided to head back to Columbus the next day. We arrived back home just time to watch Alabama face Utah in the Sugar Bowl, I'm still not sure that the was the same Bama team that went undefeated during the regular season.

Well that about sums up our 2008 holiday season. So sorry it took so long to update. One of my goals this year is to update this thing a couple of times a week. We'll see. Happy New Year!