We spent 8 days in Georgia + Florida for the holidays....and seeing it's now January, I'm way behind! We had my car PACKED.
Luggage, hunting stuff, tons of presents, the cat...almost everything except the Christmas tree. I would have taken it too. I wanted to enjoy it longer.
We started out our GA/FL Christmas Festivities with the Hampton Family Christmas at Aunt Judy's house in Thomasville on the Sunday before Christmas. I love this part and being able to sit down, relax, visit, and enjoy being around family (AKA kinfolk as Granddaddy used to say). It doesn't get any better....until we play board games! I don't have any decent pictures of that though...we were having too much fun laughing and playing!
Susan and I with Addyson...Tiffany & Stephen's most recent addition to the "Hey Kinfolk" Hampton family. Tiffany and Stephen have some beautiful babies!
The way we do gifts for the Hampton Family Christmas is we all buy gifts for the kids and we draw names for the adults. Each year we have a theme for the adults gifts and this year we had to get a gift under $10 that illustrated the person's occupation, hobbies, etc. Someone opens the gift and we all had to guess who it belonged to. For example, my cousin opened a gift that was a FL Gators hat + decal. Guess whose that was? Misha's. Get it? It was a ton of fun!
It's also a lot of fun to watch all the kids open their gifts. It's my favorite part really.
The whole Hey Kinfolk crew. It's amazing that we got a picture...and got everyone in the picture.
We were able to spend time with friends too! I got to have dinner with Sarah Fiveash, Gena Horne + Ella, and Susan. I dearly love these girls. They are the kind of friends that you just automatically pick up where you left off, no matter how long it has been in between. These girls are my heart. Now we have Ella Bella to join us for Girls' Night!
I also got to have dinner with several of my classmates from my GCS days. It was nice to catch up with Lindsay Colson , Bobbie Vinson, and Rebecca Tessin. My how time flies and takes you in so many different directions. That's what Rob Grimes told us at our Senior Graduation Breakfast and I'll never forget that. It's a good thing though. We also got to spend some quality time with our good friend Sara Jackson and also with our Gainesville peeps.
December 24th was Julia's four month-old birthday so we celebrated!
December 23rd was also Misha's and David's birthdays so we celebrated Christmas Eve with a delicious Napolean Cake that Lyuba made. Happy Birthday to Misha, David, and Jesus! :-)
Me, Natasha, and Mama Lyuba preparing our Christmas Eve Dinner
Group picture after opening gifts in the living room.
It was really funny b/c Lyuba wanted us to wear these Christmas sweaters/vests so the picture would look festive...well, the boys put them on....that was WAAAY better. At least the pics look funny with them wearing the vests. If the girls would have worn them, it would just look weird. :-)
Nice pic of all the kids on the porch with Christmas lights. Merry Christmas!
Christmas morning we left Gainesville to return to Georgia for the Dasher Family Christmas at Nanny & Papa's house.
The festivities included Uncle Mike showing everyone his kidney stone that he recently passed. YaY.
Although gross, it was remarkable that he passed it. Look at the size of that thing. He called it his baby.
More festivities were Uncle Earl grilling sausage,
helping Nanny decorate her Christmas tree,
playing with Uncle Mike's new toy he got for Christmas,
(it's a remote controlled helicopter if you can't see it...it kept the boys fascinated for hours)
a Dirty Santa Christmas gift exchange (Papa knew exactly what Misha needed),
an eyebrow raising contest,
a yummy dinner, quality family time, and of course a family photo! Check out Papa showing off his bandage. Haha!
We then spent Christmas afternoon at Mama & Daddy's house opening gifts, playing Wii, and just hanging out.
Mama really liked her gift from Susan, Misha, and me. Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii. Needless to say, we all had a blast playing AND watching.
Bugira really liked her Christmas present too. Bubble Wrap!!! She goes crazy for it. She loves popping every last single bubble. It's hilarious.
Family picture!
Well, that's our Christmas in a nutshell. Look what was waiting for us when we got back to Birmingham!
SNooooooW!
