Christmas 2009!

Still no baby news, so I thought I would go ahead and post our Christmas pics. I just did a video of the Christmas morning at our house, so no pics of that. We had Christmas Eve plans at Dad's house, but moved that to Sunday because of the snowstorm. So Claire and I stayed in, baked about a thousand cookies for Santa, and wrapped presents. Christmas morning we woke up to a couple inches of snow and icy roads, so we did our family Christmas and had breakfast, and then loaded up my car to head to Coleman for Christmas with my brothers, sister, mom and Grant. That was a no-go! At 9:30, our road was a sheet of ice. We turned around and came back to the house, loaded up Jay's 4WD truck, and tried again. Once we got off the side roads and onto the highways, the roads were much better, but it still took us about 45 minutes to make the 30 minute drive to Coleman. No big deal, but I think the fam was pretty hungry for my French toast casserole by the time we got there! So the previous pictures are of Christmas morning at my mom's house (Nana and Grandad's old house). Claire and I stayed in our pajamas all day and we played new video games and board games, went for a walk in the snow, drank hot cocoa, and ate soup. Perfect, relaxing day with family!

I wish we would have thought to get a group picture at every house we went to. That should be a must!

That evening, we went to Paul and Diane's house, even though Jay's brothers couldn't make it down because of the crazy blizzard in Edmond. So we went ahead and exchanged gifts with them and ate some ribs.

Saturday was the big Pannell get-together, and I unfortunately don't have any pictures of that yet, as my old camera doesn't work inside well at all. So I will have to wait until I get copies from Mom and Sister. But that was a big day of family and games. Dirty Santa with 20 some-odd people was interesting as always, with the added hilarity this year of typed and printed handouts of the official rules. We have had arguments in the past within this competitive family that slowed down our game! Uncle Matt kept us all laughing with his constant consulting of the rules for every possible infraction. I ended up with an OU Snuggie and Jay got a car detailing kit, which Mom asked if I would be using. Ha! We'll see how long that thing stays in the box. The Snuggie, as you can see below, has already gotten good use! This is on New Years Eve night, when we watched the DVR'd OU bowl game at home.


Saturday night, we went back to Paul and Diane's straight from Coleman to eat some pancakes and open gifts with Jay's brothers and their families. It's so fun with so many kids, and such a good range, from 2 to 13. No pictures from this either, because again, I hadn't gotten my good camera from Dad yet!

Sunday after church, we went down to Pottboro to have Christmas at Dad's house. Finally, I got my good camera, but it didn't get charged until after my siblings and Grandma had already left! But here are a few pics from his house anyway. We had a fun day playing on Dad's new Wii, playing Nertz (Amanda and I, despite the fact that our team had the most combined experience with the game, finished dead last one game, and next to last the other! I think we've both lost our touch :(, and Jay and Claire even capped off the 40-degree night with a dip in the hot tub!!



After Pottsboro, we drove back to P&D's house, as Kyle and Audrey were still down, to play some golf (cards) and let Claire play. This makes three days in a row that Claire's only nap had been in the car in between Christmas celebrations, poor girl! We also chose this fabulous time to take away her pacis for naptime and bedtime--Santa took them from her stocking to give to other boys and girls who are smaller and need them more! It's still taking a little too long to get her down for naps and bedtimes, but it's getting better bit by bit. One more pic of Sunday night, when the two girls were playing dress-up with Mamaw!



It was a wonderful weekend, and it took about a week to recover from it all! By Thursday afterward, my Christmas stuff was all still up and baby gifts were still piled up in the laundry room in gift sacks! I was totally stressed, but on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, Jay and I finally got a bunch of stuff done--gifts sorted, clothes washed, Christmas stuff down, bassinet up, hospital bag packed, name list narrowed. Whew! So now, I just have a couple more baby things to check off my list before I feel ready to relax and wait! Of course, it won't be total relaxation; I still have two story deadlines this week and my SE class starting next Thursday! We'll see when Baby Sister decides to make her appearance in the midst of all that!