Merry Christmas

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Ours was wonderful. Wednesday night we had a great time playing games and singing carols. Joe read us the Christmas story from the bible and as we read each piece Brad put the ceramic nativity pieces into the stable. We also watched Joy to the World which is a DVD the LDS church put out last year (or the year before, I can't remember) which depicts the birth of Christ and the corresponding events in the Book of Mormon. It was a really nice evening.

That night both of the kids were TERRIBLE! Brad woke up like 4 times and Lucy woke up wanting to nurse like ever hour and a half. I don't know what it is about holidays but it just throws kids off. I was sooooo tired in the morning. Luckily both kids are too young to want to get up early for presents so we slept in until about 8:00.

Brad thoroughly enjoyed opening his gifts, however the first 2 he opened were both clothes and I think he got worried there were all clothes. He got some Legos (the big ones) and also a Little Critter Collection book which he loves. Lucy was way more into it than Brad ever was at her age, but still she liked the paper better than anything else.

Around noon we went to visit Grandma Pitts who is Joe's maternal Grandmother, who lives about 20 minutes away. There were other cousins and family there and we had lunch and enjoyed the company. She gave us the best present - Food Storage! What a great idea! She went to the cannery and packed oats and sugar and macaroni and other things and gave us a whole big box. I was really excited about that. She also put some of Grandpa Pitts' papers and pictures on a CD for us that I'm really excited to take a look at.

At 4:00 we had a family dinner hosted by Josh & Jo-Elle. We had turkey and potatoes and all the fixings. She had set a beautiful table and it was really nice. We then exchanged gifts with everyone in the 2nd annual Tibbs gift exchange. Last year we started a tradition where each couple buys for another couple and you have to get the most creative and fitting gift for $20.00. It is a lot of fun and also saves everyone money. Grandma Pitts even kicked in a $5.00 prize for the winners who were Jo-Elle & Josh. Brad had a great time wrestling with his uncle Matt and Lucy enjoyed being the center of her Grandparent's attention.

I feel truly blessed this year. It's been a great one for us and I'm so glad so many of you have been a part of it. I love Christmas and the time it gives us to reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ and the reminder that we should be focusing on Him all year.

Ok, here are the pictures. There are a lot so I threw them into a slide-show. I hope you enjoy them!