Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

January 01, 2009

December was quite a busy month. We had two birthdays and Christmas. Lots of fun and good eating. And lots of shopping! I re-discovered Amazon.com for shopping. Good service, gifts were all good quality. And I got to spend some quality time with my computer in my lap!

The month started off with Jay's birthday. Sarah cooked some amazing beans and cornbread, and we had buttermilk pie for dessert. Had lots of fun watching Ava walk and dance around. Here is Jay on his birthday. As you can see, Christmas decorations were already up at his house, too!

It seemed like every week end after that was taken up with some sort of fun activity! Once I figured that out, the shopping at Amazon began! It was so easy, I may need to do that from now on! Just earlier, so I have more time to wrap! One of our most fun traditions is taking out JABS Kids class from church caroling every year. We go to homes of our senior members or those in nursing homes. This year we gave everyone a bookmark to remember us by. Here is the "crazy" picture before we started. We had a barking dog puppet with us this year. When you made it bark, it barked a christmas song!

Then comes Christmas morning! Jay, Sarah, and Ava came over. So did Rod and Jenni. This is Rod's first Christmas in Texas. Sarah brought sausage balls, and Mike made the most delicious Monkey Bread he has ever made! There was Eggnog, Coffee, Flavored coffee creamer, and juice.
The scene before we opened presents!

Jenni and Rod were with us Christmas Eve. They decided to spend the night. We all watched "Scrooge" with Albert Finney before we went to bed.

Opening presents was more fun this year, because Ava could participate. Jay played Santa, delivered a present to each of us, and the opening began! But we did watch Ava open her present up first each time. She really enjoyed the bows and ripping the paper! Not always impressed with the present!

Santa brought her an Activity Table. Rod and Jay had to put that together right away. She was playing with it in the box. Of course, once it was out of the box, she played with the box for awhile before she returned to the table!

All too soon, everything had been opened, there was present wrappings and the newly unwrapped presents stacked around. We managed to finish off the sausage balls and Monkey Bread before Jay and Sarah left. They spent the rest of the day with the Reales. The rest of us decided to take a nap! Then it was time to get food ready to take to Aunt Nancy - my sister. Once there, the eating began anew! Lots of good food and good times that day.

We waited until December 26th for our annual Christmas movie outing. We went to see "Marley and Me." We have read the book, and were really looking forward to it. The movie did not disappoint! It was very funny, very touching. Either see the movie, or read the book! Both are great!

Next comes Jenni's birthday. It was on Sunday this year, so the whole Mike Worley family, once again, was eating together. Jenni chose Freebirds for her celebration. Freebirds catered the rehearsal dinner. Originated in College Station. Very appropriate place for an Aggie to celebrate.

Finally, New Year's eve arrives. We were very blessed this year to have Ava spend the evening with us while her parents hosted a party. She even got to sleep over! We started the evening with a short devotional at church, then some more eating and playing games. Ava had fun with the blocks.

Ava was back at our house and in bed by 9:30 p.m. I wish you could have seen us trying to change her into her jammies! She wanted to play, not get dressed! But seeing as there were two of us and one of her, we did manage to get her jammies on and put her to bed. She is so great at going to sleep. You kiss her goodnight, put her in her bed, and close the door. She put her head down and was asleep within seconds!

Jay and Sarah lent us the Baby Monitor system, so we felt very secure that we would hear Ava if she woke up. We could actually hear her breathing with it! This morning, Mike actually got up first, found her sitting in her bed playing, and brought her into our room to play. Ava actually went back to her room and got her new Elmo blanket while we were playing before breakfast. Jay and Sarah joined us for a home-cooked breakfast one more time!