A Whirlwind Christmas

Our Christmases are always a busy, busy affair. This year, it seemed even more so, what with the push to finish final school papers condensing what would normally be a prolonged month-long preparation into a frantic last-minute flurry of activity. Our trip to Texas also seemed short this year, but with most of Jerry's vacation hours already spent, we were trying to conserve what he has left, as it must last through spring break.

Our first stop was Grandma and Papaw's house, where we got to see cousin Gabriel and meet our newest cousin, Cheyenne, for the first time. The girls had fun playing with their cousins, and Cheyenne took an immediate liking to Maggie, which she was over the moon about. She's going to make a great babysitter some day!

Christmas Eve we went to GGma's house. The girls were the only "kids" there, since Cousin Korbin was with his mom for the evening. All the grownups were there - the Powells and the Weimans. Cousin Scott kept trying to classify himself with the kids, but we said that since he could vote and paid taxes, he had to count himself among the grown ups. Here's Papaw, Gracie and Scott:

GGma got the biggest Whitman's sampler any of us had ever seen!

It was good to see everyone - here's Paige, Ronnie and Jerry:

Maggie got some very exciting presents - a telescope, to help her further her interest in astronomy, which she studied in school last semester, and a hair-dryer that is just her size - a sure sign that she is becoming a young lady!

Here, Gracie shows off a few of the fashion items she got - pin, mittens, bracelet and purse!

We left GGma's and headed to Nana and Granddad's house. Our cousins there were already snug in their beds, and the girls followed them to dreamland shortly after. When we came downstairs the next morning, the living room looked like a toy store, what with four kiddos with presents from Santa! Both girls were excited to receive Legos - a police station for Maggie, and a castle for Gracie. They were ready to dig right in, but there wasn't enough time right then.

Here Gracie shows Aunt Amy and Uncle Brad a new book she got - Bad Kitty vs Uncle Murray!

Will was quite busy with his aircraft carrier. . .

And it wasn't long before everyone was playing with everyone's toys!

Of course, our biggest Christmas blessing was that Uncle Brad got out of the hospital in time to be with family for Christmas!

The Culps arrived, and we had a fine lunch of Mexican food, and then it was time to move on to our next stop, Mimi and Pepaw's house. All of the great-uncles were there, Bill, Larry and Jimmy, as well as Uncle Aaron, so it was a full house.

Uncle Larry and Uncle Aaron were staying at Mimi and Pepaw's house too, so we got to have fun till bedtime!

The next morning Larry headed back to Houston, and the rest of us had a relaxing day, going to Whataburger for lunch and playing Mexican train, which Maggie seems to have a real knack for. The next morning we packed up and headed back to Oklahoma.

Now it's only 364 days until we get to do it all again!