Christmas 2008

Planet Heros

New clothes for Bitty Twins, Sam and Sarah

So excited to get Sleeping Beauty

Loves the doll house

Loves the Batcave!

Cool teepee

Aunt Ansley and the "Snuggie"

A girl can never have too much lipgloss, right Aunt Holly?

Boxing with Aunt Ansley

Crazy girl sitting with Papa

Mimi and Silly!

Playing Rockband!

Cousins!

Luke's plane stuck in a tree!

The face of someone who got their son's plane stuck in a tree! (he he)
Kathryn, Anna, and Hayley playing Littlest Pet Shop

The Steele family had an unbelievable Christmas this year. The BEST Christmas present was that Chris was home, safe and sound, for the first time in TWO years. What a blessing for us to be together and celebrate the joy that is Jesus Christ.

Christmas eve we made cookies for Santa and went to the Christmas Eve service at church. After a night of traditional carols and the Christmas story, home we went to a spaghetti dinner and a couple of presents to open. Chris and I had such fun recalling the traditions set in our families growing up and then passing them on to our own children. The kids opened new Christmas pjs and one toy each. Hayley opened new clothes for her Bitty Twins, Sam and Sarah! She was thrilled. Luke opened a Planet Hero (I believe it was Mars, but he got so many for Christmas I forget which on he opened that night). After a reading of the night before Christmas and Luke 2 from the Bible, off to bed they went.
Christmas morning we were up around 6:30am, but we held everyone off until 8:00am! The pictures speak for themselves. Everyone was thrilled with what Santa brought.

We headed to Atlanta the day after Christmas to celebrate with my family and Chris's family. The Thomas fam had rented a beautiful cabin in the North GA mountains and spent 4 days together at Big Canoe! Chris and I were able to drive up to NGC (North GA College) and drive around the town and campus. We went to lunch at the restaurant where we went to on our first official date. The name of the place has changed but the food was great! We had such a wonderful time in the mountains. Just relaxing and spending time together was such fun! We played Catchphrase, Rockband on the xbox, WiiFit, and many other wii games. Luke even beat Aunt Ansley at boxing! One thing we learned about Hayley is to always travel with a bag of some kind while driving on the winding roads in the mountains. She got pretty car sick which just added a little more "fun" to the adventure! Thank goodness Mimi and Papa were with us and pulled over to help us with the mess. You live and learn, right?!

On Tuesday we headed to Fayetteville to see the Steele side of the family. All the cousins, aunts, and uncles were at Grammy and Big Daddy's for dinner the night we got there. Chris started feeling under the weather the first night there and New Years Eve he could not even talk because of a sore throat. We rang in the New Year at the ER discovering that Chris had strep throat. Good grief. Chris opted for the shot of antibiotics and was feeling much better the next day. Everyone came over on New Years Day too to watch the UGA game (GO DAWGS!!) and celebrate the New Year. The weather was beautiful so the kids played outside all day!

We were all sad to have to leave yesterday. We drove all 11 and a half hours and pulled in the drive way at 10:21pm. I am still working on unloading and finding a home for everything. Hope that you all have a blessed and joy-filled New Year!