Priceless

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I was a little worried that it would be a time of mixed emotions for us. However, after a lot of praying, it was one of the best that we've had. Who says two people aren't a family? We could prove that one wrong any day! I'm thankful for the reminders of how blessed we are and what an awesome life we have together, as a family--even if it is just the two of us for now. Of course throughout the events of the holiday we wonder if this will be the last one with just the two of us and because of that we decided to make the most of it! We even saw a little bit of snow on Sunday! That's a rare occasion here on the beach!

We ended up going over to Tommy's mom's for a bit on Christmas Eve. It was nice and we had a great time. I'm glad all of our families live so close. We then headed out to our church's Christmas Eve service which was in a hotel on the river. The room is an older one and it was a really neat place to have a service. I'll have to post some pictures later of the service. One of my "little friends" sat with me. She is so cute and for whatever reason always runs to me when they come to church.

Tommy is like a kid when it comes to Christmas. I waited until he got into bed and then put a few things in his stocking. We weren't supposed to do a lot for each other because we bought the bedroom furniture but he never follows through with his word. I bought him some new hunting gear and a new brush for the grill. He bought me a gift certificate to get a new coat with and a necklace to match the earrings I bought in Savannah (silver, shaped like the old ornate iron). We then headed over to his mom's house to give our nephew and niece their gifts. Mind you, my nephew (he's 10) was so excited about getting up on Christmas day that he called us at 6:30 to see if we were up :) My 6 year old niece told us this was the best Christmas ever :) They were pretty funny. After spending a little bit of time there we headed over to my parents. Tommy was dying to go over there. Santa still visits us at my parents (there are no grandchildren yet) :)

This was the best surprise ever! I didn't write anything about it before because I didn't know if Tommy would get a wild hair and decide to read the blog. He really wanted this new camo shotgun. We decided it was best to wait and he could get it later. He's been duck hunting with one of his friends from work (I know, poor duckies). Well he's been so excited about going, he would come over and tell my dad all about it. My dad is an avid outdoorsman. Always has been. It was just my sister and I growing up so he never had "the boy" to take with him. So after one of these talks, my dad told my mom to go buy the gun for him. I told them I would give them half but my dad wouldn't hear of it. They decided to "trick" him and wait until after we all had opened presents and then give it to him. My mom made him close his eyes and then she brought it out. When he opened his eyes, he couldn't believe it. He starts crying, I'm crying, my mom and dad are crying, it was pretty funny. But he was so excited and humbled that they bought this for him. My mom was like, I never expected that reaction. It was great! Here are some pictures from Christmas day.

Our niece unwrapping presents

Our nephew trying to figure out where the gift card was to :)

Tommy said they needed some "old school" games to playTommy with his stocking at my parents

My dad trying to figure out what was inside the box
My mom with her sea glass earrings
Their dog, Pee-wee who wasn't excited to be up this early
My sister, she's getting married in May
Close your eyes!
Don't open them yet
Commence the crying :)
My mom and I
My Grandpa, Grandma, and Mom