Christmas!

Goodness... where to even start? My last post was like 12 days ago! I feel completely overwhelmed! We had a wonderful Christmas/holiday/New Year. As I read on someone else's blog, I won't bore you with every detail of what we did and every gift received, but just hit on some highlights. Also let me say, with deep sadness, that my camera was totally messed up off and on throughout the week, so I didn't get all the pictures that I wanted. :(
Anyway.. here is a BRIEF rundown of the Mayo family Christmas 2005:

Our first stop was my grandmothers house in Ft. Worth. Kaitlyn loved getting to see and play with her cousins. (Second cousins actually, but cousins none-the-less) We gave my grandmother a video that I had put together of pictures of all 13 of her grandkids. It turned out really good, and it was fun watching her watch it. James and I also got a quilt that my grandmother and aunt made out of our old college Tshirts! We love it!!
















Our next stop was in McKinney to see James' dad and Jan. It was really good to see them - it had been awhile! They had a BEAUTIFUL white Christmas tree up. Kaitlyn had a blast over there chasing their cats and running up the stairs to the top of the balcony and shouting down at us. We had a good time opening presents, and were also blessed with a beautiful concert by Kaitlyn on her new keyboard with microphone. It was hilarious. Quite the rock star she is!

















Destination #3 was to Parker to visit James' mom and Ron. Kaitlyn got to play with more cousins over here too! It was so fun watching her and Lofton and Graham play together. We hardly ever get to see them! One of the highlights here was listening to James read The Night Before Christmas to the kids. I'm afraid this will have to become a tradition. All three of the kids slept on pallets in Nana and Papaw's room on Christmas Eve. They loved doing that! We played a few games that night, and then had fun putting out the "Santa gifts." Christmas morning was really fun - Santa wasn't supposed to come for Kaitlyn until we got back to Abilene, but he remembered to leave a few things for her here! How nice of him. She got lots of fun toys, games, and a princess vanity set. We also got a DVD player for the car which made our trip home so much easier!! June always makes such good food when we are there - I'm sure I gained like 10 pounds at this house alone!







Our fourth house was back to Ft. Worth to see some of my dad's side of the family. Quick story: my grandfather was in the Korean War, and my dad had purchased a brick with his name on it that will be put on a memorial wall in Lubbock that is being built to honor veterans. My dad thought it would be neat if Neil (my brother) and I were both there to give him his gift. This was one of those times where my camera wasn't working - but I'll include the picture anyway. We had fun over there playing ping pong, eating more good food, and seeing some amazing Christmas lights. I swear, this house was just like the Griswalds....
















Final Destination: HOME!! We made it back to Abilene about 9:30 or so on Sunday night. We were tired!! My parents and brother came back with us, so that we could have our Christmas with them on Monday morning. We put Kaitlyn to bed, put her dollhouse together, filled our stockings... got everything ready. It is a tradition with my family to open one present on Christmas Eve. Since this was our Xmas eve together we went ahead and did that. We all thought that was so much fun, so we just kept opening! So we had Christmas with my family at midnight on Sunday night! It was really fun! I was so excited to get my own printer for my camera. It's so easy to do and prints really great pictures! When you are really tired, everything is funny... needless to say, we laughed a LOT. Sadly, I have no pictures. And even more sadly, I only have ONE from our Christmas morning with Kaitlyn. ONE. And it's horrible. Are you ready? Wait for it..............
















Is that amazing or what? I mean - just look at the quality of the picture. DANG CAMERA!!! And check out those boots! They go really well with her pull-up. Oh well.... we have video. Oh wait, no we don't!! We didn't even have the video camera out. Sorry Kaitlyn - your parents have failed this year. Christmas morning was fun for Kaitlyn. However, by this time she had been so many places, seen so many people, opened SO many presents... the girl was worn out.

We are such a blessed family. However tiring it may have been, we were so lucky to have 4 houses to go to and love on family. I wouldn't have changed anything about it.

Stay tuned for Part 2! We went to Lubbock for a long New Years weekend. More stories and pics to come.

It's good to be back!