Christmas 2008 Pictures

Here are some images of my holiday gatherings!

Christmas Eve is always spent with the Johnsons'. Everyone's dogs are included in the family get-together.

Here is Taylor, my 11-year-old niece, with Chloe.


For those of you who remember a certain curly-headed blonde who was a flower girl in our wedding, here she is now. This is Mackenzie with her mom, Patty.


Here are David's sisters with their "Bub."


For some reason, we always get the urge to get out amongst all the last-minute bustling. Here we are at K-Mart. You can see that Taylor already has on part of her Christmas gifts...her pj pants.


Christmas Day is always spent with my family, the Dugans.

Here's Carla, Liz, and me.


Lex was all about dancing on top of this present. It was a big dump truck that he can ride around on.


AbiLyn looked so pretty.


Here's Lex and AbiLyn with "Papa."

The Thrill of Hope

Merry Christmas everyone! I promise I will have some good pictures up in the next few days. I am at my parents' house playing on my sister's new laptop. Yesterday ended up being okay. I got a text message during the funeral saying the office was closing at 2:00, so I didn't have to go back to work. David and I went to his parents' together for Christmas Eve, and we came home, put food away, and he went to the picket line. It ended up being a very pleasant evening.

Today was very quiet in the way that Christmas often is for people like us with no children. David slept late, I fixed food for my parents' get-together, and then we ventured out for Christmas with my family. It's been fun, and I'm looking forward to 2009.

I hope everyone had a merry, happy Christmas Day! Now I'm off to play a game with everyone: 90s Edition Trivial Pursuit!

Strange Christmas Eve

Sorry about taking so long for an update. It's just been hectic and our computer at home has been having some virus-y problems. It's been an interesting past few days. We've done all the Christmas-y things: decorated cookies, gone to family Christmas reunions, done a tiny bit of shopping, sent a few cards (BTW...We scaled back our card-sending this year, so please don't get your feelings hurt if you didn't receive one.), etc.

However, today is probably going to be the strangest Christmas Eve I've ever experienced. For starters, just call me Bob Cratchit because I'm working. We all came in at 7, so we at least will be able to leave at 4 if they don't let us go earlier. This afternoon, unfortunately, I'll be attending the funeral of a friend, Jimmy Nicholson (probably needs a separate post). After that I'll come back to work and leave at 4 to go to my in-laws for their Christmas. Tonight I'll be coming back to my house alone because it's David's night to walk the picket line.

If any of my readers know me well, they know that I'm very much about routines and rituals and things not changing! So...I might do well to delete this Christmas Eve from my memory. Next year we'll resume as usual.

I know this is sort of a sad Christmas Eve post and that's not at all my intention. There have been some very good things happen in the last few days...quality time spent with friends and family, surprise holiday blessings, and the smack-in-the face, happy-tears moment that sneaks up on me every year when I begin to grasp the awesome wonder of Jesus coming to earth. Those are the things I'm trying to focus on today.

Love and peace to everyone on this day before the big day!

A post in which I rave about snow and ramble about other things

We went to the Johnsons' house tonight for banana nut bread baking! I had been sort of ambivalent about going since it was a weeknight after all, but I made up my mind this morning that I would definitely go. Well as I was leaving work it was really starting to snow! I called David to make sure we were still on for the drive to Smyrna, and he didn't realize how bad it was coming down.

Well, it took a while to get there. At one point on 840 we couldn't even see the lines on the road. Anyway, it was so beautiful! It struck me that even though things aren't great right now even David could still admire the beauty of the falling snow. Combined with everyone's Christmas lights it was breathtaking! His words: "See, aren't you glad you got out?" Thank you, God, for this early Christmas gift!

We're now safely back home. Please say a special prayer for Friday. David's union and the company are supposed to resume negotiations with the help of a federal mediator. If things go well, he could be back to work next week.

Oh, and one more thing...David's mother and sister had begun to question if he had more than one outfit. I promise he has other clothes than that mustard colored tee and brown pants. He just tends to latch on to a particular outfit.

Thanksgiving Pictures

Can you tell I have some time on my hands? Here are a couple of pictures from Thanksgiving festivities.

AbiLyn with her uncles


Lex in the rocking chair


David, his sisters, and his mom


I got gas on the morning after Thanksgiving. My tank was completely on empty, and this is how much a full tank of premium gas cost! Yay!

Christmas Tradition Today

I think I posted about this last year, but today is a Christmas Tradition day. David's sisters' birthdays are December 2 and December 4, so the first Saturday of December we all go to Miller's Grocery in Christiana to celebrate their birthdays, and then we go to the Christmas tree farm. I'm very excited, but it's usually fairly clear and sunny when we go. Today, however, it's overcast and...it's FREEZING! I guess we better bundle up!

UPDATE: We skipped the tree farm, becuase it was so very cold, and no one was even going to buy anything. Miller's was delicious, though!

The Best Things in Life are Free...

My great-grandmother (Mama Dugan) as many of you know is 100 (and a half) years old. Only recently has she been needing someone to sit with her while my grandparents are out. They had a Christmas party to go to last night, so I got to spend the evening with Mama. I wasn't dreading it at all, but I had taken some magazines and a book to read in case things were quiet. Well, they weren't. We talked the entire time they were gone, and oh my goodness the stories I heard. She told me about her first visit to Nashville as a young bride with her new husband. I got to learn about how she ended up meeting a young man from middle Tennessee in the country of Northern Mississippi. She told me stories about my grandmother who passed away when I was five. I learned about revival meetings under brush arbors that her brothers would help to build. It was amazing. I just wish I had had a video camera hidden somewhere, but I'm going to do my best to write down the stories she told me.

Really cool from YouTube

I actually heard the audio of this last year, but I didn't think to look for it on youtube. Cool. Thanks for sending it to me, Liz.