Christmas 2014

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6

    For Christmas this year, my 2 step brothers and step sister spent Christmas in Tuscaloosa, so our normal family of 9 Christmas morning went down to 6. My step mom also got sick on Christmas Eve so there were only 5 of us ready for Christmas. None of the kids this year opened any presents because we either were given all gift cards or used all our "present money" to purchase something big. My sister is paying for a cruise with hers, and I bought a Nikon D3100 camera with mine. That being said, we woke up later than normal on Christmas and ate breakfast, opened our stockings, and got ready to go visit my grandparents in Troy with my aunt. Usually, our 3 cousins are there as well, but they were in North Carolina, so once again, the family circle on Christmas was small. But, it was still fun! We learned to make due with the situation and have fun. We spent all afternoon playing football, Frisbee, and soccer in the yard. Then, right before we left, we decided to relive our childhood days of sliding down the front yard hill at my gparents house on cardboard boxes. THAT was disastrous but fun! We laughed way too hard and got a little too beat up, but we made fun memories. We headed home and the rest of the night we watched our favorite Christmas movies like Its A Wonderful Life and Home Alone. It was a smaller and less exciting Christmas than we have had in the past, but it was still special. 

  A few days after Christmas, our cousins came to visit us from North Carolina and so we took a 13 person family trip to Atmore, AL to see our great uncles and go by our great grandma's farm! Our grandparents grew up there, so we visited the family farm and relived old memories. We picked cotton, explored through the old sheds and houses, played with the neighbors dogs, and watched the gorgeous sunset before we left. It was a great after noon filled with family, jokes, sarcasm, good southern food, and more memories. I'm thankful for my family even though they drive me crazy sometimes! The Lord has blessed with so many people in my life and I often don't say thank you enough. He also has blessed us with his beautiful creation and the things around us like cotton, sunsets, animals, and so much more! I love spending time in HIs creation and need to make an effort to explore it more. 

Sunsets are one of my favorite things!

Cousin Becca

 

Fresh Cotton

Creating a tree fort