Louisiana Christmas

The day after Christmas, we continued with our Christmas travels and headed west to Louisiana. Needless to say, Mamaw Kat, Pappaw and Aunt Erin were eagerly awaiting our arrival. The biggest surprise (well, maybe not a total suprise) of the evening was when our family received matching pajama pants made especially for us by Mamaw Kat.

Caroline gave Mamaw Kat a homemade painting also and you can tell by Mamaw Kat's reaction that she loved it as well.

By this time, Will had plenty of practice at opening presents, so he finally got into ripping the paper to see what was inside.

On Saturday, the kids enjoyed riding on the 4-wheeler with Mamaw Kat and Pappaw, and Caroline and I finally got a chance to bake the gingerbread men we had prepared the dough for a few days prior.

Later that evening, we headed to Aunt Clay's and Uncle Richard's to visit with the Fisher clan. Alison, Matt's cousin who lives in Africa with her family, sent all of the kids drums made in Africa. They were beautiful and are perfect to play Drummer Boy on.

Sunday, we packed everything up to head back home. On the way, we made a planned stop at Aunt Charlotte's and Uncle Roy's to have a Christmas lunch with the Mamaw Elsie and all of the cousins.

As custom, Mamaw Elsie and I picked up where we left off on our Checker game. This time I meant business and won 2 of 3 of the games we played. The kids were running around us during our first 2 games (which I won), and then went outside right before we started our 3rd game (the game Mamaw Elsie won). This helped me figure our her weakness...noise. Mamaw Elsie can't concentrate when it's noisy. Since I'm used to noise, I thrive on it and play better. When I pointed this out to her, she laughed and rolled her eyes about all of the noise that had been bothering her. I hope I'm that cute when I'm 90+. I guess all is well that ends well because we finished up the year tied in our 2008 Checker game series.

As we got into the car to head back home, Caroline began telling us that she did not want to go to our house. Instead, she wanted to go to Mamaw Kat's, Nana's, Mamaw and Pappaw's or Mimi's house....anywhere but our house. When we finally did make it back to our house, Caroline asked, "Is there were we live?" I guess she got a little confused with all of our Christmas travels. As usual, Christmas with our families was a blast and I'm so thankful to be able to spend time with them as we celebrate the season.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Christmas evening, we had a wonderful traditional dinner (all prepared by my Mom which made it even better) and then topped it off with a birthday cake to celebrate Jesus's birthday. Afterwards, the kids had a few more presents to open from Nana and Pop Buddy, and Caroline gave Nana her the homemade present she and Will had made for her. Of course Nana loved it and Caroline was thrilled she made it for her.

Later in the evening, Caroline and I took Mammaw and Pappaw to look at Christmas lights, something they had been wanting to do all season. Caroline made sure I played her favorite Christmas songs (Drummer Boy by Mercy Me and Joy to the World by George Strait) for them as we rode along. We timed our little outing just right because when we returned, the kitchen was clean. That was the best Christmas present ever to me...a home cooked meal I didn't prepare and dirty dishes I didn't have to clean. With everything in it's place that meant only one thing....time to finally sit down and RELAX! I guess we were so busy that we forgot to take the traditional family photo by the tree, so the best group shot I have is when we were all waving bye to KK on Friday morning. Thankfully, the goodbye tears hadn't started yet.

Santa Claus Came to Town

Since we stayed up late Christmas Eve, I had to wake Caroline up to tell her that Santa had come. Once her eyes popped open, she immediately ran to the window and asked, "Where is Santa Claus's car?" After explaining everything to her, she and Will ran into the living room to find their suprises.


Thankfully Santa kept it pretty simple this year because the biggest hits under the tree were the ring pops. However, all good things come to an end, and Will was not a happy camper when his ring pop was gone. Lucky for us, his face was temporarily stained for all of the morning Christmas pictures.

After the kids played a while with their new toys, we were off to my Dad's to have the Deweese family Christmas. To entice the two little ones into leaving their new treasures, we told them that Hunter and Helen would be there. The quickly dropped everything and headed to the car. The Deweese family is known for their great breakfast meals....especially homemade biscuits, so we made sure to arrive on empty stomachs.

Caroline was thrilled to get a chance to hold Baby Lane. She just adores the precious little girl. Caroline and Helen received matching baby dolls and ponies, so Caroline said, "we can be twins now". When Will opened a package filled with little cars and trucks, he instantly squealed and started saying, "vroom...vroom". It was hilarious. After all the extended family left, we opened a few more presents with Pop, Mimi and Uncle A and spent the rest of the afternoon playing. Of course before we left, we had to take the traditional Christmas family picture in front of Mimi's Christmas tree.

Christmas Eve

One of my fondest memories growing up was our family's Christmas eve celebration. We always went to the Christmas Eve service at our church and then went to my grandparents' house to celebrate the holiday with our cousins. This year, Caroline and Will got to experience what I enjoyed as a child. Caroline and I went to the church service while Matt stayed home with our Demolition Man because we knew he wouldn't last a minute in the service. Caroline enjoyed singing the Christmas songs that she already knows all of the words to, but got especially excited when I let her help me hold our lighted candle. She was so precious as she looked around the room in amazement at all of the candles.

Once we got to Mammaw and Pappaw's house, the Christmas festivities began. Before we ate, Miriam obliged us with her rendition of O Holy Night, a yearly request from my grandmother. She has the voice of an angel, and I even think Will agrees because he actually sat still throughout her entire song.

While Caroline and Will kids overdosed on our Christmas punch (something we have EVERY Christmas eve), they barely touched their food because they couldn't wait to open all of the presents. Caroline was so excited when Miriam gave her a present and wouldn't you know...it was a pink cell phone....just what she was wanting!

As the evening drew to a close, Caroline and I made certain that we told Speedy that we would be staying at Mammaw's house tonight and to tell Santa to bring our presents there. We also made certain to put out reindeer food on the lawn to help them find their way to us.

Things have changed over the years with our family...we've all grown up, some of us have gotten married, I've had kids and we've all moved away, but one thing remains....we have all been blessed with two wonderful grandparents who have always opened their home and their hearts to us. I am so thankful for all the memories we have shared at their house and look forward to many more.

Christmas Travels

Despite living much closer to our families now, we decided to once again hit the road for the entire week of Christmas. This decision was primarily based upon the fact that my sister, aka Aunt KK, was going to be in Mississippi for most of the week. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to let my kids push her to the point of near exhaustion during the holidays with all of the excitement and sugar they were enjoying during the holidays. So, we packed up and headed to Philly right after church on Sunday. Well, perhaps I should say late afternoon on Sunday since it took me an entire afternoon to ensure we had everything we needed.

Our Mississippi Christmas was alot of fun. Some of the fun things we did included:Baking smores by the fire with KK

Getting some love from Boomer

Taking a much needed nap with KK

Riding horses

and making a gingerbread house with Mimi.

A Christmas Tea Party

The Saturday before Christmas, Helen came over to play with Caroline for a while. The girls decided that they needed to have a tea party to celebrate the holidays. Plus, Caroline decided it would be a great time to share all of the yummy treats she and I have been baking.

Holiday Baking

I love baking during the holidays and this year was no different except I had a full-time assistant. Though Caroline did help stir a bit and put sprinkles on, I think her favorite part about being in the kitchen was tasting all of the goodies to make sure they were good enough to share share with friends and family.

Merry Christmas!

I just couldn't resist!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Mama's Boy

There is no denying that Will is a Mama's boy. Anyone who has been around the two of us will agree I'm sure. So, I hate to admit it, but yesterday when he followed me around the house wanting to me to pick him up while I was doing chores, I tried to redirect him to do something else. He's persistent, so I finally gave in and picked him up. I had not noticed that he had a bowl and spoon in his hands the entire time he was being my shadow. Once I picked him up, he reached into the bowl to get a spoonful of what he had been fixing and gave me a bite. He was so proud that I enjoyed what he had cooked for his Mama. I've learned my lesson because next time, I'll be paying more attention to my little fellow in case he decides to bake me a chocolate cake!

That's embarassing

Matt's mom recently found a pair of Matt's old sliding shorts from his glory years on the baseball field. As luck would have it, they are bright red. She brought them to him the other day in case he might want to use them for biking. Of course when she pulled them out, I couldn't help but snicker.

Anyway, today Caroline found them. This is the conversation I overhead between the two little ones. "Will, it is embarrassing that Daddy has these." She obviously has her mother's sense of humor.

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As they day progressed, I quickly picked up that embarrassing would be the word for the day. When I told her that Nana was coming, she said, "I'll let Nana go down my new slide." She then said, "That would be embarrassing. Pop Buddy would say, 'Nana, why are you on that slide'?"

Christmas Tour of Home

Welcome to the Fisher's Christmas home tour. Since not everyone will have the chance to see our decorations this year, I thought I'd share some pictures with you. It's a shame to go to all of this trouble and not have anyone see it. Plus, the advantage to an online tour is that you can see what I want you to see and not see all of the toys that stay all over our floor these days!

Our front doorOur mantel

Our big "adult" tree

The manger

Our dining room

The kids' Christmas story tree

Caroline's angel and hot pink tree

Will's "Charlie Brown" Tree ( I promise to get him something a little cuter for next year)

The kids' tree in the playroom which features all of their
handmade ornaments, garland and picturesOur Christmas card tree

We hope you enjoyed your little Christmas tour!