Yesterday I had a drink from Starbucks out of one their wonderfully thought out Valentine's cups. Finally they got a clue: bestowing on us the red cups at Christmastime is all well and good but they needed a plan for the post-Christmas, post red cup season. Valentines cups. PERFECT. Anyway, my coffee yesterday reminded me that we had Christmas this year. I've been so busy since I came back to Jacksonville that I literally just yesterday realized that I had pictures and videos from Christmas that I had not even uploaded onto my computer. So, here's a little pictorial and cinematic journey through the Bailey family Christmas...
some families say Grace, some families sing a blessing, we sing 'the Hamburg Zoo'...
The tree lot just up the street decided to shut down several days before Christmas - so naturally, we assumed that the trees were for the taking (right?). Mom and I had the brilliant idea to steal take a tree (marked down from $120 to the low, low price of...FREE) and set it up in our front yard and let the kids decorate it with silly string, fake snow and any tacky Christmas decoration that was still on the picked over shelves at K-Mart.
Clark Griswold, eat your heart out....
On Christmas Eve we rode the train at the Towne Center...
Christmas Eve party at the Jimmy Bailey Jr's circus house...
Christmas morning...
my under $20 table decorations (taken with my new lens that Santa brought)
this is version 2 of the table decorations...John Swinton rubbed too many sweet potatoes in the tablecloth to leave it on the table...
never ever in the history of ever have I seen a child so excited about dinner...
JSTB loves Aunt Lizzy's sweet potatoes...
and after dinner, Betsy wow-ed us with her hula hooping skills...
I gave my brothers family a Wii for Christmas, which was a bit of a gamble but I think it turned out to be a hit. A couple days after Christmas, Betsy showed GG how to play Mario Cart and Just Dance...
There's such a tendency at Christmas to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season - this year, I am happy to report that for the most part, we managed to avoid the whirlwind and just enjoy each other. The time together is never long enough but the memories remain. Being away from 'home' and family is hard but it makes our time together feel more intentional, more special - there's a sense in all of us to make the most of the time we've got.
And now I've realized that there's a whole bunch of pre-Christmas pictures and stories on my computer worth sharing and telling. Watch this space...
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