Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Christmas {Better late than never, right?}

Christmas is really a magical time of year. Not only is it a celebration of Christ's birth, it is a time to join with family and friends and celebrate. And I apologize in advance for the hodge-podge that this post is! I'm just too tired to do it justice!
First, some Christmas decorations from my house.
The main tree and fireplace
The pups enjoying the warmth of the fire

The platter I got Joseph. This blasphemy in my house proves how much I love him!

The cute little platter that greeted people at the back door!
My "ornament" tree with all my favorite ornaments on it.
Hand painted ornament that I picked up during our trip this year to Antigua. I try and get an ornament every time we take a vacation somewhere.
Gingerbread house. My mom started this tradition. She always gets us an ornament from this line every year.
The other ornament my mom got us. It is in celebration of our tropical trip this year to Antigua.

This house that I got this year symbolizes the sale of my and Joseph's first house together.

This ornament is the most special of all the ones that we added this year. Earlier this year, Joseph and I lost our first child. And since the baby was due at Christmas, I thought that our special baby deserved a special ornament. I finally found a snowflake to symbolize the baby that we lost. Each snowflake is different and comes from above and are only here for a short period of time. I thought it was a perfect reminder for the perfect child that God blessed us with for just a precious few short months.

Here is my "china cabinet" aka...old TV cabinet. But I decorated it up with some Christmas decorations. Mainly my Christmas china and my mother's nativity scene.
This is such a special nativity scene. My mother hand-painted each figurine! I do believe that I have the most special nativity in this world. I absolutely treasure this gift that she gave me.
My Christmas China!
My Christmas present from my husband...a new table and chairs!
Our sweet niece, Finley. It was her first Christmas.
Sydney, LC, and Cooper playing dress up.
LC loved the jewelry box that we gave her!!
All the Bryan grandchildren
The Bryan family
Barrett enjoying his Christmas at Mimi and Papa's!
Joseph and Brutus
Joseph and his Aunt Kay
Joseph and his beautiful sisters
And finally, Cameron rocking the pink guitar!
 Hope every one had a great holiday and a really happy new year!!

Hi. My name is...

Hi, my name is Brutus. I like to dig holes in my yard. This is me with my hole.
And this is my hole. I am so very proud. You have no idea what was in there..... I'm not sure myself, but at the time whatever was below the dirt seemed like a serious threat.

Take a look at my hole.

Yes. I am super proud of it. Ooops......gotta go! For some reason my daddy is yelling at me. I guess he doesn't understand exactly what danger I just saved him from.

Our New Home

Before I start posting some Christmas pictures, I figured that I should at least show everyone where we moved to. So here are a few pictures from the house that we are renting after leaving the ghetto.
But before I get to that, maybe I should show how the little ones are adjusting to semi-country living.....

This is Brutus. And maybe you recognize that poor thing grasped between his jaws. That is my poor little stand in dachshund. And boy has he proved to be a good friend!

He is the only thing that makes these poor babies feel safe! Ha ha!!
He pretty much makes every trip outside with Brutus. I think that poor little stuffed dachshund is Brutus' safety blanket. Just in case there is some critter out hiding in the woods to come and get the dogs. It is really funny! Because this is the view from our back porch:



It's awesome. Our house backs up to one of the many plantations here in Thomasville. So I give the dogs a free pass when they go outside and are afraid of what may jump out of the bushes! They are such city dogs! But here is a few pictures of our new {rental} house.
The front

  The back

The best part of the house...the outside fireplace!

And we were a big hit when we kept this little man because we also had the following!

Yep. Our house came complete with a swing set. When Barrett saw it the first time he ran up to me and said "thank you Sissy for getting me a swing!" Of course I didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't me, but he's three he doesn't know the difference!

In the meantime, we are enjoying being out of the townhouse and actually having some room to spread out and enjoy a real home!