The Time of Christmas.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I did :)

Let's see if I can remember a re-cap for you...

Monday night, Megan, Hollie, & I had our "Christmas get-together". 

I gave my neice some toys too because (in case you didn't know) she IS family too. 

She loved the "dog", but not so crazy about the horse shoe. :)

Hollie helped Megan with the rotel, and we ate brownies and pigs in a blanket too!

Then a few other people showed up, and there was an intense game of Rockband. Hilarious. I wish I had video of the entire room singing "The Joker" and "Hotel California". Priceless.

Also neat that three out of these four are people I graduated with, and I love that we can still spend time together. Our last Christmas party consisted of this as well. ;)

My sweet, sweet niece & her Auntie Julianna!

Wednesday night, Clint came over to pick me up, and we snapped a few photos before we left. 

Last year we started a new "tradition" of going out to eat & exchanging gifts afterwards. It gives us a little while to catch up on details, since it's sometimes hard to do that over text messaging! Ha.

We went to StrangeBrew, picked up some coffee, and rode through the refuge on the way home. 

He (said he) loved his affliction shirt, and I am SUPER excited about my Vintage Pearl necklace in the mail! Cannot wait.

Saturday morning we had Christmas with the immediate family, and I talked Matt into taking a photo with me on the front porch, and as I look at it - I'm still wondering how one of us didn't end up with a black eye. He's not for photos with his little sis, but we look so darn happy ;)

& Mimi was there to grab one of the four of us. It's been a long time since our front porch was the scene of a Christmas photo opportunity.

We went to Mimi's for lunch, and Robbie & Nannie and the boys were there.

(We're having Christmas with Jay Thursday)

My sweet, sweet cousins.

and my sweet, sweet parents. 

:)

It's been a great week, but I always hate saying bye to Clint for the last time. 

We did that last night, and he is almost safely "home", or he will be within the next 2 hours.

Each Christmas allows me to become more apparent of how special my family really is to me. There are some that I still wish were here, but dwelling on that gets us no where. It is finding the strength to move on from it, while remembering them in the most precious way, and being thankful for the time I have to spend with them. 

I am truly blessed, and I should remind myself more often than I do now.