Since Brian and I have been married, we’ve had 5 Christmases each year to celebrate with family. In one sense, it’s a blessing, in another it’s a lot to keep up with ;).  Luckily, two are up here in Dallas, and the other three are in Katy/Houston.  So, we usually celebrate with Dallas family first before Christmas, and then head down to Katy around Christmas eve and spend several days down there. This year we spent a week down there (part of the time Brian was hunting with my dad while I stayed in Katy at my mom’s.)

This was our first Christmas with our sweet little baby, Brady. It was fun to have a baby on Christmas, but I was still pretty sleep deprived and “out of it” most of the time while visiting with family and friends. The holidays seemed to fly by, because we pack in visiting so many people in such little time. This year we celebrated Brian’s dad’s (Clif’s) birthday on Dec. 19 at his house with Brian’s siblings and kids. We did a small gift exchange before heading out. Then, we hosted a small gathering at our house for Brian’s mom, siblings, and kids. It was fun having family over here for a casual meal and opening presents. Marilyn and Duane brought homemade chili and I made some cornbread. We kept it nice and simple :).  Then, Christmas Eve we drove down to Katy. Half way we stopped to feed the little critter and changed his diaper. Since it was literally the middle of Texas, there’s pretty much no where to go in and use a decent bathroom with a changing table. It aint a road trip without changing the kid’s diaper in a Dairy Queen parking lot.  (On the way home we stopped in the same town, but outside the town’s court house to change his diaper/feed him. In the rain.)   We arrived at my mom’s house Christmas eve and unloaded. Then, we headed over to my Dad’s & Daria’s house (which is thankfully 5 min away) to celebrate Christmas with them. We gave presents to the kids and opened some of our own before we all headed over to a neighbor’s house for a party. We enjoyed some amazing international home made dishes, but only stayed for 2 hours before it was time to head home with the baby and get him in bed. Since we were traveling on Christmas Eve we missed out on a church service, which I was kinda sad about, but we celebrated Jesus in our hearts.  Christmas morning we woke up at my mom’s and opened presents, followed by a big breakfast/brunch. My mom always makes Christmas so special for us! That afternoon, we headed over to my grandma’s in Houston to meet up with the rest of the family to open presents and pig out. Almost all the cousins were there, which is so nice. We all get along so well and usually laugh 95% of the time we’re together.

Two days after Christmas, Brian and my dad and little brother headed down to his ranch to deer hunt for a long weekend. Brian came back with a big deer! We’ve got lots of deer hamburger meet, sausage, and steaks to last us until next season.

It’s crazy to think about the events in the last year. On Dec 23, 2011 on our way down to Katy (literally 5 miles from our destination) we got hit by a drunk driver. Thank God we didn’t have a baby with us then! It was surreal thinking about that event while arriving safely at our destination in Katy  with our new baby on Christmas eve. He is good.

Here are some photos from our 5 Christmases this year. We are truly blessed. Sorry if I was sorta out of it, family. We really did enjoy spending time with you this year and can’t wait until Brady will be a bit over a year old next Christmas time!