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she loves puzzles

she loves doing puzzles and is really good at it too. i got a new camera just before christmas. it was a great before the holiday sale. i love that i can crank my ISO way down and get better pictures inside in not great lighting..... and i love watching my little brenna work things out. she is growing so fast! i keep telling her to stop, she keeps telling me she is at least going to grow until she is eight :) funny girl.

a GREEN and BLUE christmas

yep thats right! a BRIGHT BLUE and GREEN christmas is sunny warm florida! can you tell i loved every second of being in Florida for christmas? here are a few of my favorite things about our trip... in no particular order.

being all together to get a family photos
beautiful dresses that gram made for the girls for christmas eve service at church

a trip on the tri-rail to Bass Pro Shops and than a lovely dinner

a special lunch with just the girls...mom, me, nicole, kenzie, brenna, raelyn and jori
sister timeAMAZING worship at our old church Spanish River. wow i miss it.
singing silent night with lit candles...a christmas eve tradition
reading a good book on the back porch in sandals
papa p's annual christmas lunch down at the shop
spending time with my sister and brothers.... when did they become so much bigger than me
enjoying a meal outside on the back porch
having to combine two tables because our family is so big :)
the hand made place cards, made by garret, on the table
having grandma and aunt margaret healthy enough to spend another christmas with us
eating delicious wild turkey that my hunter of a husband shot with a BOW and ARROW... he's amazing
trying out some new wines
watching my guys work together on fun projects
having my brenna boo curl up in my lap on christmas morning
being barefoot and in short sleeves with amazing green foliage all around
watching mom and dad open i pads they got each other, not knowing they had gotten them for each other :)
watching jori spend time with her uncle logan... she was planted by him all christmas morning
mom and dad GIGANTIC tree
a pile o presents... I'm not gonna lie, my parents spoil us bad, it is nice to be the recipients of their generosity
so many people in one room, you can barely see the carpet
spending time with scott and nicole
seeing GiGi smile watching the kids play at her house on christmas eve
VERNORS ginger ale.... can't have a meal at GiGis without vernors

keeping the tradition going of having christmas eve dinner at grandma and aunt margarets house
watching the kids play her piano
special memories being made
making donuts with gram and papa p one morning
wow... thats a lot of favorites... i have a few more that aren't even photographed.

- we ate at our favorite mexican restaurant down by dads shop

- pedicures with all the big girls, a special treat from mom

- swimming at miss Dianes pool

- running with my bro and sister in law

- playing card games

i could keep going I'm sure.... after typing up this list, i have so much to be thankful for. God is so good, we are blessed. thanks mom and dad for opening our house for our big family. we sure do take over when we come, but we love every minute. wish we could do it more often.

hope you all had a lovely christmas filled with "favorite things" as well.

Pre-Christmas celebration

since we were going to be in Florida for Christmas we had an early christmas eve and christmas here in TN with Dave's parents.

"christmas eve" we let the kids stay up a little later than usual and we made yummy chocolate covered pretzels for gifts for our family and friends. the kids did great. they are getting so big!.
then dave and i stayed up way to late wrapping all out gifts for the kids. i hadn't wrapped anything yet and we wanted to give them the gifts from us before we headed to Fl.
grandma kay and grandpa george came over in the morning and watched the kids open their gifts.
the girls got horses of course, and garret got some bey blades
and jori LOVED reading her book next to grandpa.

i tried out this great pinterest recipe. egg casserole in the crock pot! it was yummy! try it out.

click here to get back to her blog

Christmas at the Wid house

yeah well.... its january 5th and I'm just blogging about christmas. thats ok, i still wanted to share. sorry for pictures being smaller than usual. i think blogger changed something and the way i was making my photos larger is now making them very pixelated, so if you want to see them larger for now just click on the photo and it will enlarge it.

so this is what our home looks like during the Christmas season.

does any one know anybody that knits stockings like these above? we have one for all of our family but jori. saves aunt made them for us and she passed away before jori was born. i would love to get one made for her that matched all or ours.
our pretty little tree. this is not a fantastic picture of my tree skirt, but it is my most favorite part of my tree. my mom made it for me and i just love it. the colors and fabrics are just perfect. i enjoy getting it out every year. thanks so much mom! you are so talented.