Brian and Ells: Our Last Christmas Sans Children

Well this is our last Christmas without children... sad to see the "just us" go, but super excited for what is in store for our family :) We went to Huntsville the weekend before Christmas to be with Brian's parents, brother & sister-in-law. We had a lot of fun spending time with his side of the family and were glad we were able to visit! We attended our church, North Point Community Church, the Wednesday before Christmas for a "traditional" Christmas Eve service filled with TONS of music, communion and the Christmas story. Baby Hake was jumping all over during the music - he's obviously a fan. Brian and I spent Christmas Eve at my parents house along with: Dad, Mom, Deborah, Mema (dad's mom), Mimi (mom's mom), Aunt Barbara (dad's sister), Amy (Aunt Barbara's daughter), Drew (cousin) & gf, Sydney, Vada and Penny. It was a full house to say the least! But we had some amazingly delicious food: honey baked ham, green beans, my famous "Over the Rainbow Macaroni and Cheese" (as featured on Oprah many years ago), pineapple casserole, rolls, sweet potato casserole and MANY MANY desserts. We opened one gift each (family tradition) on Christmas Eve and then Brian and I returned back to our house to spend Christmas Eve night at home snug in our bed. Christmas morning we returned to my parents' house and began our tradition - we walked down the stairs from oldest to youngest while my dad videotaped, we acted completely surprised that Santa had visited our house, and then we divvied up the gifts to everyone. We opened half our presents then stopped for breakfast intermission (sausage/egg/cheese casserole, hashbrown casserole, upside down pineapple biscuits and fruit medley), only to return to more gifts. While we were eating breakfast it started to snow! This is a HUGE deal for us because the last time it snowed on Christmas Day was in 1993 when I was in 3rd grade!! All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas with Brian's family and with mine. I still cannot believe that this time next year we will have a tiny tot with us on Christmas morning!!!!

24 weeks preg on Christmas Eve

Aunt Deb gave Baby Hake a new toy (we opened this on Christmas Eve)... Penny is a little unsure about all the new things we keep bringing home

My two grandmothers haven't been together in MANY years. Sadly both of my sweet, precious grandfathers have passed away so it was special to have both grandmothers together for Christmas this year. Mema (dad's mom) and Mimi (mom's mom) get along very well and spent a good 2 hours browsing through my mom's copy of our wedding pictures. It was SO sweet!