The One where we celebrated some more Christmas on New Year's Eve.

Time:  6:38.  New Year's Eve.
Last post of 2014.
Officially caught up!

Well, here we are.  The final minutes of 2014.
Today, the Ryan family came to Tuscaloosa for a make-up Christmas celebration.  The PNEUMONIA that invaded Mary Powell caused us to have to cancel our time with them, so we did it today!

Lots of fun and laughter and sweetness and crying (that's Night Night)......

Wanna see?

Aunt Paige just got back from Disney and had recorded the Frozen part of the parade for Mary on her phone.  Mary like.

Just hanging out and talking.

Best part of family Christmas.

Mary's watching the parade VERY carefully.

Max.  Smile.  Seriously.

In Dirty Santa, Mary helped NightNight unwrap his chosen gift.

And if you watched last year's Christmas blog, you're recognize THIS little fella.  He made it BACk into Dirty Santa again this year!  I had hidden that little gem in our Christmas closet in hopes that Mary would NEVER find it again.  Unfortunately, as we were in the close just before Thanksgiving, she was "helping" us get out some decorations and found the bag WAY back in the corner, opened it up, and was DELIGHTED when she found this darn singing chipmunk.  She said, "OH! Here is!"  The rest of us collectively groaned and have endured that THING for the last month.  So.  BACK INTO DIRTY SANTA HE WENT.  Poor Night Night.  

BUT THEN:  we found him in our MAILBOX after everyone had left.

No worries, though.  We know an AWESOME Fed Ex man (PawPaw) and it's gonna make it to North Alabama, so help me......

Mary with her Max.  She acted like she wanted to give him a hug, which he happily obliged..... but she REALLY just wanted one of his chocolate covered Mickey Mouse pretzels.

Lots of treasures in her Minnie stocking.

Read that book, baby girl!

A keychain! A Disney keychain!  A Disney keychain fit for a teenage boy who just got a new truck! 

Will Raney.

Love.

Dad got an Alabama toolbox filled with goodies!

These slippers.  Hilarious.

And she wore them the rest of the day - even out to lunch.

Look what Mudger did.

Made me cry.

Made us ALL cry.

Adoption plug:  It changes you.  It changes your family.  

It is awesome.

Do it.

Cause LOOK.

Disney parts for Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head!

Josh Raney is THE biggest Taco Casa fan on the planet Earth.  So, we decked him out.... the shirt, the cup.... all of it..... 

Mudger and NightNight.

Good uns.

Cause Night Night isn't even a LITTLE bit techy, he only HEARS about this good ole blog, but doesn't really understand how to find it and read it.  AND cause in the past, my tradition has been to WRITE A BOOK for NightNight each year (I used to be creative and crafty....sigh.....)..... I decided to just have the blog turned into a BOOK!  

They cried.

They always cry.

The gang.

The gang doing poses that Mikki forced them to do.

Aunt Paige and her boys.

And then we were off to a late afternoon lunch at Mr. Chen's! Jack drove NightNight and a couple of the boys in his truck behind our car.  NightNight said he did, "Real well."

We still have ONE MORE bit of Christmas fun with PawPaw and Mimi tomorrow (another makeup due to the PNEUMONIA)..... so Christmas continues around here.....

BUT:  2014 does NOT.

The Powell family wishes you all JOY and LOVE and PEACE in 2015.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The One where we had a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Time:  5:42   New Year's Eve.
Still catching up here......


Merry Christmas, everyone!
Jack still has bronchitis.
My upper respiratory infection moved UP and developed into a nice sinus infection.
And Mary got diagnosed with pneumonia the day before Christmas so we had to cancel the festivities that we had planned and ditch our yearly traditions.

But do you think that got us down?  Discouraged us?  Made us feel sorry for ourselves?  Put a damper on our Christmas?

Heck yes it did.

I"m sorry to say, we were all a bit bummed that SICKNESS messed up our Christmas plans.
I had to dig REAL deep to try VERY hard to keep our Christmas spirits up.
I finally wrote the word JOY really BIG on the chalkboards hanging in our kitchen.... right under where I'd written HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS.... so we'd all be reminded that it isn't the plans and traditions and activities that bring JOY during this season..... It is JESUS.

And although we LOVE JESUS, we were a bit thrown as to how to act and celebrate without the traditions and faces that are supposed to be in place on Christmas.

BUT, we as we pressed on towards JOY, we actually had a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Here's a whole mess of pictures to show the JOY: (although some things weren't documented cause I was sick as a dog.....)

Christmas Eve:

Max has always thought that a mug shaped like a toilet would be hilarious.

I, apparently, agree.  You can find just about anything these days.

And although sickness kept us from going to the Christmas Eve service at church AND going out to look at Christmas lights, we settled in that night and all watched The Nativity Story together.  Cause THAT IS SOME JOY RIGHT THERE.

CHRISTMAS DAY:  

We will get back to this little bag on the mantle later.

Santa brought Mary lots of things for her babies and her kitchen!

But before she even SAW all that, she had to help her Daddy in the real kitchen.  Like she does every day.  On her stool. 

That stool.  She carries that thing ALL over the house to get what she needs.  And if ANYONE starts cooking or washing dishes or loading laundry in the washer or brushing their teeth or ANYTHING, she plops that stool right down beside you to HELP.

This is both precious and annoying all at the same time.

Is it time yet?

(Mary has already been downstairs for about an hour..... but she had no idea there were presents in the living room..... she spent her time in the kitchen with her Daddy cooking muffins and eating grits and helping Mama make the rest of breakfast...... then we sent her upstairs to get the boys.)

 While Max and Mary saw their stuff from Santa, Jack was very, VERY quiet.  Cause there wasn't anything for him.... or so he thought.  Then, we pointed out a very small bag on the mantle.  WONDER WHAT THAT IS???

Hum.  Keys.  

WONDER WHAT THOSE ARE FOR?

Max was in on the surprise and had been charged with getting the video.  He did awesome.  

CAUSE LOOK WHAT JACK GOT!

Merry Christmas!

He sees his truck for the first time!

Well, not the FIRST time.... cause it's the same one he test drove a month earlier.... but he had NO IDEA that he would actually GET that truck OR that he would get it for Christmas!

I just love a good surprise!

Once the excitement of the truck was over.... and after we all jumped in and rode around town a bit..... it was back to the house for a little outdoor fun since we'd all been cooped up for DAYS.....

Boy is still grinning.

Probably will for a while.....

Max obviously got ahold of my camera......

Oh well, Merry Christmas from Buddy, too!