Best Time Of The Year

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure did! It was so wonderful just being home and having Alex and the kids off from school. A few days after they all went on break, my parents flew in to spend the holiday with us! It was so wonderful having them here after not seeing them for a little over six months (the longest I've ever gone without seeing my parents).

There was plenty of baking, home cooked meals, country ham for breakfast (a family tradition...we order it and have it shipped in), game playing, movie watching, and just being together as a family. We also were able to FaceTime with my in-laws, Aunt Kathy, and Mamaw on Christmas Day which was a treat in and of itself. So thankful for this technology!!!

We also were blessed with the privilege, on the day after Christmas, to drive to North Carolina to go visit my Great Aunt and Great Uncle (I hadn't seen them since I was 10 b/c they stopped traveling shortly after that). We all loaded in the car and made the drive to Belmont to visit with them. My Aunt is simply amazing! She didn't look a day older from the last time I had seen her 23 years ago. She had made us homemade banana pudding, mini pecan pies, egg washed oven roasted pecans, Christmas cookie bars and pound cake. We had a wonderful visit with them. Aunt Peggy gifted me several of her amazing cookbooks from years past, one of them has about 15-20 of my Great Great Aunt Connie's recipes in it. I can't wait to try them. She also gifted me a beautiful hand made ceramic tree that lights up. I would post a picture, except I forgot to take one before she put it in the box and she wrapped it so nicely that I hate to undo it and chance it not being put away properly until next year. So, here is a picture of what it resembles.

My Aunt also gave Madison two of the beautiful porcelain dolls (in the picture above that Alex so wonderfully captured) that my Great Great Aunt Connie had made by hand....they were both very very crafty. Maybe somewhere deep down I have a crafty bone in my body, but I haven't discovered it yet. 

My parents left yesterday to return back to California, so now we are sadly cleaning up our Christmas things, but recalling all of the fond memories made this year that will forever put a smile in our heart.

We are looking forward to the fun 2015 will bring and eagerly awaiting the news of where we will be stationed for the next three years.