I LOVE Christmas Time. I love everything about it, the lights, the trees, the love, the parties, the special time that I get to think of the Savior and His life and all that he did so that I could be here today living my life! I LOVE Christmas!
This year, Micah and I were able to watch Emily experience the joys of Christmas for the first time and it was wonderful! She is such a beautiful ball of joy and excitement and it was so great, to watch her eyes light up when we read stories about Jesus or looked at our little nativity. As well as play with more toys than she has ever seen in her life! She loved ALL the aspects of Christmas! The only thing she is still not quite excited about yet, is unwrapping gifts! But once we would unwrap something for her she was very excited to explore and play with it, didn't matter if it was a toy, a book or even an outfit! She loved them all!
We decided that this Christmas Season we would spend Christmas Eve traveling to different family members to spend some time together and then on Christmas Day we would spend the day at home, just our little family of 3....almost 4! So that is exactly what we did, and we were so thankful and blessed that the weather cooperated and allowed us to follow through with our plans!
As is tradition, we headed to Mommers and Dooders house for Christmas Eve Lunch at High Noon!! Getting together with all of my brothers and sisters there is always a good time! Especially now that the little kiddos are coming into the picture! Mommers and Dooders cooked a delicious Christmas Eve Lunch and we had lots of time and plenty of room to relax, talk and watch Emily and Eliza play!
Here are a few pictures that we took while we were over having our Christmas Eve Lunch!!
Emily and her cousin, Eliza, spending some time playing on the floor together....but as you can see Emily is about ready to make her move!
We had to let Emily open one present while we were visiting! She hasn't really been into presents very much yet, although she does prefer the presents that are in bags as opposed to the ones wrapped in boxes!!
Emily and Eliza tearing into their matching presents together!!
Here is Emily's Little Cousin, Colton, celebrating his first Christmas in his bouncy seat!! He is only 3 and a half months old, but he is cute as a button! And we loved his little shirt, it said, " Santa is My Homeboy!". He is definitely 100% boy, that is for sure!
Eliza is getting some help from her Mommy to take one of her presents out of its box!!
Just before we left we snapped a quick picture of Danielle and I and our babies.....of course, we switched them for this picture:)
We also made a stop by Mema's on Christmas Eve. We couldn't let the day go by without her getting to see Emily and spend some time with her. She loves our little girl! And Emily loves her Mema too! She is so fortunate to have a Great Grandma around who enjoys spending time with her!
A Family Shot in front of Mema's Christmas Tree! I love the little look on Emily's face, she is planning her next move already!
Mommy with her Precious Little Princess!
Emily sitting on Mema's lap. Notice her pointer finger, this is her new pose! She still sucks her thumb, but now she sucks her pointer finger too!
Emily also loves to play with Mema's cat, Snoopy, although Snoopy is not always a big fan of
the way Emily plays!! We are trying to teach her to be "gentle and soft" to both people AND animals! And sometimes it works!
Emily also got to spend a few minutes with her Great Aunt Sweetie on Christmas Eve too! We don't get to see her too often, but it is always fun when we do!
Our last stop on Christmas Eve was my Dad and Jeannie's house! They always like to have us over to spend some time during the holidays. And this year was especially exciting because they got to spend Christmas with Emily too! They have us over for dinner on a weekly basis and we really enjoy spending time with them! And every loves seeing her Pop, Grandma Jeannie, Aunt Jessie and Cousin Avery so often too!
Here are a few pictures of our time at their house on Christmas Eve! As you can see, Avery LOVES her roll as "the big cousin"! She had a great time showing Emily just how to open a Christmas gift, and she is so caring and gentle and loves to give her "Emmy" kisses and hugs!
Pop and Grandma Jeannie gave both Emily and Haley matching "Jesus Loves Me" blankets! As you can see Emily is already very fond of hers!
Here I am with my beautiful sister, Jessie, as we pose with our serving trays that Jeannie made for us! What a great and personalized gift!! Ours is displayed on our stove all ready for serving!
Group Shot of everyone at Dad and Jeannie's house! From Left to Right (Jessie, Avery, Nanny, Micah, Jeannie, Dad, Me and Emily). Micah is a great photographer, he is a pro at the self-timer too!
And then came Christmas Day.......I thought I would add this picture of me from last Christmas morning, which was only 4 days before Emily joined our family! And as you can see she was VERY MUCH present!!
Here she is this year all dressed in her Santa sweat suit! And she is squatting here, and playing with her FAVORITE Christmas Gift, a keyboard!! She gets so frustrated when Micah and I are on the computer and we won't let her touch the keyboard, so...thanks to Mommers and the American Red Cross (where she works) we were able to pick up an old keyboard, clean it up and give it to Emily!! And as you can see, she LOVED it!
But she also LOVES books, so she had to take a break from typing her letter, to read her newest book!
I just thought this was a funny expression!! What a little Ham!!
Emily LOVES her Daddy! And here they are laughing together on Christmas Morning!
Here's My Handsome Micah amidst all of the Christmas Morning Festivities!!
Emily is checking out her new Ragedy Ann doll that she got from her Great Aunt Jean! Man, I LOVE this girl's expressions!
Nothing like a back scratch to help Daddy relax while he was opening his gifts!! And Emily was just the person to give it to him!
Another thing Emily LOVES to do is to "read" and so she really enjoyed this card that came from her Great Aunt Gail!
We took a break from opening our Christmas presents to visit with my Josh, Ellie, Emma and Luke.....my oldest brother and his family....it was nice of them to stop by for a visit on their way to Charlottesville to visit the rest of the family!
Here's Emily with Emma and Luke....two of her Blue-Eyed Cousins!! (Didn't realize until now that Emily didn't get a picture with her Uncle Josh and Aunt Ellie, next time!)
After they left and we got back to opening presents.Emily was rejuvenated and was actually excited to open a box! Even though it didn't last long, it was fun to watch her tear into the paper for a few seconds!! Next year I am sure she will be all over those gifts!!
After all of our gifts had been opened we got the chance to snap a Christmas Day Family Photo in front of our Christmas Tree!
Me with my Best Christmas Gifts.....Emily and Haley (who is still inside my tummy!),and of
course, my dear sweet Micah who is the photographer for this one!
Daddy was excited to celebrate Christmas with his little Sweet "P" this year too!
Emily sitting down to inspect one of her new Christmas Gifts!! I love these little serious faces she makes!
Micah and I snapped a picture of the two of us, although Haley was also very present too, while Emily was taking her Christmas Day Nap!
Another one of our Gray Family Traditions that we started 2 years ago....eventhough we decided to take a break from last year, since Emily was almost here and we thought it would be less work to head to town to eat with family instead of making our own dinner.....Micah and I make a yummy Christmas Dinner and we eat together, just our own little family! It is so nice to be able to spend Christmas Day all snuggled in our home together! I am so glad we started this tradition!!
Here's Emily Enjoying Her First Christmas Day Dinner! As you can see, it didn't take her long to fall in love with this tradition either!!
The day after Christmas we headed out around 8:15am, it was supposed to be 7:30am but Micah has a little run in with our icy driveway and our car and turning around, so it pushed our departure time back by 45 minutes or so. But nonetheless we headed out and we were NOVA bound, with just one small stop at Target in Gainesville, VA to pick up some discounted Christmas Cards for next year and Emily's birthday present!
When we got to NOVA we headed straight to Nathan and Sarah's house where they were having a Family Christmas Brunch! As always, it was a fun and memorable time there! It was nice that we were all able to be together! It was a nice treat that Mummis was able to fly Micah's sister, Rachel, home from California for Christmas too and Matt, Ruth's husband, was unexpectedly off for the weekend and was able to come too! So it was nice to have EVERYONE together! We had a lot of fun talking, eating, opening gifts and picture taking!!
Our Sister in Law, Sarah, is learning about photography and enjoys any opportunity she gets to practice her skills! So here are a few shots from our Family Photo Shoot that morning!
Emily was not so sure about doing a shoot by herself! But she is beautifully debuting her new dress that she got from Mummis!!
Our Little Family...after a crazy morning of ice, traveling, shopping and playing!
Here are all of the Gray Cousins together!!
Here we are! ALL together!! Sarah (and Jacob) did a great job co-ordinating and making this picture happen!!
Our Little Princess in her beautiful new dress! Doesn't she just look like an angel?
Emily hanging out with her little cousin, Priscilla!
Emily: "Stick with me kid, and I will teach you all you need to know"
Priscilla: "Sounds good to me!"
Emily learning to be gentle with Priscilla. Since she is new at it, you can see that Priscilla is keeping a pretty close eye on her!
Emily spending a moment with her Uncle Jacob while Mommy and Daddy were getting ready for some more pictures!
One last cousin shot....probably the last one, before Haley joins the family!! I just though these expressions were so cute!! Emily loves having so many cousins and we are so blessed to live pretty close to all of them right now!
On our way back to Mummis's house after the breakfast, we were able to stop and visit with our friend Raman Dadoo! They are always so nice to welcome us into our home! We all had a really nice time visiting together!!
Here is Raman with Emily and his neice, Minishka!!
Here we are all together with Raman! He is such a great friend, we are so grateful to know him and have him in our lives! Can't wait to introduce Haley to Raman and his family in a few months too!
Our last Christmas visit was to see our dear friends, The Murchisons! We love going to visit with them, they are always such great hosts and make us feel so welcome and loved! They were also especially excited to get to see little Miss Emily again!
Here is Emily and I with Norma! What a wonderful pseudo-grandma she is for Emily!
Emily posing with the Murchison Crew....Eric (back left), Wyatt (back right) and Norma holding Emily!! We sure love this family!
Norma enjoyed holding Emily on her lap as she showed her the Christmas Gifts that they had gotten for her. As you can see, Emily and her reindeer became fast friends! I believe it was Love at First Sight!
Emily was also fascinated with the birds in their bird cage at the Murchisons!!! She could not take her eyes off of them for more than a minute the whole time we were there!
After a nice Christmas visit and some yummy snacks at the Murchisons we headed straight to the Washington DC Temple Visitor's Center to see the Christmas Lights and the nativity scenes! We were excited to run into Nathan and their family their just before we started out....we were coming and they were going!!
Sarah snapped a quick picture of us before they headed out....we were only missing Priscilla who was snoozing away in her stroller by this point of their trip!
This was our favorite Christmas Tree that they had on display this year!!
Emily and I outside near the nativity scene. We thought she might like to sit on the camel, but by the look on her face you can see she was not quite so sure!
I know this post was quite lengthy, but we wanted to make sure to include a little tidbit from each of the special memories that we made over this Christmas Time! Christmas is a time to draw near to those who mean the most to you, and also a time to reflect on our Savior Jesus Christ, to ponder His glorious but humble birth and what that one seemingly small miracle has allowed each of us to be today! I am grateful for a Savior who loves each one of us and knows each one of us personally and I am thankful for the tender mercies that I am blessed with in my life that help to remind me of who I am and where I came from, why I am on this Earth at this time and where I am going. Life is Good, I hope each of you were able to reflect upon some of the tender mercies in your lives that our Heavenly Father and our Elder brother Jesus Christ has blessed you with over this Christmas Season! Happy 2010 from our family to yours!
