Christmas Party

After we returned from our ski trip, we hosted a Christmas party at our house for our small group at church. Jarrod made a huge pot of gumbo that we are still eating on!

After we ate, we had an elephant gift exchange with some very interesting gifts which I don't think I can display on our blog without blushing.

A Gaither Christmas in Austin

This year was our year to have Christmas with Jarrod's side of the family and our first time to host at our new house. We spent a week enjoying time with them, celebrating Christmas, and eating lots of good food.

We went to a Christmas Eve service at our new church...

Gaither Family Photo

Christmas Eve Service with Rick Trevino

Sing Along with the kids

Candlelighting and Snow

Rick Trevino has roots in Austin and he has led music for the Christmas Eve service at our church for 18 years.

We were entertained by our nephew Cayden....

He learned to play the piano

& to climb stairs

Enjoyed opening gifts on Christmas morning....

Ate a yummy Turducken for Christmas dinner...
and also explored Austin with Jarrod's family, watched lots of football & movies, did lots of eating, lots of playing with Cayden, only a little of playing Bridge since I discovered I may not like the game so much after all (or maybe I just need to practice up a little on the computer like Jarrod has!) & had many friends stop through to visit. It was a fun time having Jarrod's family here at our house for the first time and enjoying our first Christmas in our new house here in Austin. Hope all of you also enjoyed time with family & friends this Christmas season and took time out to remember the birth of our Saviour , Jesus Christ, that our loving God sent to us to save us from our sins and allow us to have eternal life. What a wonderful reason to celebrate!

Christmas Tree Decorating...

After we returned from Thanksgiving, we went out on our Christmas tree hunt. After an attempt at one of those Christmas tree farm places, we quickly proceeded to Wal-Mart & Home Depot to find some more affordable trees. I had no idea how expensive a decent size tree had gotten. Last year was our first Christmas together and we were not going to be home much so we bought a tiny tree that could not have been taller than maybe 5 foot. We only needed 2 strands of lights so that gives you a good idea how small it was! Anyhow, we found our 9 foot Noble Fir that we were looking for at Home Depot. Their prices are extremely reasonable and had some nice looking trees. It was a REALLY big 9 footer too! Jarrod suggested that the guy cut the trunk shorter b/c of its thickness, but the Home Depot dude insisted that where he was cutting it was fine. Well, when we got home, the trunk wouldn't fit in the tree stand as Jarrod had suspected so being the great husband that he is, he got out his hand saw and began sawing away. After some minor setbacks, we finally had it standing straight up, but no time for decorating this weekend. Here is the before:

After I returned from Dallas the following weekend, Jarrod helped me string the lights, and I had fun finding just the right spot for all our ornaments the rest of the evening. One night later that week, Jarrod began hanging candy canes on the tree & I was like "what are you doing?" He was appalled that my family did not put candy canes on the tree every year. We laughed, he only put 2 of the boxes on instead of 4 he had bought and he took the other 2 boxes to work. His co-workers were very thankful that our family didn't put candy canes on our tree. LOL The tree was not finished off until my mom and grandmother came in town for my birthday this passed weekend and I climbed to the top & added the gold star. Here is the after picture of our decorated tree: As I mentioned, mom and Patsy were here for my birthday. We drove up to Salado to their Christmas Stroll on Saturday and did some shopping at the cute antique stores there. It was a fun day. We returned back home to some great smelling steaks being prepared by my wonderful husband. He grilled up some steak, pork, vegetables & baked some potatoes for us. It was all yummy! I opened up my gifts and then on to dessert! My mom baked my favorite chocolate cake (which has become a running joke amongst us, but not room to go into the details about that now). It was delicious!

Guess, that gives it away -- this is my last year in my twenties! Better make it a good one!