Happy 2009!

I'm back. It has been a long blogging break for me. With holiday preparations, travel, family time, and just enjoying the break I haven't made time to blog. I had a lot I wanted to blog about around Christmas, but I will just have to do a catch-up/summary blog since it has been so long.

It has been wonderful to have off work for the past 2 weeks! That is the longest break I have had from work in a long time. I did have to work on Friday, but only for four hours so I still felt like I was on my break for the rest of the week/weekend.

Greg and I started the Christmas break by going to Waco to have an early Christmas celebration with his family. They showered us with gifts and were so sweet. His sister was really thoughtful and put together cute boxes for us with slips of paper where we would write kind words to each family member. It was a special addition to the family Christmas. After coming home from Waco, we "moved" into my parent's house for several days, even though they live in Houston. It was a blast to hang out there playing games, watching Christmas movies, looking at Christmas lights, going to the Christmas Eve service at Church, opening presents and eating lots of sweets. We also did a mini advent celebration where we all took turns reading verses of prophesy, the birth of Jesus, and other verses about the promised Savior. It was a great chance to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Also, since my sister and I were both with our Husbands' families for Thanksgiving, we had a Grosse family traditional Thanksgiving meal on Christmas day. It was delicious. And of course we celebrated my Mom's birthday that afternoon. Yep, she's a Christmas baby. We finished off our holiday by going to Greg's extended family's annual Christmas reunion. There were so many kids this year. 3 new babies had been added to the mix so that was fun to watch all the little ones. Oh and I almost forgot, the next day my parents took us to the Transiberian Orchestra concert which was amazing! They were all extremely talented and it was so different than any other concert or performance I had seen. I would definitely recommend it! Here are some pictures from the various Christmas events. I am so sad I didn't get any with my family!! I don't think any of us remembered to take pictures.

Greg's Mom-

Hollyn opening presents-
(by the way, Hollyn recently discovered that she can stick out her tongue. She has been showing us her new fancy trick for about a week straight)

Greg's Dad-

Christmas in Waco-

Our first together by our tree-

Mattern Christmas Reunion-

Me snuggling Brody-

Also, I know that I have been tagged by Jill and Erin, so the responses to those tags will be coming soon!