Friday, December 28th

* Me and the girls went to the Y. I ran the trail and had a good run! Nathan went hunting for the day at a hunt club with a guy from work/church.

* Kimmy and Sergio came to pick up Natalee and Lydia and take them to Christmas Town with my mom and dad, Luke, Tori, Liz and Bekah. They felt special being able to go by themselves and had so much fun!

* I made a meal for Laura Poole. Me, Juls and Alyssia went to deliver the meal ( and saw sweet baby Olivia) , did a quick Coscto run then stopped by Chic-fil-a. Julianna had been promised to go to Chic-fil-a to play on the playground and get ice-cream (her favorite thing in the world to do:)

* The girls didn't get home until 10:30 and couldn't stop talking about all of the fun they had! Natalee rode her first roller coaster and Lydia went on DiVinchi's cradle! So they didn't get to sleep til after 11:00.

*  Nathan fell asleep by 9:00 and I finished getting ready for our trip to Maryland the next day.

Thursday, December 27th

* All the girls slept in until 9:00, which was a mericle! Kimmy and Sergio got lucky since they were sleeping downstairs and didn't have to get woken up early. We had a big breakfast and started to get ready for the day. 

* I went on a run while the girls played at the house with everyone. Nathan went in the woods for a couple hours in the afternoon with his brother and dad.

* Then we packed up and headed to Norfolk and Virginia Beach. We had dinner at Grandma Dot's house with our family then headed to Virginia Beach for dessert at Grandma O'Brien's house. We had not been to Grandma O'Brien's new condo so we got the tour of her lovely place and celebrated her engagement to Jerry. A wedding should be soon to come! Here are some pictures from our visit..

Wednesday, December 26th

* Nathan woke up early to go hunting and was back by 10:00. It was a rainy day so it ended up being a good day to stay inside and play with the new gifts.

* I took off with all my sisters, minus Bekah, to the movie theater to go see Les Miserables! Me, Liz and Tori liked it but my mom, Courtney and Kimberly didn't like it as much. Liz and I had read the book and I had seen it on broadway so we had an appreciation for the whole story and got into the movie. However, the other half did not and said they would never see it again. It was an interesting discussion afterwards:) We had fun though!

* We got back and all the guys- Nathan, my dad, Blake, Luke, Landon and all the Pittman's went to play basketball in Poquoson. Thank goodness there were no injuries!

* While the guys were playing basketball, all the girls ( and Will and Reese) came over to our house to hang out. We played games, made cookies, painted nails, and watched the kids do the Wii dance.

Juliet and Alyssia playing together:)

* Kimmy and Sergio spent the night at our house. After the girls had baths they stayed up for a little while spending time with Kimmy and Sergio and doing a puzzle with daddy. The girls went to bed and we stayed up talking with them:)

Christmas Day

* The girls slept until almost 8:00. They were content watching a show on the computer in bed while we took a shower and got dressed. Then we all headed downstairs to open gifts.

This year instead of buying the girls a ton of gifts, we decided to get them each 3 gifts. We explained that we wanted to focus more on the "giving" at Christmas and wanted them to be a part of giving to someone else and use our money towards others instead of on ourselves. Natalee and Lydia understood and were excited about picking out gifts for someone else. We decided that we would buy gifts to give to the inner city kids in New York ( where our youth group was going on a trip).  So the girls made a list of what they wanted to buy. We headed to the store and picked out all the things on their lists plus some practical items:)

We set aside an afternoon and went to pick out the gifts. We bought three backpacks to put all the things inside of and gave away the backpacks. It was amazing to see how well they understood this process and how anxious they were to give the things away. I was so proud of them! I wish I had taken pictures, but next time I will!

Christmas gifts

•  Natalee and Lydia- cowgirl comforter, gymnastics outfit and a new Bible with cover.
• Julianna- rapunzel doll with horse, bathing suit (for swim lessons) and a Bible storybook
• Alyssia- a miniature minnie mouse chair, a new book and some bows                                            In each of their stockings they got some stamp pads, stamps and tootsie rolls

* After we opened the gifts, we sat down to a nice breakfast that I had prepared the night before.(it was not easy staying up the night before to prepare for the morning but it was so worth it the next morning!) We had french toast sticks, turkey bacon, homemade banana bread, cut up fruit and orange juice.

* At breakfast Nathan read the girls the story of Jesus' birth from the Jesus Storybook Bible. They were just as excited about eating a big breakfast together and reading a story as they were about opening presents. Nathan and I both realized that they just want to spend time with us. The presents are nice but they eventually get tired of them or the "newness" wears off. Our family is what really matters to them!

It was so nice to not have to rush on Christmas morning. Alyssia went down for a nap around 11:00 and we finished getting ready.

* We headed to Nana and Papa's after Alyssia's nap. We exchanged gifts and ate a big Christmas lunch together. We had told them also that we didn't want the girls to get a lot of gifts this year. So, they had scaled down on the gifts which was very nice! In years past the girls have gotten overwhelmed with gifts. They still got plenty of gifts this year between all the great grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. But, it was better then it has been!

* After lunch we all took part in Josh's proposal to Jenna! Long story short, me and Natasha asked Jenna to go for a walk on the trail. When we got to the end of the trail, Josh was there waiting with a lighted path and candles. He proposed, she said yes and we were all so happy for them! Wedding is coming on 5/31/13.

* We headed back to Tim and Karl's for hot chocolate and egg nog and to watch the proposal video.

* Then it was back home to put the girls to bed and put everything away. It was a long day but good!

God is so good!