Let the Christmas festivities begin...

Yes, I am writing on January 1, 2013, but it has been a busy couple of weeks!  After accidentally burning myself on hot tea, I came down with the flu on Christmas day.  I am going to take the next couple of posts to catch up on all the fun we had while my grandma, Kay Stargel, was in town for Christmas and to celebrate her 90th birthday!

We'll start with the fun we had at the Atlanta Athletic Club's annual Christmas celebration on December 23, 2012.  This year it was a "Grinch" theme.  Jared and his family had to miss it this year because Jared had the flu, sadly.

We began by being served dinner by Thing 1!  Zeke warmed up to him right away.  He also enjoyed the band that played at dinner as you'll see below (clasping his hands watching).  Next, he got to sit with Santa, then had a candy cane painted on his hand.  After that, he got a balloon candy cane, although, Daddy accidentally stepped on it when we got home!  

It was a nice evening, although we missed having Jared, Jami, and the girls there to join in the fun.




The next day was Christmas Eve, so we went to dinner at Di Paolo's with GeeGee (Grandma) and my parents.  I was starting to feel poorly that evening, so Gregg and I ended up staying home from church.

When we got home from dinner, we put Zeke in his Christmas pajamas and got ready for bed.  Zeke doesn't really know much about Santa at this point, so he just went to bed as usual! 

The next morning, he woke up to see that Santa had brought him a Christmas balloon (his favorite thing right now) and filled his stocking.  He was so excited!

Jared, Jami, and the girls came over later that morning so we could all open gifts together and enjoy Christmas lunch.  We decided to donate to specific charities/causes this year in lieu of gifts, but my mom and dad still generously gave to all of us, in addition to all of their charitable giving.  We are very blessed. 

We began our time together with Grandma reading the Christmas story from Luke 2.  It was a special time for us all.

Harper's first Christmas!

The chef!

Praying

Singing Happy Birthday to baby Jesus (Gregg was really into it!)

Excuse my look, but I ended up in the ER that night with the flu

Zeke admiring his camouflage band aid!

Cousin fun

I will continue with another post later to share all of the details about Grandma's 90th birthday celebration.  It was a wonderful time with family and friends from Atlanta, Texas, and New York City!

I pray you all had a blessed time celebrating the birth of our Savior, or as Zeke would say, "Jesus' birthday!"