Christmas!!

Christmas time y'all.  Serious business, especially in our families.  The Jemisons all get together every year, and some years it is the only time when we get to see Jenny and Kevin.  The Carpenters trade off years with Thanksgiving and Christmas and Myers decided not to travel for baby Arthur's sake.  Parks and his family came a couple days after Christmas.  We were so happy to see all of our family, even if it was for a short time.

All the presents I wrapped this year.

Connor is the cutest Christmas baby.

I can only speak for myself, but I'm sure Patrick would agree that it was wonderful to see our nephew and our nieces for Christmas.  We missed Arthur and Lillian a lot, but it was so fun to get to spend all that time with the Carpenters and the Runyans.

Riley in Connor's old penguin outfit.

Connor explaining to Riley what a tree is.

New baby niece, Catherine!

Silly boys getting into the Diet Cokes.

There were a tremendous amount of gifts under the Jemison tree, so we decided to all open on on Christmas eve.  We also instituted a new tradition: an ornament exchange!

Matt with his Green Lantern ornament from Kevin.

Ed with his motorcycle from Megan.

Patrick and I with our love birds from Matt and Jessica.

Jenny with her "Break Your Own Heart" logo
(her personal brand) from Patrick.

Riley's and Catherine's ornaments from me.  Connor has a
matching one, and Riley and Connor have ones from last year too.

Megan's octopus form Jenny.

Jessica's Hello Kitty from Ed/Happah.

Kevin's Porco Rosso plane from me!

The Carpenter family tradition is a big meal on Christmas Eve for dinner.  This year we were planning on having the Jemisons' over, but with Henry's trips to the ER and sickness, we decided low-key was better for everyone.  The only "extra" person who came was Grandmar.

Connor's "popper" crown.

We were all excited for Christmas morning!  I didn't know how Connor was going to react, but I was really hoping he would like his gifts.  We started the morning around 8ish, and Connor didn't get up until 9, which was really nice.

Connor loving his new trike.

He wanted to hold all his new
toys from his stocking.

After a few hours of presents at the Carpenters, we managed to catch a couple seconds of the Carpenter family video chat with Parks' and Myers' families before heading off to the Jemisons.

Riley and Aunt Megan.

Last year we tried to get Riley and Connor to pose in this Christmas hat box to be our little Christmas gifts.  The pictures were okay, but nothing compared to Catherine's this year!  She was a tiny Christmas angel.

Catherine and Happah.

After Catherine got out, Connor decided he needed to attract my attention by posing in the box too!  He was a little big, but he sure is cute!

We spent almost three solid hours opening gifts.  Jenny's boyfriend Chris was a great sport being Santa for everyone for the first couple hours, but I'm pretty sure we almost broke him with the amount of presents still under the tree.

Matt and Jessica

Riley and Connor had a lot of fun playing together, with a lot of the playing being Connor gently, yet firmly, taking a toy away from Riley, and then Riley giggling and asking to be held by whoever the closest person who was standing up was.

Duplo tower!

Patrick got his Mom the movie "Brave" for Christmas, hoping she would enjoy it, so after a great meal made by all the Jemison kids, we sat (or laid down) to watch it together.

Connor watching the movie.

The day after Christmas, we took advantage of our aquarium membership and went with the Runyans, Jenny, and Chris.

Patrick temporarily holding both boys.

Little boys splashing in the petting tank.

Underwater cavern!

We got the picture guy to take a picture with my camera.
Green Screen!

On the 27th, Parks and Liz arrived with their three crazy girls.  They quickly adopted the male members of our family for their own.  Charlotte claimed Will, Lily Kate claimed Henry, and Hadley claimed Connor.  Seriously, Hadley and Connor had a lot of fun together.  We will post videos in the future of them shoving each other over to get the right to play with some of Connor's toys.

Get that Uncle Will!

Cousin bath time!

Saturday morning we went on a train ride at the Tennessee Valley Railroad museum.  It goes from one part of the museum, through a historic tunnel, to another part of the museum where they do repairs on old steam engines.  It was cold, but fun!  I have to admit that one of the best parts for me is that Connor wanted to be with his cousins, Sassy, and Sani, so he didn't sit with Patrick and me almost the entire ride. Connor, I love you, but I appreciate a little time apart from you every now and then!

Parks had to leave on Monday, and it was a pretty low key day until Henry needed to go to the hospital.  He came home, and everything looked okay, but later that night, he was in a lot of pain and couldn't stop throwing up, so Mom and Sarah took him back.  He's been there ever since and I'm not sure when they are planning on releasing him. He has another endoscopy on Monday, and they are saying his diagnosis is collagenous gastritis, which is a very rare form of gastritis, with no real treatment plan.  Luckily, his school is going to be very helpful in facilitating his classwork, only requiring half days, with a home teacher to come and check on him.  It is very hard for me to see Mom, Sarah, and Will going through so much to help Henry and be with him at the hospital and know there is nothing I can do to help.  I am just praying for him.  We love you Henry.