The Day AFTER!

It's the day AFTER Christmas and I am enjoying looking at all the photos that captured the moments I shall treasure for all time! Thank you to my gifted photographer son, Jesse, for his awesome talents!

We own THREE really NICE cameras - and could not FIND them!! I only had  my little point and shoot that I use all the time and since there was a LOT of ACTION over both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - mine were mostly blurry! My sister and niece also graciously sent me some good ones and then I cleaned up MINE with www.ribbet.com!

So here is our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in pictures!

If I had to choose just ONE picture - this would be THE one!!

Christmas Eve was wonderful and I think Jesse caught my happiness here!

I admit I woke up early Christmas Eve morning - as in 5:30!! I was too excited to sleep even though I did stay in the warm bed and played Scrabble games for awhile!

I prepped and cleaned all day and had every dish ready to pop in the oven or just pull out of the refrigerator.

This was only the second time the quads have been in our house! Last August when they were only 8 months old and then they just stayed in the den!

I really appreciate all the work Amber and Mike did in making Christmas happen!!

It is no easy thing to take FOUR 19 month old babies anywhere!!!

We parked our vehicles so they could back right up to the front door and unload!

They were the first to arrive in late afternoon.

Louis Dean had bought this bench back in October at the HEB down in Waco.

He was SO excited to finally give it to them!

I think it was a big success!!

Raynie like it too so Granddad is going to search the HEB for another one!!

It was wonderful as more and more family arrived!

The babies practiced their 'Touch with ONE FINGER' routine and did excellent!!!

They occasionally used a couple extra fingers!

There were 16 of us for Christmas Eve.

Only Ben was missing and he is out in California.

We MISSED you, Benjamin!!!

I have an extra leaf for the dining room table - HOWEVER - when we put it in - the table has to be catty cornered in the room! 

So we make do and sweet family sit on the corners while smiling about it!

The quads ate in our laps while the older grands had their own table out in the den.

I made sure they had plate chargers, Christmas plates and stemmed glasses for their tea.

We had a ton of food! Ham, sweet potato casserole and on and on.

The only special requests were fluffy salad, broccoli rice casserole and deviled eggs.

Louis Dean had to find a recipe for the deviled eggs as that is something we both like but have never made.

Faith was SO popular both with the quads.....

 and Raynie!!

It was an evening to remember!

I had ALL my grandchildren together WITH their parents!!

 Kailey looks just like Amber did when she was that age.

Wonder if she will look like her when she's the age Amber is now?

Opening gifts is always fun!

My beautiful daughter in law!

This pic is slightly out of sync as Kailey has her pajamas on but I was afraid I couldn't 'find' it again if I tried to move it! My pictures are a MESS on my computer!!

The pillows were a success I think!!

The quads and Raynie loved theirs!

Louis Dean LOVED his guitar strap from Amber and Mike.

He will use it the next time he plays over in Quadville.

My only regret is that I was so excited about everything that I totally forgot to get a picture of us with all the grands!

By 9:00 everyone was gone leaving the house so quiet and empty.

Louis Dean sent me to bed while he washed all the dishes by hand.

ALL the dishes!! He's like that.

I admit to being way PAST tired and I was soon asleep!

I woke up early, though, because it was Christmas DAY!!

We gathered at my sister's house in Fort Worth - the one where Mother lives.

Here we are!!!

My super cute niece is in the center of Andie, Deanie and Nita!!

Granddad was sporting his Santa Claus tie!!

Mike and Nita's home is a treasure of all things beautiful AND interesting!!

Logan loved their retro tree!

Deanie and her granddaughter, Andie.

The quads were sure glad to see THEM!

Mother was having a ball!!

I think Aunt Deanie has a soft spot for Trystan!

See what I mean??

The quads loved running around and looking at everything!

Logan would explore and then come back to the safety of one of our laps!

They opened gifts and ran around!

This is a great way to feed the quads!

After lunch it was time for the Chinese Christmas Tree!

Everyone brings a wrapped gift and places it under the tree.

We all draw numbers based on how many gifts.

#1 starts first and opens a gift.

#2 can open a new gift OR take the gift from someone else.

After 3 'owners' the gift is frozen and stays with that person.

Louis Dean got Texas Lottery Scratch offs!

Who KNEW he would enjoy them so much???

After he finished he gave his 'winnings' to Andie!

My sister, Nita, ended up with one of the Santa's.....

and my sister in law, Michele, got the other one.

The blond little girl looks like her granddaughter!

It was a FUN day! Can't you tell???

Summer and I ended up staying and visiting with Nita and Mother in the living room while Mike and Louis Dean watched an old movie - Strategic Air Command.

Louis Dean and I were the very last ones to leave!

We came home, changed into pajamas, lit a candle and sat in the den to reflect on all our blessings!

This morning we INTENDED to get up early and hit the after Christmas sales!

We were sleeping so well that didn't happen.

We DID hit up the Home Depot and stocked up on new lights for next year as well as the clear ones I use year round. Sam's was another stop and I got cookies for the grands.

We decided to take in a movie - Saving Mr. Banks with Tom Hanks.

NO beer until we get to the movie!! We ate lunch at Applebee's around the corner from it!

Louis Dean will only go to movies if he can have a beer.

The Movie Tavern in Bedford fills the bill!

It was excellent - although I found it a little bit slow.......

Louis Dean said he thoroughly enjoyed it.

We are in recovery mode and taking it easy tonight.

Tomorrow will be soon enough to look around and see what we need to do next!

As in cleaning out the lawn storage building so we can store the trunk load of lights in there!!!