Christmases 3, 4, & 5

Okay well we are finally back in Tuscaloosa. Yes. 5 Christmas celebrations later & we are home. Christmas #3 was spent on Christmas day with my parents. As usual this was wonderful. My brother Eric had his boys and after their morning of Santa gifts they swept by my parents to say good morning. Then after he dropped them off with their mom he came back to the house. We spent the morning watching the Disney Christmas Parade, eating breakfast casserole (the one you liked Tracy :) ), we opened presents and just relaxed. It was great. Marcus & I received some great gifts. My parents gave us both some money to spend on our upcoming trip, Marcus got some awesome Bama stuff, I got some great 'Courtney' stuff :)!! lol. It was great. Just being there at home on Christmas morning is worth the crazy hassles of holiday season any day! :) After the morning festivites were done we set to work on a wonderful steak & hashbrown lunch! YUMMY!!! It was so good! Eric had set the steaks to marinate for around 24 hours. Um, hello - can we say it tasted amazing! I made some "green fluffy snow" (a cold dessert that is both bizarre & delicious) and we just napped & watched movies.
Christmas #4 was spent on Friday night at MaryAnn's with first dinner with James Kelly, Lisa (his girlfriend) & her two boys, Billy & Brandon. After dinner Rob & his family arrived. We opened presents and visited for a while before heading back to my parents to spend the night. On Saturday morning I was up early to meet Mary Ann & Regina for pedicures in Camden. Then around 12:45 p.m. we headed over to Evelyn's for Christmas #5 with the Agees. Around 95 of us flitted in and out of her newly remodeled home. The gathering of people was fun. We saw some cousins that we had not seen in forever! For so long 80% of us were all in Alabama, now not so much. Mike & Sissy are in New Jersey/Pennsylvania; John Wayne & Katherine are in Florida... but this year we all managed to be there for Christmas. It was nice. :)
So 5 Christmases. Yeah. Honestly this season is so much about faith, hope, family, friends and love. In its cheesiest of forms the meaning of the season is around me. Christ's birth speaks in volumes in every warm breeze, every hug, every oddly wrapped gift, every weird looking casserole, every child that wants to play with their new toys. The season brings hope for families that see the coming of a promising new year, faith in the teachings of the gospel spreads as the miracles of kindness can still be found even in the craziness of the season, family gatherings are full of jabs about screwups from long ago to the cheerful laughter of kids waiting for Santa, friends get the opportunity to spend a few cherished hours in each others company knowing that it could be months or possibly a year before they get to do it again, and there is the love. Love that flows through every cookie, every cake, every car with its packed suitcases and tired families, the love for sharing a small collection of days with the people we hold dear. For those of you that I did not get to see this Christmas I hope it was a good one. I hope that the New Year approaching is one that grants you all the things in life that God can bless you with and that you find yourself not wishing days away but relishing each moment as it passes by.....