Life at the Minder's: Merry, Merry Christmas!

Apparently I forgot to post this after I wrote it the other day. My apologies.

December 25th:

Ok, so I realize I have been lacking here a little bit over the Christmas season with the whole recording-every-single-moment in fear of forgetting one little detail. However, I blame it all on my sinuses. I do. This past week went in a blink of an eye. I was sick most of the week with a sinus infection and even left work early Wednesday and Thursday, which I absolutely hate doing. I finally got on an antibiotic and am starting to feel better. I know you wanted to know that.
This year just seemed a little weird. It was great, just a little...I don't know. Maybe it is because there was no snow. Maybe it is because school went all the way up to 3 days before Christmas. It was, however, such a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas day, being surrounded by family and remembering the birth of our Savior. I have said this before, but I do pray that as our kids grow up, they remember that the reason for Christmas is not because of the gifts (although they still received more than our house can hold), but because of Christ's birth.
Here is a quick rundown of the last 2 days:
On Christmas Eve we woke up and had the kids open their gifts from Nic and I. It was so much fun watching them opening their presents and seeing their smiles. We were surprised by Kris and dad when they showed up with donuts. It was a wonderful surprise. We spent most of the day with Nic's dad, eating lunch, and then going back to his house for presents and football. We later went to the Christmas Eve service at Granger and then to my parents' for pizza and movies.
We spent the night at my parents' and got up early (thanks to Kristen) and opened presents. After presents, we headed to church. We ate lunch and did presents at Nana and Papaws house and then returned to my parents' for dinner and more movies:) All in all, great, great Christmas spent with family....but I did miss my brother, sis in law, and niece like crazy!! We did get to Skype with them for awhile which was an awesome gift.
Although I would love to sit here for hours and record every detail and every moment of the past couple of days, I will just show with pictures. As you will notice, there isn't one single decent picture of my little family (although there were many attempts)...I am just going to wait until they are around 10 or so before even trying for a family picture:) I apologize for the clarity of these pics...they are from my phone:)