Merry Christmas 2010!

Wow, this holiday season simply flew by for Chris and me. I began my holiday season by quitting Hallmark. It was a nice job, but it simply didn't pay enough for me to continue. Ok, so technically, I'm still employed by them, but my collegue took over my stores until they hire someone to take my place. I did, however, work quite a few hours at Van Adams in December. Van had told me before the holidays that I could as much as I wanted, so I took him up on that offer. Three weeks before Christmas and Christmas week, I worked over 50 hours! It was good, though, because I ended up selling $26,000 in December alone at the store, which is not bad for a part-timer! Van had his three full-time employees, plus his two regular part-time employees (including me), and he ended up hiring 3 other people for the holidays. Well, unfortunately, the holiday help wasn't as helpful as we would've hoped, but they were ok. We ended up selling 40% more than we did last year, so Van was very generous with his bonuses. He would usually give a daily bonus, then he gave a large Christmas bonus. Although both Chris and I were exhausted Christmas Eve, we knew it was well worth it.

The kids ended up at Chris' parents' house and my parents' house while we worked. Chris' parents watch the kids in early to mid-December, and my parents took over the last two weeks. Although we knew it would be difficult for the kids, it's a sacrifice we make every Christmas in order to earn quite a bit for our savings. Noah spent his third birthday with my parents, who took the kids to the park and to Steak 'n Shake to celebrate. On Christmas Eve, we picked the kids up and headed to Grayson UMC for the 7 pm service. As Chris and I were sitting in the church, it became abundantly clear that we all considered this our church home. We had never officially joined when we lived in Grayson, and we have been to numerous churches in Dacula. However, as we were rejoicing in Jesus' birth, Chris and I realized that we needed to find an official church for our family again. After church, we headed to Waffle House for our annual Christmas Eve dinner, and the kids were really looking forward to going there. After dinner, we were driving home and discovered a neighborhood close to us had luminaries, so we drove through and enjoyed the sights. When we got home, the kids had baths and we put out 4 cookies and chocolate milk for Santa, and Chris sprinkled Aidan's reindeer bait in the front yard.

We awoke to a cloudy and cold Christmas morning, but sure enough, St. Nick had been to our house! The tree was filled with gifts for everyone, and the milk and cookies were gone. Chris made cinnamon toast, which was gobbled up in the dining room as we looked through our stockings. After breakfast, the gifts were opened! Katie got quite a bit of American Girl gifts--a doll bed, several outfits, and some accesories, as well as a desk for her bedroom. Aidan's Christmas was mostly DS games, as well as Transformers and Super Hero Squad. Noah had a Toy Story 3 Christmas, complete with a remote control Buzz Lightyear. I got Chris some clothes (a Nautica sweater and shirt), Epic Mickey, Donkey Kong for Wii, a new electric razor, and some speakers for his iPhone. He got me a new iPhone case (I've destroyed 2 so far), Godiva chocolate, gift cards for some date nights, and a new Coach purse. We ate a light lunch, and then headed to my parents' house for Christmas dinner. As we were driving over, the wintery mix changed to all snow, and as we ate a delicious Honey-Baked Ham dinner, the snow quickly began to accumulate. We opened many more presents there, then headed home. Once we arrived back home, Chris and the kids built a snowman for our White Christmas! It was a miracle to have about 3 inches of snow on Christmas Day in Georgia.