have yourself a merry little Christmas!

the past couple of weeks have been Christmas break. it's been so nice to have a break from school and my normal schedule and a chance to be with family and rarely-seen friends.

the first week of break, libby stayed with me so she could work longer. i loved getting to spend time with her. we played with wilson, watched tv with my parents, wrapped Christmas presents, watched Elf, went shopping, and watched lots of our mystery shows.

anita spent the night sunday. my dad informed us that night that there would be a lunar eclipse between 2:40-3:50am, and it would be the first one in over 500 years! pretty cool, huh? we had so much catching up to do that we stayed up late just talking, so we decided we'd watch the eclipse. we sat outside in the freezing cold for about 40 minutes before we realized the eclipse wasn't until the next night. killz.

freezing weather is on my list of least favorite things about winter break, but one of my favorite things about this break has been all the Christmas parties.

the first one was with my steph's friends from church. we had a tacky Christmas sweater party at jessica's house. it was a blast! we had dinner and then played some games. playing signs was a lot of fun with so many people. we looked like a bunch of goofballs all night, though.



tacky sweater group shot

the next night we had our church youth group Christmas party. even though a lot of the kids didn't show up, we still had a good time. dad made us soup for dinner and we played the white elephant game. i brought a toilet seat, and hunter was the lucky winner of it. i think jason and theresa ended up actually taking it home though. and i am now the owner of a spongebob floor puzzle. i haven't put it together yet - i'm saving it for a day that needs some added excitement.

a few days later we had a big creek staff retreat at a cabin in pigeon forge. we spent the night hanging out and just relaxing. some people watched movies. some played pool. and some of us played cards and other games all night. all of us decorated stockings. the next morning we woke up to find that our stockings were all hung on the Christmas tree, and momma katie gave each of us a little gift. we ended the morning by having daddy kevin read us his own version of The Night Before Christmas.


big creek family Christmas photo

finally, we had a small get together at paul's house for all of us '09 RB graduates. it was a tad short notice, so only a small group showed up. it was nice to see everyone and spend time together. i miss all my high school friends a lot.

tomorrow's Christmas eve, which means lots of food and family, and i can't wait! hope you all have a very merry Christmas!