Our second Christmas in Spartanburg

We stayed at home for Christmas again this year and were lucky enough to have both of our parents come to us. Ray's parents were here the week of Christmas and my folks came down from Maryland the following week. We had so much fun having the grandparents here.

Christmas day was wonderful! Ray is a great (albeit last-minute) Santa. It is becoming his tradition to go out Christmas Eve afternoon and doing his shopping. Crazy, in my opinion, but it works for him! So after staying up until 2 am (without me!), Ray had the living room ready for the big day. And it was BIG. I think we've decided not to buy our children any gifts next year. Kidding ... kind of. Seriously, Maddy didn't even open all her gifts. She just quit. No quitting for Cady however. She was up to the task of all the present-opening (see picture below of Cady clutching all her "stuff"). She did receive her #1 request from Santa: a kid's digital camera. Maddy loved her dress-up attire most of all! And Santa was thoughtful enough to get Ray yet another accessory for his tool belt!!


Christmas afternoon and evening were all about food, FOOD, FOOD!! We had the traditional Christmas ham, mashed potatoes and other fixings, as well as ambrosia courtesy of Daddy Ray. Ray also decided to make homemade cinnamon rolls and they were mmmm, mmmm, good, as demonstrated by Cady licking the spatula!