Holiday Fun

Christmas Day was fun ~ since we had done our gifts the night before, we slept in a little and James cooked us breakfast, a tradition that started years ago (I love it!).

After eating and taking care of the animals, we headed over to Granny's house for the festivities.  Mom had some goodies for all of us & we had some for her and my sister and I exchanged gifts.  Allen, Jennifer and Aiden got to come (he had been sick the week before & felt a lot better) and we got to gift exchange with them too.  Its just too much fun to buy for little ones at the holidays and hard to know when to stop!

We ate our traditional Christmas lunch of boiled shrimp, ham, salad, baked potatoes, and rolls ~ Greg also fixed a yummy pot of grits for those who wanted shrimp and grits.  Our desserts were gingerbread, pound cake, and fudge.  Plus all the candy that mom stuffed in the stockings. 

Then we played our gift swap game.  Everyone that wanted to participate bought 3 wrapped gifts ~ one could be a gag gift.  The total of the 3 gifts could not be more than $10.  Moms fireplace hearth was full of little packages.  We all drew numbers.  #1 opened a gift, then onto #2, they could either pick another gift to open or swipe #1's gift.  I think the game lasted about 2 hours.  The official youngest participant was my nephew Bobby and the oldest was Granny.  Aiden wandered in and out but wasn't really interested in our goofiness.  We had a blast!  The most popular gifts were a set of kitchen knives from ikea and 2 $5 target gift cards.  Oh, and the red solo cup "goblets" (Amy got them)!  When the game was officially over ~ then the "behind the scenes" swapping began.  It was all fun, loads of laughter, and lots of begging....don't steal this from me!  This game will be repeated next year by popular demand!  The gag gifts included a shower squeegee, a princess crown tap light, a dollar tree selfie stick, dried fish bait, and a toilet brush, + more. 

Sat. was a beautiful day in GA.  The sun was out and the temperatures were in the mid 70's (this weekend will be in the 40's).  We spent lots of time outside, working in the garage and rearranging stuff ~ I know have a ceramics working area! 

Sunday we visited a new church about 20 minutes from our house & enjoyed it.  We met the Pastor and he gave us a tour of the facilities and talked for a few minutes before the service.  They have a potluck dinner every Sunday for who ever can stay, so we are planning on participating in that next Sunday.

Then it was Tapley time!  I was so excited that my friends were coming to visit and we crammed as much fun into 24 hours that would fit.  First was eating lunch and playing,  Mom came out as did Andy and AmyKate.  Dinner was "make your own pizza".  Then we rode up to Stone Mountain park and rode around to look at the holiday lights.  We found out it was about over $20 a person to walk around the village and do the activities, so we just hopped out of the car to take some pictures.  a policeman walked up and told us if we take a side path, we could get over close enough to see the fireworks (and I thought he was walking over to tell us to leave because we didn't have a ticket!).  After fireworks and driving home, Amy made us chocolate fondue and we gorged on that yumminess.  Our goodies we dipped were marshmallows, candy orange & fruit slices, graham stick crackers, and pretzels.  We were a chocolatey mess.  Today we drove over to Northpoint Mall to go to the American Girl store (along with about 3000 other people), and the girls had a blast shopping.  Ragen had lots of birthday+Christmas money and she bought a new doll plus accessories.  Then we headed over to the Lego store and the Disney store.  We ended up at Steak and Shake for milkshakes and then drove home. 

Its been an awesome holiday time and its not over yet.

Tomorrow is a "rest" day and then Amy and I are going to meet her fella and his mom in Alabama for lunch and shopping/walking around.  I probably won't do much shopping but we chose a mall because its supposed to be raining a bunch.

And one more family reunion on Sunday with lots of folks before my nephew leaves for Officer Training School for the Marine Corp.

Its awesome being back in GA!

Thankful for ~
my friend Angel who drove all this way with her 4 blessings to visit
fun in the doll store
1/2 price milkshakes during happy hour at Steak n Shake
beautiful colorful holiday lights
knowing someone at the church we visited
the friendliness of the people we met
loads of hugs, kisses & I love you's