Christmas Celebrations

Merry Christmas! We have packed several different Christmas celebrations into the past few days. Our merriment officially started on Sunday with our annual Christmas lunch at Mac's after church! (If you've never been there, you must go and try their delicious Sunday brunch--especially the cinnamon rolls!)
On Christmas Eve morning, we celebrated Christmas with my family. After a delicious breakfast of Swedish pancakes, we opened gifts. We all tease my mom about how the only "spices" she uses when cooking are salt and pepper....so Dave made her a "spice rack." :)
And, here's mom, Em, and me modeling our new house slippers that Grandma Dolores made! After a fabulous Christmas Eve service at Keystone (where we saw Heather, the boys, & lots of other friends), we headed to the airport to pick up Dave's parents, Tim & Susie. We are so thrilled that they came to Texas for Christmas! From the airport, we went to Kym & Bernie's for Christmas Eve dinner. All the Texas Bergstroms & Sorbels were there, so we threw Dave's poor parents straight into the middle of my wild family. ;)

This is the first year that we have celebrated Christmas in our own house, and we had so much fun on Christmas morning. Dave made his mom's homemade pecan rolls for breakfast (from scratch, something I thought was unheard of!), and after breakfast, we opened stockings and presents! Dave surprised me with a beautiful end table that he made for our family room, and (better yet!), in the top drawer was a gorgeous necklace & earrings from James Avery! And, Dave was really psyched about his new XBOX360, as well as money from his parents to use toward new woodworking tools.
After all the presents were opened, we drove up to my parents for Christmas dinner. I am so proud that this year I successfully made the 7 Layer Rinn Christmas Jello...it has been unsuccessful in past years, so this was very exciting! Dinner was followed by more presents and lots of games. Dave finagled enough people into playing Axis and Allies (another new present!) with him...after FOUR hours, here's how the "war" was playing out:
Once again, we are so thankful to be surrounded by wonderful friends & family who make this time of the year so special...especially when the holidays can be an especially difficult time of the year for us. We truly have so much to be thankful for! And...we're thrilled that Dave's parents are here until next Tuesday!