Christmas 2009

WARNING: Long post with lots of pics. If you don't make it to the end, I completely understand.

If I'm writing this post, it must mean that Christmas has already come and gone. Seriously???? I wait in anticipation all year and it goes by so fast. We had a wonderful Christmas this year even though Santa didn't bring me the present I wanted most...

Our families live in different cities, so Brandon and I rotate holidays every year. It was our turn to spend Christmas with Brandon's family. Since my sister in law, Brittani, lives in Georgia with her husband, and my other sister in law, Brooke, lives in Houston, it's pretty rare to have everyone under one roof (I'm pretty sure that was a run-on sentence). We really treasure the time we get to spend all together and always have so much fun!

This Christmas Eve we decided that everyone was going to wear Christmas t-shirts.
I could only find one that fit, and by fit I mean a shirt that didn't bare the belly. Were thinking the next Christmas we may have to get a little crazy and do a "tacky Christmas sweater" Christmas eve!

We also got an unexpected gift this Christmas. Our very first White Christmas!

This Christmas was also extra special to Brandon and me because it was the first one we were able to spend in our house. We were determined to drive home on Christmas eve, which probably wasn't the wisest decision. We saw about 30 wrecks on the way home from all the ice. Woops! Anyway, we made it home safe and had a wonderful Christmas morning together.

This is what we woke up to on Christmas morning.

Santa payed us a visit

He was also kind enough to leave presents for Presley even though she wasn't technically here to open them.

Santa aka Mom surprised me with a kindle! I wanted one so bad!

Brandon was very excited about his new jacket. This one is extra special because cat hair won't accumulate on it. We have a hair control problem at our house.

As soon as we opened our presents and stuffed our faces with orange rolls, (baking orange rolls is a Sunday morning tradition in our house, but we decided Christmas would be a great excuse to have them) we headed back out to Brandon's parents to spend Christmas day.

I think this wins the prize for cutest stocking stuffer!

Opening Presents

Brandon doing what he does best!

After all the presents were open, we left to have Christmas at Brandon's Aunt Kathleen's house.
All the cousins

Our last stop of the day was to visit Nana in the rehab center. We wish she could have been home for Christmas, but we made the most of it. Well, most of us did anyway...

All the grand kids with Nana


We also made it out to the "Prairie Lights" in Grand Prairie. Technically this was the day after Christmas, but we try and prolong Christmas as much as possible.

You can barely see us, sorry! (It's Brandon, Shai, Brooke, Britt, Heath, and I in the pic)

Brandon and I...oh, and Presley...still cozy in my belly!

This was another wonderful Souders' Christmas! Of course, I missed seeing my family this year, but they will all be up this week. On Tuesday, we will officially be one family member bigger...