Christmas with the Paynes

On the Friday after Christmas, we went to Leiper's Fork to celebate Christmas with Katie's side of the family. We decided that since the family is so big, it would be a bit easier to celebrate at Cassie's house this year and it also makes it a little easier for the kids to play there. As always, we had a great time. We spent the night there and then had our Christmas celebration on Saturday since that is Dad's day off work.

We exchanged gifts a bit differently this year and everyone drew someones name so everyone got one gift and the usual stocking stuffers. So there were suggestions that rather than everyone getting their gifts at once and it being the normal Payne mass-chaos, that we just open one at a time and everyone gets to see what everyone got. The idea was good and it was fun to see what everyone got, however there still was some grumbling and complaing...(Mom) so we'll see what happens next year. :-)

Justin & Mandy were able to come but we desperately missed Rachel, Eric and Addelyn. We are all looking forward to this summer when we can all be together as a family. Here are some pictures for you

Pops playing Santa

Nonie made each set of grandkids this neat quilt - one side has the world, the other has the US map.


Happy liked his new hat

Little Baby Payne (due in May) will be all decked out in his Georgia stuff

Caleb is the new Bible Man

Nonie prepared a great lunch and despite her complaints of how long the gift exchange took, the turkey was not dry!!!

Julianna & her Great-Grandfather - Papa

Typical Christmas afternoon for Pops - brings back many memories of his own Dad, Papa Payne

Papa and Maggie take an afternoon nap together, too

The pregnant sister-in -laws.... Cassie is due with #6 in January and Mandy is due with #1 in May.....lots of babies!!!

Justin got a "Papa Payne" hat from a gift exchange. He put his Georgia hat over it but you can see the fun hat. The kids loved it!

Christmas Day

We had a very nice Christmas day. We stayed home and spent the day with just us and it was fun. It gave us the opportunity to enjoy our new toys, stay in our jammies most of the day and just play together. We don't get to do that very often so it's especially special this day. Here are a few of our pictures...

Before opening gifts (they each got a new Webkinz which they are holding)

Rebecca's been wanting something GA since the boys have the GA Tech stuff so she finally got her own Georgia Hoodie!!

Christian's been asking for a new blanket and I surprised him by making it for him. He was excited and I loved it, too!

Julianna got a Dora Dollhouse and then some furniture and people to go with it

These are the cutests books - A boys / girls be the best at everything book.

Santa brough Guitar Hero World Tour which was fun for everyone

Julianna finally got her "piano" from Santa - she'd been asking for one for her birthday so Santa helped us out on that one!

Fun for everyone!

Our traditional Christmas breakfast

In Rebecca's new book, it gave instructions on how to french braid so she said she'd let me practice on her and of course Julianna had to be a part of it, too

Julianna took this picture

Okay, I don't think it's bad for my first try ever.....

Playing outside

Rebecca using her new pink basketball

A friendly game of 21 (I think that's what it is)

Having fun with matching hats, too!

Terrorizing your own child!!!

I couldn't figure out how to post the video to show at the top above the pictures so you need to go down to the video. And also know that I was recording with both the video camera and my camera at the same time so this is the short, not as good one, but you can still get the idea. I will try to figure out how to get the other one uploaded, too.

Anyway, Julianna has a small Grinch, which she found in our Christmas deocrations, that she lovingly calls "Grumpy" and has enjoyed him this holiday season. We asked her if she would like to see a big Grumpy and she said she would and then we asked her what she would do and she said she would hug him and kiss him. Well, unbeknownst to her, her Daddy has a Grinch costume from previous youth days and so he decided to visit her. Needless to say from the video, she didn't accept him as she indicated she would........ Watch the video if you haven't yet....

After a few days, and one other visit from Big Grinch, we convinced her to touch the mask and finally get close enough to it to see it is just a mask on her Daddy. From the next 2 photos, you will see that she finally adjusted and even put the mask on. But a day or two later, just out of the blue in the car, she said, "Daddy, I don't want you to be the Big Grinch again." :-) Just remind me of this one day when I'm wondering why she needs therapy!!!

After much coaxing

In this picture, I don't think she actually realized he'd put the mask back on!

Grumps & Gigi Visit

Grumps & Gigi (Matthew's parents) came to visit us the weekend before Christmas. It was a great weekend for them to come because Christian & Rebecca both had 2 basketball games on Saturday and then they were able to go to church with us on Sunday and see the kid's in the Christmas play. We love it when they visit us and we had such a nice time with them. We were able to have our own little Christmas with them on Saturday afternoon, too, which was a highlight for the kids.

(You know, I think about this blog when I take pictures, but then sometimes I walk away and really wish I'd taken some different pictures. So I"m sad that these are all I got.... I just feel like I had to say that!)

Here are some pictures:

Grumps & Gigi read Julianna a book at the basketball games

Waiting "patiently" (ha) for Christmas to begin

Christian's all into Bakugan this year and he got the battle arena!!!

Rebecca got an American girl - Ruthie!!

I've tried EVERYTHING to turn this picture - weird (this happened with a picture of her in my Thanksgiving blog!!) Anyway, Julianna got a Bitty Baby and has already named her Leah!!

Showing off Leah

Matching cuties!!!

Christmas program

The kid's put on a small Christmas program at church. It was cute - it was about the 12 Days of Christmas song and it's "other" meaning. Here are a few pictures of the program (the sanctuary is dark so they're not real clear but you get the idea!)

Christian was gift #1 (and he wasn't scared.... just goofy!)

Rebecca had a main speaking part and did a great job!

Christian & Eli
Grant & Molly (you'll recognize them from my Connect Group blog!)

At the last minute, we had one student not come, so our Administrative Pastor filled in!!

After the program, Matthew spoke to the kids. He did a great job and of course right in the middle of it, Julianna walked right up to him. Fortunately, she sat there quietly while he finished up. Whew!!! We had a wonderful service that Sunday morning.

Fun with Friends

Each Christmas, we get together with some friends and have dinner together and then a gift exchange. It quickly became a White Elephant exchange and we look forward to cleaning out our closets for this special night. I didn't take many pictures this year but I got a couple of funny ones. Maybe it was also that I didn't want you offended if you saw something you gave me in the exchange.... hee-hee!!! I'm kidding of course!

We played a game with the kids and let them open a gift and they each got some candy!

Aaron's big prize of the night - well, just one of many!!


Chris loved his "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" tie, but sadly, he didn't get to keep it!

Connect Group Christmas

In early December, our Connect Group from church had our Christmas dinner and party. We had a lot of fun and I got some cute pictures of everyone. The lighting isn't great in this room, but it'll give you an idea of our evening with our friends.

Here are some pictures of a game we played. Everyone sat in a circle and rolled the dice (actually, our kids lost one of our dice before we got to church so we had to use music instead, but the rule is...) and when you got a double, you ran to the middle of the circle, put on the hat and gloves and unwrap the gift (which is difficult to do with the gloves on) until the next person rolls a double. It's funny because some times, you have quite a while to unwrap the gift and yet sometimes, you hardly get the gloves on and your turn is over. Of course there are multiple wrapped boxes which you find out, too!

Cameron unwrapping the present

Patiently waiting.....

Lily Grace's turn

Does Julianna look bored?

Harrison's turn

The Warren family (the other Warren's - which is now somewhat confusing to some people at church - especially when we sign up for dinner or pass out Christmas cards!!! :-)

Julianna wanted a turn but wanted NO part in the hat & gloves

Go Sara!!!

Even Kennedy took a turn and her big brother Grant helped out

Molly wins the prize - $5.00!!!

This next game was where the boys put on the clothes and their teammates took turns running and stuffing a balloon into the clothes. The team with the most balloons in the clothes won. They kids loved this one!

Christian & Brayden before the game began

Heather helping out (she couldn't help herself - I think she's got some competitiveness to her!!)

After the game

Love this picture - they had so much fun!

This is another game we played. It was a snowball race - you had your shovel and you had to scoop the snow and race down to the pan. This is funny - this is Lily Grace & Julianna!!