Christmas 2009

Just a few pictures from our 2009 Christmas. Hope you enjoy!

HARTSELLE 2009

John's mom, Billie. The reason we're all together. :)

Danny & Linda

John, the reason I get to be a part of this wonderful family. :)

Tisha (talking to Jay by Skype) and Tim

Connie was missing Blain. He was stuck in a snowstorm in NC. :(

Amy is the oldest of the grandkids. She's giving somebody a very serious look. :)

Allen belongs to Amy. (They are Will and Maggie's parents.) He is very intent on something.

These two beautiful girls belong to John and me. Katy is the third of the grandkids, and Jessi is the fifth. (No one is really sure where the second one is. NC, we think...) The handsome guy is Lance, Jessi's wonderful boyfriend.

And John and I claim this handsome guy, too. This is Katy's hubby Phillip. They are Sam's mommy and daddy.

Libby Ann is the grandkid between Katy and Jessi. She was missing her hubby (Jay who was in Iraq at the time, but he is now home for three weeks.)
***SOMEHOW I MISSED GETTING A PIC OF LUKE. THIS IS WHERE HIS PICTURE WOULD BE IF I HAD GOTTEN IT. SORRY, LUKE!!!***

Zac, the oldest of the great grandkids. He and Will had been playing hard, but they stopped long enough to eat (very little) and to open presents.

Will is the next in line. He is one funny kid! He loves to ham it up for the camera.

Next we have Landon. And yes his hair really IS that white. Every time he opened a gift, he would exclaim "It's perfect!" or "I can't believe it!" His daddy is Jay.

The next munchkin is Sam. It was SO bloomin' hard to get this kid still for pictures. He was all about getting in with the big kids and playing ball. He'll be in the midst of them for sure next year.

And the last of the great grandkids (for now...) is sweet Maggie. She is our only girl, but she's just as happy with a ball as a baby. Will is her big brother (in case you can't tell by looking at their pictures.)

This is someone who just wandered up and decided to join us. LOL Seriously, it is Keith, a cousin. He is the entertainment at most family gatherings. LOL

My handsome dad

and my beautiful mom...they have celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with the Vests for many years.

June is Blain's mom. I'm hoping she'll be joining us for holidays for many years. :)

The sad thing about family gatherings is that we are missing so many loved ones, but we are making so many wonderful memories with the new ones. I think one thing that is just as hard as missing those who are no longer with us is the fact that only a couple of hours after these pictures were made, Billie didn't remember who was or was not there. Several times later that night she said that she would love to see Mom and Dad because it had been so long since she'd seen them, or she would ask questions about how big Sam is getting. Alzheimer's is the most horrible disease there is. Both parents of a friend of mine have it. Their home health nurse told Jan and Beth to pray they died from cancer instead of getting Alzheimer's.

Dadeville 2009

Aunt Jessi playing with Sam

I LOVE this picture of Katy and her daddy. This man could not love his daughters any more than he does!

My mom and dad

Phillip, Katy, Lance, and Jess opening gifts

Aunt Jess and Sam again

Katy was playing with her...I mean Sam's...Little People Farm. lol Actually, I think we ALL played with it. Sam seemed to love it.

Isn't he a gorgeous kid?? Looks JUST like his daddy! YUMMY!! Poppa John fixed breakfast for him.

Just LOOK at those eyes!!!

Busy, busy!!

Wow! The last few days have been so busy, but that's perfectly okay. I know that there are so many people out there who don't have family or friends to visit, gifts to buy, or any of the other things that are part of the holiday season. I am so very thankful that I am busy because it means I have all of those things. I do pray that every one has a happy holiday season and the very merriest of Christmases.

So, what had kept me so busy? John and I decided not to go to Hartselle on Friday. We didn't get home until about 3:30. I realize 3:30 isn't late, but I had planned on leaving work about 1:30 so I could finish up the last minute wrapping that I needed to do before we could leave. That extra two hours that I had to stay at work really threw me off.

John's temp was back to its normal 97 degrees, but he still didn't feel very well, so that's another reason we didn't leave Friday. I think he had a touch of a bug that just held on. He really didn't start to feel better until Sunday. As far as his temp, when he was running one, it was 99.7. You may be thinking that a temp of 99.7 is nothing, but when you consider the fact that his normal temp is around 97, that 2.7 degrees makes him feel like crap. For a person who has a "normal" 98.6 temp, that would be the equivalent of a 101.3 temp. So yeah, he felt horrible.

We had our family Christmas Saturday. Everybody got to be there, and we had a few new faces. First of all, Sam and Maggie got to experience their first Vest Christmas. Sam was more interested in the Santa face on Poppa John's gift bag than he was in his gifts, and Maggie was more interested in napping. :) Next Christmas will be a blast because they'll both be walking/toddling around, and they'll probably be more into the presents. Well, the boxes and paper anyway. lol There were a couple more new faces. Libby brought Jay and Landon. Jay is the guy she is dating and Landon is his son. Jay seems very nice and seems to fit right in, and Landon is a doll. He is three and just as tow-headed as can be! The only other person I have ever seen with hair that white is my cousin Bryne.

Sunday was Maggie's christening. John stayed at Billie's because if someone didn't, she wouldn't have gotten ready to go to dinner. We couldn't convince her to go to church. Like I said earlier, I had never been to a christening, so I didn't know what to expect. It was a beautiful, special ceremony, and I am so honored that I got to be a part of it. I'll always be able to remember what day she was christened on because it was my birthday as well. :)

With the christening, I really didn't even think that much about it being my birthday. I've never been one to go around all day as if I were privileged, anyway. Mom and Dad always made sure I had a special day, but I just wasn't all about me, me, me. I do want to say THANKS to everyone who called, emailed, sent messages on facebook, or sent texts to wish me a happy day. It was a perfect day!

We got home about 8 Sunday night, and I was exhausted. I sat down to watch the Troy-Southern Miss game, but I fell asleep. I did manage to stay awake long enough to see one of my former students on the Troy sideline. He plays defense for the Trojans. I was so disappointed to find out they had lost in overtime.

I ended up making a last-minute trip to Birmingham yesterday. I had to return one of the things I had gotten for Sam because he got something very similar on Saturday. I told Katy I'd exchange it and get him something else, so I got to do more Sam shopping yesterday. Fun!!!!

I also had to take my car in to the service department at the dealership because my engine light has been coming on. When I had my car in for service a few weeks ago, the light wasn't on, so they couldn't get a code from it. The light stayed off after I had the service done, so I didn't worry about it again. Last Tuesday it came on again. This time, they were able to get the code. The catalytic converter is bad. Woo Hoo. Yea. (There are tons of sarcasm in that...) Apparently, that isn't a part they can just order. They have to go through tech support to get an approval, and it took about 2 - 2 1/2 hours to get approval. (I was at the dealership for about three hours all together.) I wonder if tech support for Mazda is in India like it seems to be for everything else? Anyway, they got it approved and have ordered a new part. That means another trip to Birmingham in about a week. Darn. I just hate going to Birmingham. (Again, sarcasm...) Maybe next time I'll have a chance to run by to see the Pates since I shouldn't be sitting at the Mazda dealership for hours on end. (My dad said it should take only about an hour to replace the CC.)

Susan took me to dinner for my birthday. The plan had been to have an early dinner, but THANKS TO SITTING AT THE MAZDA PLACE FOR 3 HOURS, we ended up having dinner at a normal dinner time. I had crab cakes that were to die for. They weren't full of breading like so many are. They were full of big pieces of crab. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

I didn't get home until 9:00 last night--THANKS TO SITTING AT THE MAZDA PLACE. I didn't even get stuff out of the car, so I need to go do that. I also need to get busy today doing the things I need to do around here. I have laundry to do and more gifts to wrap (but I have to get them out of the car first.) I need to run to the grocery store, too, but I'll take care of that later. This is one of those days when I don't want to get out of my jammies. :)

Have a GREAT day!