Merry Christmas!

It looks like today I'll be able to post about the Cunninghams' Christmas.

On December 22, we went to Grandpa Mike's house for our annual Christmas grazing/ feast. I wasn't feeling well that day (probably still recovering from the stress of the wedding the day before and falling ill with pneumonia), so I didn't get that many pictures as I usually do. We enjoyed the delicious punch, ham, fruit, and much more. The kids were downstairs with the Playstation, and the adults were upstairs in various conversations.

On Christmas Eve, we went to Uncle Jason and Aunt Nancy's house for Christmas Eve. There was Uncle Jason and his family, Uncle Josh and his family, Grandma Linda and Great-Grandma Kline, Grandma Linda's sister Diane and her two children who came down from Chicago to celebrate with us, and then us five. The kids were excited about opening the presents and kept asking when they could open them. We enjoyed dinner first, and then the kids went outside to play. The puppy Tucker has grown huge, and he enjoyed chasing the frisbee and the boys. It got cold, so I went inside. Shortly after that, everyone gathered in the living room for presents. All the kids got Crocs for Christmas, and I've fallen in love with mine. Mandy and I got journal sets and bracelets from Grandma Linda, and we both got new shirts and new, warm fleeces. Dad got a new knife and a sweater from Alaska. Uncle Josh, Uncle Jason, and Dad got together and bought Grandma Linda a new digital camera that she has fallen in love with and has been inseparable from =). Then, the adults had a white elephant gift exchange, which was absolutely hilarious. One of the funniest items was a 30- year old electric saw that used to belong to Grandpa Mike and that is still being passed between Uncle Jason and Uncle Josh and is bound to last for a while. After we left Uncle Jason's house, we were almost to church to clean up when we had to turn around since Mom forgot her purse. We drove back to Houschton and then back to Buford once more, where we cleaned up the church. At home, we had our little annual Christmas Eve gift- opening. You see, every Christmas for the past few years, we kids have gotten a DVD set or individual DVDs, so we open those on Christmas Eve. This year, we received "The Princess Bride," " Men in Black," " Armaggedon," and I believe we got one more, but I don't remember if we did or not.

Christmas morning came. Mandy, being impatient, woke me up early at 8 AM, which she has been doing for the past few years and disturbing my sleep. Darn kid. Anyway, we got up and opened our presents. This year, Mom got spoiled big time. She got binoculars with a camera so she can get pictures of her birds, a MP3 and a car adapter, a CD of ocean music, and two big books. Dad got a frying pan and a spatula (since he's the breakfast guy and he always has problems with cooking his eggs just right) and a nice new coat. Seth got a CD of space music, new clothes, a board game, and more. Mandy got a board game, clothes, etc.... and I received a board game, clothes, a squishy pillow (although that was a late gift), a new bag to carry my laptop, etc... Then we cleaned up the living room and had quiche, our annual Christmas morning breakfast. Then we packed since we were driving down to Florida that afternoon.

I never knew on Christmas Day how many places were closed. We had passed Atlanta while driving down to Gainesville, Florida, and there were no restaurants. We ended up going to QT and finding whatever we could. We drove for several more hours, and it was close to 7 PM when we finally arrived. We had a late dinner of turkey, potatoes, rolls, and salad. Grandpa Large's house was nice, and the weather was pleasant outside. After watching some TV, we were put into our rooms. Seth had his own bed in the office, Mandy and I had a room, and Mom and Dad had their own room. I'm afraid I made sleep impossible for poor Mandy since I kept coughing. On Wednesday, we were going to go to Silver Springs but it was too expensive so we stayed home. We kids took turns playing Mario, and we watched Conan the Destroyer. After dinner of fish sticks and fries and dessert, we kids played Rummikub, a gift from Grandma Gail. That night I was put in Seth's bed, he moved in with Dad, and Mom moved in with Mandy since I was still coughing. On Thursday morning, we woke up for breakfast, packed up, and left. We drove all day and arrived home with Zaxby's for dinner. We watched a movie and hung out.

On Friday, Dad went in for one day of work. Mom took me to the doctor, where we discovered I had pneumonia. We hung out at home on Friday evening. On Saturday, we ran errands and did nothing of great importance. On Sunday, we went to Uncle Jason and Aunt Nancy's church to see little Audrey Mae baptized, and we went to their house for lunch.

Well, New Year's is tonight. We're going to two get- togethers, I believe, this evening, and I'm looking forward to it. And so, a late Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you all!