I can't believe it's come and gone...

Christmas seemed to sneak up on me this year. It came and went and now it's over. It makes me sad that we wait all year for that special time and then you blink and it's a new year! We had a great time because we got to celebrate Christmas at home for the first time in 3 years. We did a lot of running around and traveling, but it was so nice to spend the holidays with our families.

First, we spent Christmas with Mike & Joyce and Grandpa & Grandma Harris. Grandma Dorothy made sweatshirts for Anthony, Tyler, & me that turned out great!

Next, we celebrated with Vanessa and Tyler at Vanessa's house. We had a lot of fun before heading to the Tri-Cities.

The next stop was the Tri-Cities. Most of Anthony's extended family (on both sides) live there and we hadn't seen a lot of them since our wedding, 2 1/2 years ago. We had a really fun family get-together at Anthony's Aunt Marsha's house the first night we got there.

The rest of the weekend was spent at Anthony's grandparents house. We had a huge Christmas Eve dinner with family and friends. Anthony, Aunt Mary, and I were in charge of the tables and they ended up so beautiful. The food was amazing! Nan made spare ribs, prime rib, and "bullets" (actually called gnocchi - an italian dumpling that's to die for!).

There's a Bowman family tradition that I got to participate in for the first time this year. Anthony's grandparents hide clues all over their yard (and some of their neighbors yards too) that lead to a treasure chest full of coins. Then, Christmas morning, we all look for the clues and try to find the treasure. It was really cold, but we had a blast! Whoever finds the treasure, pulls out a name from bowl and has to split it with that person. Anthony's Mom found it and she pulled out my name, so we got to share the treasure!

Christmas is always a great time for cute photo ops.

Our last stop was my parent's house on Christmas day. We have a family tradition as well. Each year we wake up on Christmas morning, open our stockings, have breakfast, my Dad reads the Christmas story out of Luke in the Bible, my Mom prays, and then we open gifts one by one. This year was the same and we had a great time. Then, my grandparents and Anthony's Mom came over for a prime rib dinner. It was very delicious!For the next 2 nights, my parents took us to a time share at Discovery Bay. My brother's girlfriend, Amy, came with us and it was really fun to get to hang out with her and get to know her better. We watched a movie, played yahtzee, went hot-tubbing, and took turns playing Anthony's new Nintendo DS. It was really nice.

We had a wonderful Christmas with our families and friends. It flew by and we're now back at home. Anthony has started his "busy season". It's a long, hard four months for him, but he really likes his job so it's worth it. I'll be keeping busy preparing for our big move. We wish you all the best in this upcoming year. God Bless!