Merry Christmas 2012!!

WARNING: This post is LONG with a LOT of photos!!

Whew! This Christmas has been a super busy one! We haven't been to Alabama for Christmas since before we were married, so this year we were finally able to go! I was so excited for Jeff and Harrison to experience Christmas with my family and our traditions.  Since we were going to Alabama, we decided to have Santa come to our house a little early, (we wouldn't have been able to get everything in the car to take to Mom's.) The Wednesday before we left, Santa showed up at the Luker house! It was so much fun watching Harrison. He wasn't too concerned about opening the gifts as much as playing with the ones that were out, but that's how I figured it would go. :)

His loot!

This kid is OBSESSED with Toy Story 3, so Santa brought him a Woody doll.

Still a little sleepy.

Working!

Safety first!

We left that Saturday headed to Alabama. Harrison did really well on the trip. He got fussy about Baton Rouge, but it may have something to do with the fact that we were sitting in traffic for almost an HOUR!!! We finally made it around ten to Katie and Caleb's house. We stayed the night with them. It cut off about 45 minutes of our trip. The next morning, we headed to the "compound." Nanny and Paw-paw were having the whole family over for lunch that day. When I say the whole family, I mean all of Paw-paw's brothers and his sister and all of their families. There were a TON of people there! That night, Mom watched H, and Jeff and I went to Excel to see Drew and Matt and Drew's family. Matt, Whit (Drew's sister's boyfriend) and Jeff decided that they would play some basketball while we were there. They had no ball and no goal. So...they improvised. They went and bought a ball, and we loaded up and went to the Excel pool that had a goal. However, the  goal was outside with no lights. They went old school and used the car lights to play....for over two hours!!! It was so much fun! Drew and I had a blast just watching them. 

Monday, we met Katie, Caleb and Taryn at the nursing home to see Me-me. Our cousin, Amanda and her husband, Noah, were there, along with Uncle Mickey and Aunt Sue. Me-me did very well. She had some trouble remembering people at times, but for the most part she did great! She was such a trooper. I believe we all wore her out! After seeing her, I had a craving for the Mexican restaurant in Atmore (yes, I know I live in Texas, but there is something about that Atmore Mexican food.) We ate, then headed back over to Uncle Mickey's to hang out with them for a bit. 

Tuesday morning, we got up and went to eat breakfast at Nanny and Paw-paw's. It's a Christmas tradition. After we ate, everybody opened gifts. All the grandkids were there, except Jake. :( He has been deployed to Afghanistan for the second time. We sure did miss him! THEN, we went back to Mom's to open gifts there! We had to wait on Katie and them. We didn't want Taryn to miss her big gift from Gigi and Pappy. The kids had so much fun!!! By this point, we were all exhausted!! 

We had such a busy and short trip, but I am so glad we go to make it!!! I know holidays from now on are just going to get more and more hectic for everyone, so I LOVED being able to make this trip and see all of my family! 

This was the Friday night before we left. A guy in our neighborhood puts up a ton of lights, and puts them to music. The show is about 45 minutes long, and he runs it from 6 to 10 every night around Christmas. Harrison LOVED it...he would say, "oh, wow!" :)

My handsome guys!

:)

My Nanny and Paw-paw with Uncle Doug, Mom, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Laura.

With the great-grandkids. Everyone was clapping to get them to look, and H thought it was all for him and it was so funny!! It's Taryn, Lainee, Brenden, Harrison and Cooper.

Us with Mom and Paul. Jesie, Paul, Mom. Caleb, Katie, Taryn, Me, H and Jeff.

Grandkids. Paw-paw, Nanny and Mallory. Me, Katie, Jesie, Melissa, Cody Jena and K.C.

With Spouses. :)

Playing with his tools from his tool bench.

Taryn was cooking H something in her new kitchen. He was testing it our.

They played together so well!!

LOVE!!!

My beautiful sisters!!

The kids!

Us with Mom.

Caleb got a Nerf gun, and we spent the rest of the time dodging bullets. :)

We headed back Wednesday. However, while we were there, Harrison picked up some kind of stomach bug. No idea where it came from. Nobody that we were around had anything, and nobody has gotten sick since. So....needless to say, the ride back didn't go as smoothly as the ride there, but we made it. Harrison was a trooper. 

Since we weren't here for Christmas with Jeff's family, we did all of that this past Sunday. We went to his Dad and Amy's for lunch. Steak, yum!! Then, we headed over to Jeff's mom's house for dinner. We did gifts at both places. We were STUFFED by the end of the day!!! I didn't realize that my battery had ran dead on my camera, so there aren't any pictures. :( I know, terrible mom! Maybe I can borrow some of Aunt Teeny's if she took some. Well, I do have one.

This is the chair from Gammy and Paw-paw Mike.  He loves Reese's chair like this. :)

H has still been sick. The nurse said it may take up to ten days!!! Today is day 8, so hopefully, it will be gone in the next day or two. 

This was from today...he doesn't feel too bad, but still has the symptoms. He LOVES that chair...He LOVES all of his toys that he got. 

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. We are truly blessed with amazing family and friends. Harrison made out like a bandit from EVERYBODY!!! I couldn't possible list everything that he got! Our living room has looked like a Toys-R-Us the past couple of days! Thank you to all of our family and friends for making it such a wonderful holiday for the Luker family!! Hope you all had an awesome Christmas!!!