The Bagg bunch:
left: Scott, Kristy, Parker, Alex, Landry and Luke
In the back: Tim, me, Dad and Mom
Nathan holding Madaline, Heather (expecting#3 in April)
and Rachael(in blue dress)
right: David, Kathy and Elijah, Lauren (in pink), Kelsey
and Ella
The kids in their jammies
Rachael(nathan's) with her tinkerbell pez
2008 was our first family Christmas together in a very long time. Nathan and Heather who live in Winston Salem, NC were gracious enough and offered to host the big event......no small undertaking with 10 adults and 10 kids all 12 and under! They worked very hard getting all decorated inside and out.
Scott, Kristy and their 4 boys were the first to arrive on Sunday from Texas. Since Mom's last chemo and radiation treatment was on Christmas Eve they came to Cary first to hang out with Dad. Mom and me. My cousin Melissa and her husband Glen were leaving for Florida for the holiday so they offered their house to Scott and Kristy for those couple days......thanks Glen and Melissa!!! Scott, Dad and 3 of the boys attended a NC State b-ball game, Kristy and I went shopping, Parker stayed home and hung out with Grandma and Shantel, Kristy, Deb and I helped Mom do some baking and they all went with Mom to Duke for one of her treatments and of course had to tour where the number one college basketball is played.......DUKE!!!!
David, Kathy, their 3 girls and little boy along with my brother Tim dodged a snow storm as they made their way from upstate New York. They arrived Tuesday night.
Christmas Eve we have a family tradition of having a little party. We always have shrimp dip, maggot salad (not as bad as it sounds!), finger sandwiches, meatballs in alfredo sauce, hot cheese dip and chips, fruit with this amazing sauce you put over it that Mom makes, cookies, layered salad and hot cider. This year the kids watched Polar Express and the adults got a couple hours of uninterrupted conversation in........which pretty much was the last!!! After the movie the kids each opened one present which was new PJ's and set out milk and cookies for Santa. Dad read the Christmas story from the Bible and off to bed the kids went. We still had stockings to fill and clean up to do before any adults went to bed!
Christmas morning started with breakfast and then we opened gifts. The kids were so calm I couldn't believe it! We started out by taking turns opening a gift and trying to keep up with the paper and boxes. By the end....well you know....stuff was all over the place! It really was fun to watch the kids. They were having such a good time and they were so good! Christmas dinner was awesome, ham, mashed potatoes, I think 4 veggies, a couple salads, bread and homemade pies. We put Scott and David at the kids table (can you guess why) which was set up in the living room and the rest of us were able to squeeze around the dining room table.
Nathan set up a hayride through the "Festival of Lights". This is a state park that they decorate with Christmas scenes with thousands of lights and and you drive through it or in our case we rode on a hay wagon. It was pretty chilly the night we did this but it was so beautiful.
On Sunday my Mom's sister Linda and her husband and our cousin Renee and her family drove over from Raleigh for the afternoon. There's always a lot of laughing going on when we all get in one room!
Some very special friends of Dad and Mom's gave them a gift of a hotel room. This was so perfect for them! With Mom being at the end of her treatments she was very tired and needed to have the quiet so she could rest and the kids got to go swimming at the pool!!
The rest of our time together was filled with trips to the mall, a visit to the museum, putting a puzzle together, talking, watching football, eating, more talking and just enjoying being together. That's the one thing I miss is not being able to see everyone very often because we live so far away from each other. It was awesome being together even in close quarters.
There is nothing like family!!!!
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