Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 was a super busy, week long, fun filled time at the Graham household!! We had "Four Christmases" this year and we had a great time at all four of them!

Our First Christmas of 2009 was with Luke's dad and his wife and all of the Graham siblings (and spouses).

We all met at Downtown Disney for the day and went to the movies, had dinner at Planet Hollywood, and saw La Nouba. It was so great to get to spend time with all of Luke's siblings!

Our Second Christmas was the annual Murdock Family get together at Gran and Pop's on Christmas Eve. Our family is growing every year!! Here are few small additions to the family this year...

Baby Jane

Baby Adaline

Baby Shaun

We were so happy to have Liz and Shan home from Prague this year for Christmas! We miss them so much and it was great to have them home.


Gran and Pop's house is the source of many of my Christmas memories and traditions... including these stockings. Granny Turner (my great grandmother) made my stocking 27 yrs ago, when I was born, and Gran (my grandmother) made Luke's stocking 6 yrs ago, when we got married. Notice the color difference... 21 years can do a little fading to felt :) I LOVE these stockings and the women who made them for us!!







Baby Jane with Uncle Luke and Aunt April



My Pop is so great!! Gotta love his hat :)


Mom reading the Christmas story, while the babies act it out with the Little People Nativity set. Emmanuel God with Us!


My Love and I :)


My sister Emily and I


The Third Christmas was at Mom and Dad's on Christmas morning. All 4 of my sisters, and our spouses, and the 3 babies all had a slumber party at mom and dad's on Christmas Eve!! On Christmas morning this is what mom's tree looked like.


Unfortunately, that is the one and only picture I have from Christmas morning... in fact that is the only picture I have from Christmas day. So there are no pictures of our Fourth Christmas at Luke's mom's house :(

Here is a picture of our Christmas Tree before we loaded all the gifts in the car to head out on on our Four Christmases adventure.


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Love the Grahams!!

HP Touchsmart Computer

So MckMama is giving away an HP Touchsmart 600 Computer on her blog, and one of the ways to be entered to win is by blogging about it. So here is one of my attempts to win this super cool computer :)

If you would like to try and win too, go to www.mycharmingkids.net and enter by commenting on her post!

Christmas Time is Here

It truly is the most wonderful time of the year! Celebrating the birth of our Savior, anticipating family coming in town, cooler weather, the smell of Frasier Fir filling my house, and every food item imaginable coming in Peppermint Flavor! There is nothing better than Christmas time!

Luke and I spent last weekend decorating for Christmas, and in keeping with our mind set of simplifying and focusing on the true meaning of holidays our decorations are much simplier this year and not as extensive as years past. However, my wonderful sisters have requested pictures and because I aim to please here they are! I can't wait for ALL my sisters to see them in person in a few weeks!

For Today....

I am...

thinking... that I should get some work done this morning so that Luke and I can go get our Christmas tree this afternoon.

reading... "Sacred Marriage" and learning that marriage is not about making me happy, but about making me holy.

going... to Starbucks for a peppermint mocha, then Lowes to buy our Christmas tree. We've bought our tree from Lowes for the past 3 years and they definitely have the biggest trees for the best prices.

making... chili for dinner.

hoping... that I survive Luke's trip to Germany this week. I HATE when he travels out of the country and I am stuck here. It makes me nauseous thinking about not being able to get in touch with him if I need to.

talking... to Rage :) He is the only one up right now.

remembering... what Christmas is really all about. We are trying to be more purposeful this year on focusing on the true meaning of Christmas.

texting... The world! texting has definitely become one of my main forms of communication.

thankful... for my wonderful husband who spent 6 hours last night putting Christmas lights on our house, even though we don't have kids and he says that no one will ever see the lights.

looking forward to... Christmas with my family. I miss my sisters.

listening to... A Baby Story on TLC. We got Verizon Fios last Tuesday and thus far we are loving it.

Outside my window... The sun is shining! Oh how I LOVE Florida!!

Pictures to prove it... Here is my view from the couch that I am currently perched on :) Christmas decor is beginning to go up, and TLC is on the TV.

Bringing Back Thanksgiving

This year, more than any other year, I have felt like we as a society, as a nation, as a group of believers have decided to skip over THANKSgiving in an attempt to head straight into the Christmas season. Now, most everyone knows that we at the Graham house LOVE Christmas!! It is our favorite holiday and we go all out!!

But I can't help but feel like we let THANKSgiving pass by with far to little notice. We are being pushed into the Christmas season earlier and earlier each year by the retail world, who make very little money off of a holiday based on being THANKful.

So in an attempt to be more purposeful about all holidays (and the meaning they hold) I have decided to Bring Back THANKSgiving!

It has not been easy... I have been accused of "forcing Fall" onto this otherwise hot and humid state. I proudly wear my brown/orange/fall clothes, I have eaten more than my fair share of candy corns, I have left my Fall decorations of pumpkins and fall leaves up, and I have participated in WAY too many craft shows.

And today, on the eve of this holiday we have spent time as a family making pumpkin cookies and doing THANKSgiving crafts. We are making time... holding off on the Christmas season... and putting some purposeful time and effort into being THANKful.

Luke and I are at his Mom's for THANKSgiving this year. Here are some pics of our holiday thus far...

Candy Cornucopias
Half eaten pumpkin crunch (who needs to wait until THANKSgiving day to dig into one of our desserts :)

Graham decorating Pumpkin cookies.

Our plate of pumpkin cookies

So we look forward to tomorrow with great anticipation. I am so excited about waking up in the morning, watching the Macy's THANKSgiving Day parade, spending time with my Graham family, eating TONS of good food, and reflecting on just how THANKFUL I am for all that God has done for me.

I have made a sign that is currently sitting on the island at my mother-in-laws. It reads "Today I am THANKFUL for..." By end of day tomorrow I hope the entire sheet of paper is filled with things that we are all THANKFUL for.

I hope tomorrow brings tons of fun, food, and family for everyone, but most of all I hope it helps us all remember to be THANKFUL for all of the good and perfect gifts that we have been given to us from God.

Jax and Jill Design

I know it has been a while since my last update, and part of the reason is that I have been super busy building up the Jax and Jill Design business! Emily and I did the Hunsader Farms craft show a few weeks ago and it was not only a blast, but a HUGE success!

We have spent a lot of time getting our Etsy store up and running, our logo nailed down, our business cards created, and exploring the possibility of having some small boutiques carry our products. We are also preparing for at least two (maybe three) more craft shows this Fall. Business is booming!!

Here are so of the most recent Jax and Jill bow creations, being modeled by some of our cutest customers!

For more information contact us at:

jaxandjilldesign@gmail.com

www.etsy.com/shop/jaxandjill

Wedding

Luke and I spent last weekend in Greeneville, TN. Luke's cousin Jonathon (who was in our wedding) was getting married and Luke was a Groomsmen. Luke and I had not seen each other for several weeks, as he is on week 9 of a 15 week tour... YIKES... so it was a great time for he and I to meet up and spend some time together.

Of course, being in TN also meant that we got to spend time with our precious niece and nephew, Savannah and Shepard. Savi is so stinkin smart and Shep is such a precious little mellow boy, who LOVES to be warm. When he is cold he is fussy and not happy, but wrap him in wool blanket and take him outside and that child is super content!!

Luke and I stayed a few extra days in Greeneville after the wedding, where we got to spend some quality time together exploring this historic city. We visited Davy Crockett State Park, Andrew Johnson's home, and several historic Civil War sites.

It was so nice to get to spend some time together in this beautiful town!