TurDuckHen... and/or Tradition?

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

We just celebrated our first Christmas together! :)

We first spent a few days at his grandparents' house and enjoyed many of his childhood family traditions with his mom's side of the family. While we were there, we relaxed and watched a lot of Arrested Development, had a DELICIOUS celebratory graduation dinner (celebrating my recent graduation) with his grandparents, made three batches of Tiger Butter for the family (white chocolate, peanut butter, chocolate chip mixed fudge... yum!), worked a fabulous puzzle of a picture of the Biltmore (where his parents had gone earlier this year), and watched home videos from his childhood. What a cute kid!! :)

Last night we had the famed Christmas Eve celebration with his whole extended family. What an affair! We ate too much food (yum!) and then had a time of family pictures. A few of us joined together as the "Uncle Michael Tribute Band" (put together, and led, by none other than Uncle Michael) to sing "Wagon Wheel," originally written and performed by Bob Dylan (a.k.a. "Rock Me Mama" when he recorded it) and later made famous by the Old Crow Medicine Show. It's been stuck in our heads for days! After this, the grandchildren passed out presents to everyone and then we went in rounds from youngest to oldest opening our presents. We were so blessed! What a lot of gifts-- including two more sets of our formal china! Quite exciting. :)

Last night after the festivities, we made a late-night trip up to my parents' house for Christmas Day. We got up this morning for a 10:00 a.m. church service and learned about Simeon's song in Luke 2. What a wonderful way to spend Christmas morning!
It made me wish that Christmas was traditionally spent at church. It definitely reminded us of the reason for Christmas. We then went home (a ten-step walk) and wrapped a few final presents for family members. Then another round of presents began! My whole family was here for the occasion and Belmont and my brother-in-law Will both joined us. What a great morning! We got a few joint gifts and some individual ones as well. I got The Young Victoria on DVD, which I have been wanting ever since I saw it. Watch it a.s.a.p.! :)

After the presents, we had lunch. Traditionally, we have a breakfast meal for lunch or for breakfast (whichever is closest to when we are finishing presents), but this year we had more of a Thanksgiving-style lunch... complete with a TurDuckHen. It is just what it sounds like. Said out loud, it sounds like "Tradition," but it was far from traditional. We shall see if it becomes a new tradition of its own. :)

Here are a few pics from our day! (I currently do not have any pictures from our time with Belmont's family, but hope to get some soon!)

Our Christmas tree lined with dozens of gifts!


The Belmonts spend Christmas together!


Eldon with his Papa for Christmas


Eldon with Tía Kami


Eldon with his handsome Uncle Belmont...
both in their Christmas outfits! :)


The Cannon family Christmas picture


An afternoon game of Quelf, one of Annie's gifts


A 2011 family Christmas picture
(Click on the picture to open it up in detail!)

We are enjoying spending time together for the first time over the holidays! We missed each other so much last year when we were apart during Christmas vacation. We have a few more days of relaxation before we're back to work this week... and I am off of school until mid-January. Hooray! I am so excited to start doing some fun work around the house and doing a few Pinterest projects over the break! Next semester, I am teaching a new course and will hopefully be improving my use of the subjunctive verb form... time will tell! :)

A very merry Christmas to you all! May God bless you and remind each of you of the joyous news of our Savior's birth!