Merry Christmas from the Sassers!

Christmas 2025: a beautiful day, celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, spending time together as a family, and enjoying the magic of Christmas.  

But backing up, a lovely Christmas Eve!  We started the day with the annual breakfast with Santa and Mrs. Clause at our clubhouse and ended the day worshipping with our RH church family (and several friends) at the Candlelight Services.  In between those two big events the kids just played and played and got excited for Santa.

Christmas morning came bright and early! The kids were trapped upstairs (it's not easy keeping those kids from coming down before we're up!), but bounded down the stairs as soon as we all had our coffees in hand.  Santa did NOT disappoint.  So many gifts from the list AND some big surprises. 

After Santa gifts and stocking we opened our family gifts and stockings, and the kids were SUPER excited to give Tilly her stocking (that I finished at the very last minute!) She loved her gifts and enjoyed her first Christmas!

James got his first guitar and I can't wait to hear some strumming around the fire pit :)

Poor Gia suffered through a case of food poisoning on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day (and the next week) recovering. But she was a trooper and didn't miss the time with the kiddos!

Uncle Buddy drove down from Dublin to join us for the day, and we enjoyed a simple - but delicious - meal.  A smaller group than years past, when we would host anyone and everyone who needed a place to eat, but we had a nice time.

And I did something I hardly ever do - I took a NAP!  A long nap on the coach with my dog on top of me. What a beautiful way to end the day and season :)

Matthew 1:23: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).”

Christmas with the Sasser Family

Just a few weeks after Thanksgiving at the Farm we returned for Christmas at the Farm!  Whew!  But this time we had a very special guest, as Aunt Wyllene (and Uncle Buddy) joined us for all the fun. :)

We tried to mix it up a bit since we just had turkey, so James made a delectable beef tenderloin that everyone - especially the kiddos - enjoyed. The weather was gorgeous and we spent a lot of time outside playing with our cousins. Ms. Karen made the most delicious 14-layer cake (that I could never ever make in a million years). 

On Sunday we managed to get the whole crew (not easy with 6 littles) to church on time for a beautiful 4th Sunday of Advent.  We worshipped with our Pine Forest family and together as a Sasser family.

Dublin still holds such a special place in our hearts and we continue to make so many lovely memories as a family (and extended family) there.  

Christmas 2025 Round One!  A very special one! 

Gearing up for Christmas

It felt like the shortest Christmas season because of the late Thanksgiving, but we still tried to hit all the high points of the season!  We celebrated with friends and family, enjoyed lots of dinners and treats, partied at school, and got ready for Santa. Snowflake came with his annual PJs (and tried each and every day to hide high enough to stay out of Tilly's mouth.) 

Wesley reading to Snowflake (hiding in the basket!)

My mom sent the kiddos their annual advent calendar and those provided daily morning fun (for the kids...and for Tilly)

Some new things that we did this year!  Our bunco group decided to dress in holiday PJs, which added a whole new element of fun.  James and I also attended the annual gala for the Coastal Empire Habitat for Humanity and enjoyed a fancy evening with friends (while the kids stayed behind and attending the Ford tree lighting with Gia).

Our church ended our first semester of JAM with a fun Christmas program on Wednesday AND Sunday. Kids did great.

Gia and I took the littler kids to see Rudolph at the Savannah Children's theater. Super impressed with what the kids and teens put on! 

We got our annual Nutcrackers from Aunt Shawntel! The kids have so many now that they put them up in their rooms as part of their "room decorations"(we've gotten out of control with decorating for Christmas...)

Dress up...so much dress up.  Thankfully we found some great stuff at HEB (during our Thanksgiving trip) and the Dollar Store is right down the street!

One of the coolest things of the Christmas season: Maryn had written a letter to Snowflake back in November that she asked me to mail but not read.  (She shared with my friend - who quietly shared with me - that she told Snowflake that all she wanted was a picture of her and Enda because she missed her so much.)  We found the address for the North Pole online and I sent it his way.  I took a picture for evidence as Maryn was SUPER insistent that I mailed it at the actual post office!

In December we received a package through Operation Santa, where a kind soul somewhere in America had helped Santa with fulfilling some of these special wishes.  The box contained a frame with Enda's name for a picture, plus all sorts of other goodies to help remember our pet.  How incredibly kind and generous!!

We had several Christmas parties at school to end a GREAT first half of the semester before starting a long (very long) break... (Sadly Wesley missed his party due to a virus! But we made good use of the 1:1 time to deliver all our Christmas cards and spiced pecans to our Ford friends.)

Which leads up right up to....Christmas!  We celebrated not one, not two, but THREE Christmases in our family.  Lots of fun :)

Another wonderful Thanksgiving!

After traveling back from Texas for the Kerr Thanksgiving, we did a quick turnaround in RH before traveling up to the Farm to meet with all of the other Sassers and extended family.  Fortunately I had made and frozen a lot of dishes while in Dublin for the Antique Fair, so my job to prepare for Thanksgiving was relatively easy.  That meant I got to relax and enjoy the time 

We had some delicious food! Between James' infrared fried turkey, all the sides, and a delicious cheesecake made by Nicole's grandmother...whew, we were stuffed.

The kiddos love having all their cousins together and I know Gia loves having all her grandkids together.  They played and played and played.

And Tilly was in the middle of all the action, too! When she wasn't being the laziest puppy... 

The boys all wanted to hunt on Thanksgiving night and I got to spend some time with JB in the stand. This was my first time to hunt with him and we had a great time. He didn't scold me for noise as much as his daddy does... :)

I did not go on the early morning hunts, otherwise known as "nap time" for the Sasser men.

That wrapped up a wonderful Thanksgiving season and then we moved IMMEDIATELY into Christmas (as Thanksgiving fell late this year!)