Lots of Family Christmas Celebrations - Part 2

Christmas Day at the Farm!!  When we moved out to the newly finished Barn at the first of December we dreamed about a magical Christmas morning - and it certainly came true. Fortunately, Santa knew the new address (thanks, Snowflake!) and spoiled the kids with lots of good gifts. We also had a few fun things for them under the tree.  And we were grateful that Gia could spend Christmas Eve and Day with us, too!

(Funny story about this picture: Gia routinely puts her dirty laundry in a garbage bag on her return trips home, and last year Aunt Wyllene accidentally threw away her clothes! Thinking it was trash!  So we got her a nice cotton laundry bag - sort of as a joke, but hopefully she'll use and enjoy it).

The food for Christmas lunch did not disappoint.  Ms. Leron requested my customary bread dressing, although no fennel bulb because, ugh, DUBLIN KROGER!!  This year I made without the fennel and added herbs de provonce and YUM. Also made some homemade gravy - which will be my new go-to receipe!

(My Grandmother's beautiful China makes the best Christmas plates!)

The Cowart Family joined us for Christmas Day lunch and...another funny story...they're actually relatives and not just good friends! Thanks to 23andMe, James and Lucas discovered that they share a great, great grandmother and are fourth cousins.  This is one of my favorite stories of 2022.  We've been close friends with them since moving to Dublin - and now we can say we're family!

We ended the cold, cold (so cold it froze our hot water line and we had no hot water for three days!) Christmas night filled with gratitude. (Not so much quiet because, hello, so many new toys to play with!)  Part of James' and my traditional gifts to each other include a meaningful glass ornament for the tree to reflect upon the year. This year he gifted me a beautiful one to remember our wonderful 7 years in Dublin, and I got him a Radko "Charm at the Farm" ornament to remember our first Christmas at the Farm.  

And it was a GREAT first Farm Christmas.  Memories that we'll treasure forever!!

Lots of Family Christmas Celebrations - Part 1

We were blessed this season with several Christmas celebrations with our families.  The week before Christmas we hosted the other Sassers out at the Farm for lunch, hunting, presents and time together. We had a blast!  And appreciate their willingness to cram into such a tight sleeping space and 1 working shower, haha. (The massive living area where we could hang out makes up for it.)

Ms. Leron read the Christmas story to all of us on Sunday morning, grounding us in the reason we celebrate - the birth of the promised Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As usual, the last baby cousin, Charlie, received a ton of attention. We all fight over who gets his sweet snuggles. 

Ms. Leron's present to the boys was years in the making: an incredible, special album of old letters, records and photographs of their father. 

 

We love this Sasser crew and glad we could spend the time together as a family! 

The festive Christmas season!

This Christmas season was busy!! And festive!!  We didn't even have too much grumpiness....even from our (sometimes) grouchy elf.  :)

First up, Santa! We didn't think we'd see him this year since we weren't on our appointment game, but thankfully we snagged some last-minute spots to visit when he came to the Dublin Carnegie Library. No one cries now, and it's all smiles!

The first full weekend in December was quite busy, starting on Friday.  We went downtown for Jingle and Mingle, where Wesley had his first public hip hop performance. He did GREAT!  Then we rushed back to the DCC for the resurrected Dublin Christmas Gala, which thankfully started at 8pm. (We only stayed until 10 because we moved the next day...not sure why we do this to ourselves!)

The kiddos had multiple church performances during the season, and we're so proud of JB and Maryn for memorizing lines and preparing as they did for a Christmas musical. Everyone did GREAT. (Wesley also did great during the big kids' shows, as he had memorized the lines along with his siblings and sang along with them.) Wesley then had his own preschool show where he ROCKED IT.)

IGA hosted a morning where parents could join their kiddos to make Gingerbread houses.  We had so much fun!  And ate a lot of sugar!

As part of our Christmas season tradition, we had to see the Dublin Nutcracker performance.  Maryn and I went with some of our besties, enjoying the (sold out) show and seeing lots of good friends.  I'm always impressed with our small town ballet production!

We....well, okay, mostly me...spent a lot of my free time putting puzzles together.  I think we managed to put together a total of four over Christmas break. James even found the best puzzle table at an antique shop for the Farm.  

While it wasn't the big GovStrive shindig of the past, we did host a very nice luncheon for our employees during the season.  Saltwater served a delicious low country boil, there were fantastic giftboxes, and, of course, the very popular photobooth!.

The kids and I tried our hand at homemade gingerbread cookies, with some success. The recipe tasted delicious, but our decoration skills...well... :)

And with these cookies...we're ready for Santa :)