For Thanksgiving, my family flew to Blue Ridge, GA, where we all stayed with my grandparents (mom's side). It was so fun being in one house with everyone!! My family loves to play games, so much of our time was spent playing games, especially Corn Hole. We also spent time running the hills of their neighborhood and even went to a yoga session with our grandma and her friends....it was so fun! And of course we had a delicious Thanksgiving meal!!
On Saturday, my immediate family drove to Chattanooga, TN, to celebrate my sister Hollie's 21st birthday. We rode a tour boat, played at a park, went to the zoo, took tons of pictures, ate dinner at Chili's, and for dessert went to a super cute cupcake shop. Hollie's good friend Kate drove 2 hours to meet us at Chili's for a surprise to Hollie and it definitely surprised her! We had a fun time celebrating with Hollie and I can't believe my baby sister is now 21!! It was soooo wonderful getting a whole day to spend with my immediate family. I adore my family and love all the fun we always have together. I miss them so much...words cannot even describe how much I miss them, so I always cherish any time I get with them.
On Sunday, we all went to my grandparents' church, where Jared and I shared our Bolivia mission story with my grandparents' Sunday school class. After that we listened to my grandfather give a sermon with the pastor for the main church service. Once church ended we were able to go shopping on the cute little main street in Blue Ridge! All in all, it was an amazing Thanksgiving!!!
For Christmas, we stayed here in Houston to be with Jared's family. Honestly, it was a relief not to travel for Christmas. Jared and I were talking the other day and realized that from September 09 to November 09 we have been to California, Bolivia, Georgia, and Tennessee!! So to stay put and avoid airports for Christmas was very nice.
The Sunday before Christmas we went to Jared's grandma Jacque's annual Christmas party and enjoyed seeing his aunt, uncle, and cousins who were here visiting from CA, along with lots of his other relatives we don't see too often. We also had fun playing the traditional Right/Left gift game!!
On Christmas Eve, we went to church at Jared's mom and step dad's church and then headed back to their house to play Seinfeld Monopoly which was super fun! On our way home that night, we ended up making a last minute decision to go the the 11pm Christmas Eve service at Jared's church too, so we had 2 Christmas eve services this year!
We got home a little after midnight and decided to have our Christmas present time right then and there, so we stayed up until 1am or so opening our gifts and drinking hot chocolate....it was perfect!
The next morning we drove to Jared's grandma and grandpa's house for Christmas brunch and gifts with them and his mom and step-dad. His grandma always makes delicious meals and we had a wonderful time with everyone. We also received some really good gifts too!!
I can't believe the holidays are already finished for 2009 (aside from New Year's), but we are so glad we were able to share them with our families!!
We hope that you and your families had a wonderful holiday season too!!
-- Jared & Carissa
Here are some of our holiday pics this year........
**Christmas in Houston**
**Thanksgiving in Georgia & Tennessee**
Here is a video of me and my sisters playing at a park in Chattanooga and Jared sliding down a hill on some cardboard. Oh my gosh we had so much fun that day!!!!Chattanooga from Cougar on Vimeo.
1 comment:
What a crazy busy holiday, but it sounds (and looks) like everything was perfect! Glad you got to spend it with your fam and the traveling is over...for the time being!
PS. Chattanooga is pretty, isn't it?
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