Christmas

We had our candlelight service at Ellendale the night of Christmas Eve.  Our family came to the service and then they came here for some snack foods.  Eli even got to hold his own candle, while the rest of us held our candle and our breath.  Yikes.

After everyone left we hit the bed to be ready for Christmas.  Christmas morning I decided to use my "good" camera instead of my phone.  Halfway through opening presents I realized the good camera did not have a card in it.  Whoops.  Here's what I have though.  We always have a game on Christmas morning.  This year we played Shackelford family trivia.  The boys had to answer questions about our family to get points.  Once they got enough points they could open one thing.  Then they had to get more points to open the next thing and so on.  There was a lot of laughter at 6 am at the Shackelford house.

 Fred got two sweaters that were exactly the same from my parents.  We all got a good laugh out of it.  My parents and Aunt Christie were in attendance, but there is a strict no photo policy of adults on Christmas morning.  An exception is made when you receive two of the same sweater from the same person though.

Later that afternoon we headed to Fred and Renee's for presents and a little steak dinner.  My mother in law got a selfie stick.  Good times.

This was Andrew by Christmas night.  Exhausted.

The next day, Saturday, was glorious.  We had absolutely nothing to do.  I was able to put up all my Christmas decorations and get all the loot we received put away.

Sunday morning Fred headed to church while the boys and I headed to Jackson for my family's Chritsmas celebration.  Fred met up with us later.  He wanted boiled custard to see my family.

Fred loves boiled custard so much it even makes our family photo.  

This is Mun with all her grand and great grandchildren, minus 2 of my cousins.  This photo was no minor accomplishment.  

We stayed the night in Jackson so we could spend just a little more time with my family.  Then we headed home for a few days of quiet before we headed to Franklin.
My Aunt Christie needed a little help clearing out the last of my grandmother's things, plus she gave the boys gift certificates to an indoor climbing facility.  They climbed while Christie and I worked at the house.  I'm not sure who got a better deal!  I do love cleaning out. While I was cleaning out I found the rough draft of the prayer my grandfather prayed at our wedding.  Needless to say, I'm keeping it...and framing it.

And then here's the boys from the climbing wall. They had a blast!