Christmas

Two "Petes"

I have always looked forward to the day when I could host my family in my home for Christmas. This year it became a reality when my doctor said, "NO traveling home for the holidays". Brett and I decorated and cleaned our home, we planned our menus for the entire holiday, wrapped presents and waited for our guests to arrive.

My family came in on Saturday: Dad, Mom, Chad, Stacy and Wade! On Saturday, we just hung out and snacked on dips and such! That night we feasted on garlic and pepper crusted pork loin, apple and cranberry stuffing, butterbeans, collards (yuck!) and more! My mom made the Hardee family "traditions" chocolate pound cake and "green stuff". We were all thoroughly entertained throughout the evening by my brother, Chad. He is a riot! He took tons of pictures and many of himself. It was so wonderful to share my home with them. Chad is so happy about Cannon, he could not stop touching my belly and giggling about how "funny" I looked! He bought Cannon a cute rubber ducky to match the one he has at home. He apparently spent quite a bit of time at the mall trying to find Nike shoes for newborns!

Cannon and Uncle Chad having a "serious" discussion.

On Sunday, we had chicken and dumplings for lunch (a family fav). They left on Sunday afternoon and we waited for Brett's parents to arrive. They got in late Sunday night.

On Monday, Carla and I went to the mall just to walk around. It was great going to the mall on Christmas Eve and not needing to purchase one thing! The mall was actually very slow!

On Monday night, we had our Lovelace Christmas Eve Tradition of SEAFOOD: roasted oysters, fried oysters, shrimp and hushpuppies!

On Christmas morning, we all slept in. Brett decided that he wanted to start a new tradition of reading the Christmas story each year so he read it to everyone. We then opened gifts and had Christmas dinner. That night we watched the nativity story and played games. We got Brett's parents to reluctantly play Cranium! It was hilarious, especially when Carla had to be "Madonna" and she chose to sing "Like a Virgin"! and when Tom laid on the floor and got Carla to guess he was a "Pig in a Blanket"! I think they enjoyed themselves!

Cannon's "MiMi and Poppy"

Yesterday, Brett and I took down all our decorations! We've been joking that we are the Scrooges of the neighborhood. Our house looks like we never had Christmas. We had to get it packed away quickly...Christmas has passed and now we have to get ready for little Cannon!