Too late for a Christmas post?

I think not...some people still have their decorations up, so I think I'm good. 

Christmas break was such a fun and exciting whirlwind for us.  Steven and I left as soon as he got of work on the 23rd and made it to Mom and Dad's house at around 2:30 in the morning.  Of course, Mom and Scooter waited up on us, but we were exhausted.  The next day, Steven and I took Mom to lunch (er...we tried to, but she paid, so technically she took us to lunch) at John's and ate some Alabama bar-b-que (que in the 80's hair band, Cinderella's, "Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone" music).  Whitney and Chris made it in by the afternoon of Christmas Eve and Taylor and Patches came over after they had Christmas at her house.  We all hung out and played an "oh so fun" game called password (mega fail) while we waited on Betsy and Michael to arrive. 

They didn't make it in until 11:30, but as McCulloch's we were raised to be a little rash about things. 

Yeah, we did it.

 We read the story of Jesus's birth and then opened up our gifts that night. Mom went overboard, of course, but it made opening gifts feel special.  It was almost 1:00 am when we finished. I was a zombie (sidebar: While unpacking, I kept seeing new things, and was like, "When did I get this?  Who gave me this? Did I thank him or her?"  Like I said --zombie is the only word I can find to describe how I felt). 


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Mom's (over the top) presents and tree :) 

 

The whole family decided to sleep in the next morning because we were having lunch at our house at 1:00, so we weren't in any hurry; however, at 7:15 in the morning, Dad woke us all up excited like a kid on Christmas (pun intended) and told us to look out of our windows.  The whole yard was covered in a blanket of snow, and it was still coming down really heavy.  It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.  I cannot remember ever having a white Christmas...especially not THAT white.  We all immediately raided Taylor's closet and put on every warm item of clothing he owned.  We stayed outside for a while taking pictures, throwing snowballs, and attempting a snow man (epic fail).  It was fun playing outside, but we missed Betsy and Michael!  While we were all out, Mom made us chocolate syrup and biscuits.  For those of you who just read that and are now making a "That sounds disgusting!  Who would ever eat that face?"  Don't judge.  You people eat weird stuff too.  I mean OYSTER dressing.  REALLY?  eek! 

Later that day Grandma and Grandpa came over for lunch and to visit for a while.  By the end of the day we were all so tired, but looking forward to going over to Aunt Sherry's for our annual Christmas snack food dinner.  It was great to see all of the cousins and their new family additions.  It makes things so lively to have little kids running around, don't you think?  Anyway, we played Bunco, told stories, and ate really good food!  The next morning, Steven and I were blessed when his boss called and told him that he thought he ought to wait an extra day to come back to North Carolina because of the bad weather.  We were going to try to drive through the snow, so he could get back (my Babe has a strong work ethic), but it was great to be able to spend another day with the family!  We ate and played games before going to Florence with Betsy, Michael, Taylor, and Patches to see a movie.  Later we met up with Susanna and Jeff and ate a Rigatoni's (yumm!).  She is supposed to have her baby next week, so we had a lot of catching up to do! 

The next morning, we woke up early and made our way back to Eastern North Carolina.  It was actually a pretty easy trip, especially considering most of the Southeast was covered in a blanket of snow.  All in all it was great to spend time with family, but we are happy to be back at "our" home here in Perfection.  I hope you all had a very merry Christmas, and are enjoying God's favor in the new year!