Christmas 2008

I know what you are thinking; Christmas was over a month ago! I am obviously trying to do a little catch-up work here. We went to San Antonio to see family again this year. While we usually go and stay for about a week or so, we only stayed about 48 hours this time. I was singing at Christmas Eve service as part of the choir and Evan was running sound for the service. That meant that we got to enjoy Christmas Eve with our church family. It was a lot of fun and an amazing time of worship. Praise God!

The next day we woke up early and drove to San Antonio to spend time with Evan's family at his sister's house. We got to open presents with everyone, including our niece and nephew, Elizabeth and James. We then had a very yummy Christmas lunch. If you'd like to see pictures of all the food you can check out my sister-in-law's blog here. That night, we went over to my Grandfather's house to see my family, including my aunt and uncle who were in town from California. I took pictures at my parents' house of them opening presents but none of them came out very good so here are some pictures from Christmas morning/afternoon with Evan's Family:

[caption id="attachment_212" align="aligncenter" width="426" caption="Elizabeth with her present from us, My Little Ponies! The stuffed animal horse is from her younger brother, James."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_213" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Page, Dave, and Evan playing Guitar Hero World Tour (Evan\'s Christmas present)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_214" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The girl band! Page, Judy, and I playing Guitar Hero World Tour."][/caption]

On Friday, we did some day after Christmas shopping with my family for Evan. His Christmas presents from my parents were new coats. We found him some great and much needed jackets and didn't really have to fight many crowds.

We left San Antonio on Saturday morning so we could make it back to Houston in time for a bridal shower for one of my college roommates, Julie. Julie lives in Atlanta but her family is in Houston so her Mom's friends were giving her a shower since she was in town for the holidays. Mandy, one of our other roommates (not technically a roommate, but might as well have been) was also in town visiting her family for the holiday so I got to ride with her to the shower. Mandy did an awesome job driving since the shower was on the opposite side of town and it was pouring down rain for most of our drive back. Here is a picture of the three of us from the shower. (I will be posting about Julie's wedding in the next couple of days).

[caption id="attachment_215" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Me, Julie, and Mandy at Julie\'s Bridal Shower"][/caption]

The other reason we came back from San Antonio so early was because one of the couples from our small group were getting married Saturday night. The entire time we had known Josh and Catherine, they had been engaged so it was great to get to be at their wedding. The wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun. It was the biggest wedding I had been to other than my own. I know it is a little late, but CONGRATULATIONS JOSH AND CATHERINE!! Here are some pictures from the wedding:

[caption id="attachment_216" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Catherine and Josh at the beginning of their ceremony"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_217" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="The BEAUTIFUL cake...we didn\'t stay to taste it :("][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_218" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Evan and I at the reception...He is SO CUTE!!"][/caption]