Happy New Year!

So once again, Christmas came and went in the blink of an eye. I can't believe it's already been over a week! Em and I went to Crossett to spend the holiday with her family. We had a blast hanging out with all the kids and the 3 new babies. Here are some highlights from the week.

I think I should point out that there is a certain "opening presents" aspect of Christmas that still makes me giddy. But I was pretty surprised on Christmas morning when I was pretty sure I was more excited than Olivia and Maxwell. Those kids came out, with the rest of the family watching, and stood there and stared. The first thing Maxwell did was walk right past, and over, all of the Santa presents, which included a Wii, and check to see if Santa ate his cookies and took his signs. Of course, Santa did not disappoint. After some encouragement from the grown-ups, they finally dug in and started opening their presents. We had a great Christmas lunch with all the traditional goodies and enjoyed some much needed rest and relaxation with our family. 5 days of sleeping in (if you call waking up to children giggling at 7:00 in the morning sleeping in!), eating good food, and too much of it, playing Wii with the kids, and sitting by the outdoor fireplace. We also celebrated Memaw's 80th birthday with more food, family, and fun at the Pope house. Happy Birthday Memaw!

A big highlight of the week was on Friday after Christmas. Emily got another sonogram and we got to see the baby. It's amazing how much it has changed in the 2 weeks since her first one. Although it looked a little alien-ish at the time, there were eyes, arms, and legs as clear as day and that kid was moving like crazy! It was very surreal to see the baby moving around, surreal and amazing. See?!

Most people that know me know how much of a Star Wars nerd I am. So you can imagine what a proud uncle it made me to learn that Maxwell has begun learning the ways of the Force! I was envious of most of his Christmas presents, and might have played with some of them more than he did. Fortunately, I was able to get some great footage of Maxwell in his Star Wars garb. I prize the following video as one of the funniest I've seen. I call it "Jedi-In-Training" and I must say... the Force is strong with this one.


We came back to Longview last week and finished out the holiday season with a very low-key New Year's celebration. Our friends, Chip and Kirsten had us over to their house for fajitas and some Trivial Pursuit. Chip's fajitas were awesome and Trivial Pursuit is ridiculously hard! At 11:30, all of us were falling asleep on the couch, struggling to ring in the new year. Em and I left and got home just in time to watch the Ball drop. On New Year's Day, we slept in and then laid around watching movies all day.

Emily and I are blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and wish you all a Happy New Year in 2009!