Christmas!

We were blessed to have a wonderful Christmas this year with our families! Instead of four different posts, I decided to make one gigantic post- four for the price of one! Hope you enjoy and that you had a blessed Christmas also!

Foropoulos Family Christmas
We left for Jackson on the 23rd and shortly after we arrived, we received a call that my Mammaw (my dad's mom) had passed away. She has struggled with Dementia for the past several years, and although we will miss her, we rejoiced to know that she was a Christian, is now in Heaven, and that her suffering is over. I was so blessed by the example of faith and trust in God that my dad set for each of us when he prayed before we had our Christmas dinner that evening, praising God in the midst of losing his mom! Mom made a wonderful dinner and as always made sure that we were all taken care of! Then the kids gathered around for a Grandaddy Williams story from my dad...he's a great story teller!One of my favorite traditions as a child was that each year we would go with my Nana and Pop, cousins, aunt and uncle to eat Christmas Eve breakfast at the Old Country Store. We did this for at least 20 years until both my grandparents had passed away a few years ago. The memories were just too much to return until this year. My mom decided it was time to go again, and then we got a call that my Aunt Carol, Uncle David and Jeremy would be joining us...the only ones missing were going to be my cousin JulieAnn, her husband Jeremy and their daughter, Jayden. As we waited in line, we got a call that they were surprising us! It was such a blessing for all 21 of us to be able to return to this tradition together this year! I was so glad for my boys to get to experience this with their cousins!


Afterward, my dad headed to Memphis to make funeral arrangements, and we had an afternoon at home for the kids to take a nap before a fun evening opening gifts. Before we opened presents mom was sure we heard the Christmas story, and it was so special, because my sister had helped her oldest children memorize Luke 2!!! So, they recited the Christmas story to us all! We received several thoughtful gifts... one of the sweetest things was the candle globe that my brother Zachary bought for me (he also got mom and Wave one) with his own money...he is such a great guy. I'm so proud of him for so many reasons...he is very thoughtful, talented and generous! I love you even though you probably won't read this until the next time I'm home and ask you if you've been checking it ;) Each year my sister, Waverly has asked for the same thing from me...an Ugly Elf. In the 5th grade I made a clay elf ornament...he has been through a lot including lots of breaks and super glue repairs. So this year, I made her a replica! She was so excited and it made me happy...I have the best big sister ever and loved seeing her reaction!
Christmas in Paris
We headed home to Paris Christmas Eve night. Before the boys went to bed, we explained to them that the next morning would be Christmas Day! I told Caleb that when they woke up, we would go to the living room, read the Christmas story and then open presents. He asked if we could reverse the order and open presents first. I explained that Jesus was the reason for Christmas and that the most important thing was worshipping God on Christmas. When he came into our bedroom Christmas morning, he climbed up into the bed with us and said one of the most precious things I've ever heard, "When are we going to go to the living room and worship God?" What a blessing that he got it at least in that moment...Christmas isn't just about presents, family, food and decorations...it's about worshipping Emmanuel~God With Us!
Here are the boys Christmas morning in their new jammies from Nanny...
Opening their beanbags...
And camo overalls...they love camo~we don't understand, but apparently it is necessary for two boys who love getting dirty and hiking in the woods behind our house! We had a wonderful Christmas morning at home! We had planned on spending most of the day at home, but with my grandmother's funeral being Saturday, we wanted to be sure to spend plenty of time with Corey side of the family also, so we loaded up after breakfast and headed to Murfreesboro.

Christmas with the Cains
We had a great time with Corey's dad's family. Grandma Sue cooked a great Christmas dinner, and we enjoyed the time we spent together. I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted, but had to get one of this moment right after Caleb saw their record player...it copies records onto CD...when they pulled a record out to try it, Caleb said, "Oh my word! That is a huge CD!"We weren't able to be there very long because of the change in our plans, but I really appreciate how thoughtful and flexible all of Corey's family was.

Christmas with Nanny and JR
We headed to Nanny's house late Christmas day. The boys were a little wired! JR's son, Sam and his wife, Mary were there...I hope the boys didn't scare you too badly ;) Once we put them in bed, they conked out immediately. The next morning we woke up and opened presents.
The boys with their cool new crash cars from Aunt Michele that go on a race track...
Nanny and JR got us a cool family present this year... a Wii! Thanks so much we're having lots of fun!

Michele know how much Bennett loves music, so she got him this cool keyboard and a drum set. Caleb enjoys taking pictures, so she got him a neat camera...
JR wanted a robe for Christmas, and we all wanted a chance to try it on...the boys both got in after their bath!In their new pjs from Nanny...

What a wonderful Christmas~ God is so good!