Christmas Celebration Day 8 - Ripley's Believe it or not museum

On Day 8 of the Christmas fun we were planning on attending a train show, found out it wasn't open that day. So then we decided to go to this spiffy upside down house called Wonderworks. We drove the very long hour drive there and found out that the price was unreal. But I got some cool pictures of the outside. So we decided to go into Gatlinburg again to the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum. It was a pretty spectacular museum, filled with amazing and unbelievable pictures, creations, and stories. It had enough interest for each person of our diverse group of babies, to teenagers, to tired parents, to excited grandparents. Afterwards, we drove into Knoxville and had a great dinner at Chillis as a family. It was a great fun-filled day!

It's an upside down house!

It's me and the cutest baby in the world.

This is at the Ripley's museum. This is a horse made entirely out of coat hangers. Lily loved it cause it was a horse.

A chair big enough for 6 people and then some.

Look how tired us parents are. Benny literally kept us up all night for the entire trip. But we are attempting to look happy.

At the arcade afterwards. Sam and David dueling it out on Guitar hero at the arcade.

My kids riding the motorcycles. Lily looks determined to win. :)

Brian (with Lily) and Jimmy racing on motorcycles at the arcade.

Christmas Celebration Day 7 - My Tennessee Christmas

Christmas morning was fabulous. I didn't expect to have a white Christmas because we were in Tennessee, but it ended up snowing all day on Christmas. The kids were super excited over the presents they got. And I do have to say they were definitely spoiled! The house was full of laughter, yummy food smells, talking, and wrapping paper. The Christmas dinner, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, ginger cake, chocolate ganache cake, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the amazing feast were just positively decadent.

Benny hanging out with his Uncle Sammy!

Lily's Christmas present spot.

Benny finally got excited over wrapping paper at my parent's house. I guess my Mom picks better and more interesting wrapping paper than me!

My little present. :)

That is one spoiled baby. Those were all his toys!

I love the silly faces. Sam's is my favorite!
Jimbo enjoying his sweet roll and coffee!
And there's Benny, trying to climb up the stairs for the hundredth time! He could climb all the way to the top! He would get really excited and climb up, look behind him and see how far he's gone (and almost lose his balance). I was deathly afraid of him falling down the stairs!
Sam with his new Mac that Erin gave him, and David playing on his iphone.
My Grandma came over a little before we had Christmas dinner. I was so excited to see her! I think she's just beautiful!

Lily couldn't decide if she liked my Grandma at first. Look at that face! I've never seen my Grandma crawl around on the floor before. But she followed the "Lily puppy" around and.....

.....ended up getting Lily to like her and got a hug out of the deal!

Here's the awesome wrapping paper fight that Lily and Jimmy had. Lily was having a blast!

My aunt and uncle, Rhonda and Mike also joined us on the festive occasion! I hadn't seen either of them in over 5 years! I was so happy to have them there!

I'm so excited to have a new family member, Erin. She's so sweet to Sam and they seem so great together. I know that both of them will be excellent parents because they were so good and extremely helpful with my kids!

This was one of my favorite parts of the day. Jimmy got a new guitar for Christmas, a Dobro. Mike, who is AMAZING on the guitar got it out and started singing some awesome honky tonk Tennessee music. Everyone joined in! Jimmy got out his Jew's harp and started to play.

Sam got out the electric bass.
And David got out his viola. It was one of those magical moments that you just want to remember. It's what family is all about. Sitting around together and making music together.

Brian and Rachel enjoying the spontaneous jam session.

There's my wonderful, spectacular, amazing, special, and beautiful Tennessee Christmas.
Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas Celebration Day 6 - Christmas Eve Service

Christmas Eve was the day that Sam and his new fiancee Erin showed up at the house. Everyone had arrived, and it was a packed, 11 people household. I couldn't ask for more. That evening was the Christmas Eve service at church. It was so great to see my parents working together. My dad was preaching, my mom doing to music. I know this had been a dream of theirs for a long time, and after so many years of waiting, they were finally working together in the same church, doing what they had been called to and had been trained in. My kids couldn't stay awake long enough to go to the service because it was at 9:00 pm. So my sweet little brother, David stayed at the house with them so Brian and I could have a break and enjoy the service together.
The service was simple and beautiful. They sang a few simple Christmas songs and my Dad talked about how uncomfortable Mary would've been, giving birth to Jesus in a barn. And of course the miracle of Christmas in everyone's hearts. Rachel did an absolutely beautiful interpretive dance to "Sweet Little Jesus Boy," that brought tears to my eyes.

This is the best picture I got of my mom at the piano playing.

We're all excited for Christmas in the morning! Sam and Erin look lovely and normal while Brian and I look deranged.

And that's Christmas Eve and Day 6 of the greatest Christmas ever!

Chistmas Celebration Day 5 - The aquarium in Gatlinburg

On Day 5 of the Christmas Celebration we drove to Gatlinburg, TN which reminded me a lot of Park City in Utah. It's a touristy town up in the mountains. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was on the drive there in spite of it being in the dead of winter. I couldn't get enough of the mountains, trees, and water. And the fact that there was no snow! I loved that. My parents took all of us to the Aquarium. I knew Brian would love this, since we have a 120 gallon fish tank at home. Also the kids were going to be super excited too!

I love my mom's face - loving on the Benny boo!

Silly Craziness

Happy happy excitement!

The sharks were amazing!

The tunnel of the aquarium was the best part - a tunnel of glass with fish and sharks all over!
Benny was incredibly grumpy there because of his 4 teeth coming in. Luckily I had my mom around to help our with the poor boy!
Yikes!

We loved the saw-fish. Lily looks amazed!

Mom and Dad being silly in the gift shop!

Checking out the sting rays!

Benny even got a kick out of it at the end!

My favorite were the sting rays! They are like underwater flowers. I couldn't get over how pretty they are!

That concludes day 5 of the Christmas extravaganza!

Chistmas Celebration Day 4 - Christmas Pageant

Christmas Celebration Day 4 was pretty fun. We spent the day at my parent's house recovering from our jetlag. I got to see the church that my Dad is the pastor of. I thought it was pretty awesome to see his name on the sign. The church was having a children's Christmas pageant that night. My mom had my kids being sheep in the play. Rachel was their shepherd. It was pretty cute.

Baaa goes Benny

My sister with all the sheep at the pageant.

Sweet Lily, she was having the worst time feeling afraid of doing this. But she warmed up to the idea since she was hanging out with her auntie.

This is at the dinner afterwards. Benny just hanging out with his Grammy.

There's Day 4!