Brace yourself...

Here it comes...the Christmas update...and photos. First, here's a picture of the greatest present of all:

I took off work around 1:00 p.m. Thursday and took off all day Friday. Four and a half days off in a row--how relaxing--NOT! I needed to come back to work today to rest. (Shh!)

I got up Friday morning and began cooking and baking. My parents and sister arrived around 2:00 p.m. I must admit that my mom did most of the serious cooking (dressing, ham, corn, potato salad, deviled eggs, rolls, pie, etc.), but I did my share (turkey, sweet potatoes, fruit salad, fudge, chocolate-covered brownie balls). We had a lovely dinner on Christmas Eve and opened our presents. Liv got (from Granny and Papaw) a cool play gym thingie that is really big and makes lots of noise. She loves it, and I am sure I will post a better picture of it soon (or you can just check out the link to the Fisher Price page), but I really liked this one of her peeking through the noise makers.

Sunday morning we went to church. This was the perfect opportunity for family photos since everyone was dressed up. (My sister is absent from the photos (and church) because 11:00 a.m. is a little too early for her.)

Here's Liv with Granny and Papaw.

Here she is with mom and dad. Here's our attempt at group photo. This is the only one in which we are all looking at the camera, and the dogs felt they needed in the photo too. Of course they are biting each other, and Liv is looking at them, but I guess it really reflects the typical chaos in our house.
My parents left shortly after church, and Sean decided it was a good time to rearrange the family room. I had mentioned that I wanted to rearrange the furniture and make a specific play area for Liv. I did not mean I wanted to do it on Christmas day, just hours before his dad and stepmom were scheduled to arrive. But we did it anyway and blew out the cable in the process. That's right--blew out the cable box and amplifier, which meant no cable in any room of the house. No Christmas day football--nothing! Luckily Hollywood Video was open.

Tom and Cindy (a/k/a Grumpa and Bunny) arrived around 4:30 p.m. Sunday. We had our second Christmas dinner Sunday night, and this time, I did a lot of the cooking. We then opened presents, and Liv played with all of her new stuff. Grumpa and Bunny gave her a Leap Frog Learning Table. She was able to stand up at it by herself and play for a while. What a big girl!
As expected, she really enjoyed unwrapping the presents. And by unwrapping, I mean pulling off little bits of paper and sticking them in her mouth.
Yesterday, we just had a lazy day hanging out around the house. The cable guy came to save us with a new cable box. I cooked red beans and rice, and we enjoyed it while watching the last Monday Night Football game on ABC (how sad). Here's Liv with Grumpa and Bunny.

Finally, Liv managed to sneak TuTu, her favorite toy, into the bath with her. As you can see, TuTu is not a bath toy. I guess Liv thought she needed a bath.

I will tell you about the rest of our loot later. Happy Tuesday!