Griffin Christmas

I thought I had this post up over a week ago, but apparently I only got so far as to create a folder of photos on the desktop. So, without further ado...the Griffin Christmas.
We traveled to Liberty Hill on Friday, the 23rd. GG had a nice spread of goodies all ready for us when we arrived. We opened our gifts and had Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve since that was when everyone could be with us. On Christmas Day, the kids opened their stockings. Then we went to church and had Christmas leftovers. The next day we went to the roost for a big gathering. The place was packed! We were thankful for nice weather so all the young cousins could spend most of the day in the woods.


Christmas Day after church

GG with Baby V and Evangeline

Christmas Eve

Christmas morning stockings



cousins in front of the tree

Emma's fancy Rapunzel dress, her favorite gift.

Morgan tearing into his gift.


Christmas Eve, getting ready to open gifts

MawMaw's grandchildren

MawMaw with her great-grandchildren

The whole crowd

Our Little Christmas

Ok, time for Christmas celebration #1. We opened our gifts to each other on the 22nd, also known as Matt's 30th birthday. We wanted to do this before leaving for Liberty Hill on the 23rd, because I'm just not hardcore enough to tote all our gifts along.


waiting for gifts

Baby V has the hang of it.



Emma loves these Calico Critters.

Baby V got Pat the Bunny again because she loved the last one to death.

Morgan used some of his allowance to buy this gift for Emma.

Christmas Cookies...

...'nuff said.




What's happening to me?

Morgan Turns Six

Morgan is six years old now! It doesn't feel right at all to say that. It's also the anniversary of this blog, by the way. We started it in the pre-facebook days when it was the only way to keep grandparents up to date. Now we maintain it mostly as a family record and to generate the highly anticipated blog books that we give out each Christmas.
On Morgan's birthday morning, I was horribly sick. But I managed to make beer bread– his favorite– with some help from Matt. We greeted him in bed with a "happy birthday" song, he opened his gifts from us & Grandma Motz, and we ate breakfast together. At lunchtime, Matt took the kids to Morgan's birthday lunch at Mr. Gatti's. We had planned to do his party on the 10th, but had to reschedule due to my lingering sickness. Hopefully we will party on the 17th– more pics to come!




The birthday boy surrounded by his loot– and the beer bread.

This is a crazy looking bunch right here.

Decorating the Tree 2011

It's December 1st– time for the Christmas tree! Tonight we put in our traditional Richard Clayderman Christmas CD and decorated together. The big kids are getting good at ornament placement. We had it adorned in no time.




Emma is such a good big sister to Baby V.

Morgan, taking his task seriously.

The curls!

Tell me that's not precious...





My big girl

Birthday Sampler

We took Morgan to the ACU campus for his 6th birthday portraits. Daddy's photography skills certainly came in handy. Here is a sampling of the shots he took. Morgan looks so grown up; it's sad!

Thanksgiving 2011

We doubled up for Thanksgiving once again. On Tuesday we drove to Abilene to spend a few days. We took Morgan's birthday portrait at the ACU campus on Wednesday. After Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday, the 4 of us (minus Viola) went to the see "Hugo" at the theater. On Friday we drove to the roost for a Griffin Thanksgiving dinner. Then we spent the weekend in Liberty Hill. I squeezed in a day of shopping on Saturday. And Matt & I even enjoyed a hot date at Best Buy/Barnes & Noble/Target/Denny's.

Morgan was very interested in the cooking as usual.

Working hard or hardly working?

My Dad's Thanksgiving shenanigans– we all watched from the kitchen window.



My babies are getting too big...

The crew

Everyone in attendance, minus Matt.





MawMaw and some of her grandchildren.

Thomas, Baby V, and Uncle David

After dinner, Rachel set up the tree and the cousins decorated.



Baby V chillin' with her cousin Will.