I'm behind....

....on my Christmas post so let me try to catch up.  I'll start with the happy news from Christmas.  My baby brother, Taylor, proposed to his sweet girlfriend Jess.  They have been dating about a year and a half I think.  We really love her and she seems to fit into our family perfectly.  She is so sweet and thoughtful and loves my girls so much.  She is very good to all of us and we are happy to have her as the latest addition of the Bohannan family. 

Unfortunately I have sad news from our holiday break as well.  I've mentioned the Matthews before in one of my Christmas posts last year.  They are Shay's distant cousins that we have been blessed to discover while living in Dothan.  The girls and I try and visit them as often as we can and we have really enjoyed getting to know them.  Sadly Mr. Matthews passed away last Thursday.  He had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer and at 87 it took him quickly.  He was such a precious man who took wonderful care of his wife.  His love for her was definitely demonstrated in the way he waited on her.  She was always his primary concern.  When he received the diagnosis his only worry was who would take care of Mrs. Matthews in his absence.  The hospice nurse said that the last thing he said to her was, "Please tell Jeanette how much I love her."  That makes my heart swell.  I pray that I will have that same kind of marriage after 63 years as well.  My children adored "Mr. Mackews" as Mary Selwyn called him.  He would always fill them full of cookies and drag out blocks for them to play with.  I am very sad to see him go because we only had 3 years with him and I don't feel like that was long enough.  I am very thankful we have had the opportunity to get to know them and that our move back to Dothan gave us a little more time with him.  We will miss him dearly.

Okay, now on to pictures, pictures and more pictures.  These are pictures from Christmas Eve, which we spend with my family, Christmas Day we spend with Shay's family and then New Year's Day, we spent that with my family again.  Mary Selwyn was so sick on Christmas Eve she was hardly able to enjoy any of it.  So you will notice she looks pitiful in those pictures.  Thankfully she felt better on Christmas day.  Santa came to our house on Christmas Eve morning because he knows we are always out of town on Christmas morning. This is very helpful for mom and dad with all the traveling.

Trying to trick Santa by pretending to be asleep

So excited!  When I put Adeline to bed she looked up at me and said, "Ecited Mommy!"  She knew Ho Ho was coming.

Putting out cookies for Santa....Adeline might have snuck a little bite.

Getting ready to see what Santa left in the back yard

It was a playhouse from Nana and Poppy and Grandmother and Granddaddy.  They LOVE it.

My cousin brought his family in from Arkansas for Christmas this year.  This is his little girl Chloe with MSN and AWN

With Goon and Grampaka on Christmas Eve...can you tell Melbo isn't feeling well?



Christmas Day




Greatmama



Many of the cousins getting ready to open gifts.  My girls LOVE to be around all their Shackelford cousins.

Our only family picture...and its not even that great.

New Year's Day with Great Grandmother and Granddaddy



Great Granddaddy and his 3 Great Granddaughters.  Their mouths are blue from popsicles.




I have many many more pictures but since I'm a slacker there are too many to try and pack in to this post.  I will spare you the pictures of a few of us girls playing Just Dance on the Wii on Christmas Eve.  It is the most fun game ever, especially the Michael Jackson addition.  We played for 3 hours.  It was a great way to work off all the food we had just inhaled.  We had Christmas with Shay's sister and her family over New Year's weekend but all those pictures are on Papa's camera.  Overall Christmas this year was long and exhausting but good.  It was nice to spend time with our families and the few friends I got to see.  I'm not normally one to rush time, especially since I have had children but I will say I have never been happier to see a new year come.  I couldn't wait to kiss 2010 good-bye!  Hope everyone had wonderful holidays and is having a very happy new year thus far!!