Christmas in Mobile

For Christmas, we spent the week in Mobile visiting Kerrie's side of the family. I'll have more on the TIMED picture taken above later. It was definitely a crowd but we had a great time. The 3-bedroom house slept 13 people every night and we had anywhere from 17-24 folks around during the days. Here was the rundown....

On the Friday before Christmas, Kerrie and I worked and then drove through the night. We got to Mobile pretty darn early and I was up the next day to go fishing on the bay. Lets just say that about 50 ounces of Mt. Dew, 32 ounces of coffee (both of which help me through the drive), a couple hours of sleep, and waves over five foot in the bay (thanks to the wind) just really did not mix well. Fishing did not last long and I spent the rest of Saturday eating crackers and drinking Sprite. Meanwhile, the girls shopped.

On Sunday, we had a crew attend church and afterwards went out to eat to celebrate Kerrie's parent's anniversary. Here are some pics....

K and Granddad doing some coloring.


K and Grahmie deciding on some food.


Me, Kerrie, Kerrie's brother Micah, and K doing a signature pose.

On Sunday and Monday, we did more shopping. Kerrie's grandmother from Baton Rouge and I were the only ones to brave the Christmas Eve shopping and had a pretty special time. And let me tell you...folks were in a "beautiful" holiday period. Monday night, we finally got the kids to bed so that Santa could make his appearance.


The loot.


K's reaction.


Digging in.


Thank you Cousin Savannah...

I don't here enough rip! And yes, K was excited to get her own "real" camera.


Funny story about this video. Morgan gave us like 3 things she wanted for Christmas because one of the things she wanted, an electronic reader, was pretty expensive. So, of course, that gift just "happens" to be put at the bottom of her stocking and it is the last thing she saw after opening all the other gifts. The whole time she was trying not to act disappointed but she was struggling.


Once we got done with opening presents from just the four of us, the rest of the family arrived and all heck broke loose. Lots of gifts, lots of paper, lots of trash, but a lot of happy folks.






Destruction.


And more destruction.


Once we got done with the presents, Granddad sat down all the grandkids and read the Christmas Story and had an interactive story for them to follow where they each had presents that had parts of the Christmas Story inside. Very cool.


Here is Kerrie in her new track suit, slippers, and necklace. One of my favorite pictures of the week.

After lunch, pretty much the whole family decided we wanted to go see a movie that night so Micah and I went early to buy tickets. This is what we found at the theatre....


Once we got through the line, this was my ticket order: 9 adults, 5 children, and 1 senior citizen. The guys response: "Can you repeat that?" Once I did, his next statements was "That will be $111.00 sir." Nice.


On Wednesday, we did a little resting and a lot of cooking. Here pic of Kerrie is another favorite of mine.


Lots of people in the kitchen.

Throughout the course of the week, we also did a whole lot of family picture taking. Here is a video of us trying to get all the little ones (sorry Morgan) to behave.




The kids with their great-grandmothers.


And with Granddad and Grahmie.

OK, so about the first picture of this post. That was the end result of a big group picture of the family after we opened presents on Christmas morning. Of course, we wanted everyone in it so the obviously answer was to just do a timed pic. It eventually worked but lets just say it took a few takes. The end result (again see above) is pretty impressive I think considering all the kids and the whole timing deal.

Here is the prep shot....


Another prep...


Take #1 - Yes, I am not in it. I set the timer for 1 sec. Not even I am that fast.


Take 2 - Apparently even with 5 seconds on the timer, me + flip flops + non carpeted floor = not enough time.


Take 3. And take 4 is the one above - Notice no more flipflops.



The girls and I on Sunday.


Kerrie talking...K getting sick of pictures.


Kerrie's brother Johnny, his wife Christy, and their two boys, Devin and Carson.


Us with my shopping date Grandmother Fields from Baton Rouge.


Us with Gran. And God love her for having that many people at her house for that long and not going absolutely crazy.


Us with Kerrie's mom and dad. K again tired of pictures.


Better.


Granddad and Grahmie with the grandkids.


And the great-grandmothers.

Thursday was Kerrie and I's 6th anniversary so we left the girls in Mobile with the grandparents and scooted off to the Grand Marriott at Point Clear. Dinner was gumbo, oysters on the 1/2 shell (for me anyway), and lots more. The next morning we headed back to Mobile to pack and were off soon thereafter back 10 hours to San Antonio.


Our view from the Marriott.