the bradberry family

Whew! My decorations are down and the Bradberry Christmas post is up! It took a few more days than expected (doesn't it always?), but I've consolidated all our Christmas pictures into a slide show. I also wanted to post a few of my favorite highlights on their own.

Family. Tradition. Memories. Praise. Gifts. Laughter. Lights. Conversation. Hugs. Smiles. Thankfulness. Yummy food. Prayer. Love. These words pretty much sum up our Christmas season. Christmas is my favorite time of year because I am surrounded by and get to enjoy these things.

I was raised with Jesus being the center of Christmas as He should be, but so often is not. I am so thankful that my parents instilled that in my heart from such a young age. Chris and I are very passionate about passing this along to Anna Kate. Her love of "all things baby" made it very easy to start talking about Jesus this year. Every Nativity we passed she would pick out the "baby." We would then tell her that it was baby Jesus, not thinking much about it. One day, she was looking at my mom's Nativity and very clearly said "Jesus." It melted our hearts. This has become her new favorite word. Although I did not catch her saying it really clearly, here is a clip. This is by far my favorite Christmas memory this year. *you might have to turn your volume way up to hear her soft little voice!

Another precious moment was when my beautiful niece, Addie, sang to us on Christmas Eve. After the hustle and bustle of food and gifts, this sweet song was a quiet moment. The perfect end to Christmas Eve. I especially love her version of Joy to the World... "repair his room."

After Christmas Eve with Chris' family, and before spending Christmas day with my family, we enjoyed Christmas morning as three. We had so much fun watching Anna Kate open her stocking and gifts. This is the first Christmas that she had been able to "participate." After she found the baby from Santa, the rest of her gifts were not really exciting. She held on to her baby the entire morning.

The Saturday after Christmas, Anna Kate and I kissed Daddy goodbye and went to FL with Granna, Granddaddy, and my dad's parents. The trip had two missions. The first- take my dad's parents home who had been visiting with us all week. Secondly, we wanted to spend sometime with my mom's parents who spent Christmas in Dallas with my aunt. We had a great visit and even got to stick our toes in the sand!

Although Anna Kate loved the beach mere months ago, she is a bit more particular now. She was not crazy at all about the sand sticking to her.

Here are our family Christmas photos! Hope you enjoy!