Christmas joy in Alabama

Our hint of San Francisco for family far away. Merry Christmas!

Jackson enjoying his Christmas gift from Annie, William and JEB:

Mark's sweet gift for baby Holmes:

The highlight of Christmas gifts, Wii!! They guys immediately had a golf tournament in the den. We're all so excited for our fun, unexpected gift from Mama & Daddy.

Annie (5) picked out a special hat for Mark. Jackson & our little nieces seemed to enjoy it even more than Mark!

Caroline's excitement over the baby doll blanket and pillow I made:

Mary Beth, the seamstress, and the Squires' girls modeling their matching aprons:

Elle loving her new Leapster and sleeping bag:

This Christmas my siblings decided try a second year of giving no-cost gifts to each other. It was a fun challenge and really made the Christmas season so much more enjoyable without the retail shopping chaos. We had to get creative to sew, make, regift, find an internet deal, pass along a good book or DVD, etc. to creatively find a meaningful gift for Christmas. I wound up with a beautiful necklace and Mark got two cool architecture documentaries on famous artists. Mary Beth gets the award for thinking outside the box. She test drove a Chrysler to get a $50 gift card to Massage Envy for my brother-in-law. We really enjoyed our Alabama Christmas. We head back to Georgia tomorrow and will do a post from there in a few days.

Stegall Skating Spectacular 2009

Another fun year on the ice! It's amazing to think that this time next year there will be three new little babes added to the family from the Stegall cousins. We enjoyed skating, catching up, and spending fun time with cousins and our growing family.

Introducing Baby Holmes

This is little Holmes at 13 weeks.

Bouillabaisse and Ratatouille Dinner Party

The Southern girls: me, Sarah Nell (AL) and Beth (KY)

Chef German Lam was on hand to teach us how to make Ratatouille, Bouillabaisse and a rice dish for our dinner party. German was the chef at the Ritz Boston and elsewhere before opening his own personal chef/food consulting/nutrition business. I didn't know what Ratatouille was before the cartoon movie came out and had never eaten Bouillabaisse before. He teaches to use ingredients with natural flavors and avoid tons of over-spicing to have great tasting food. We had quite a few sous chefs/guests help out with the meal.

Mark's only hard work that evening was holding back his emotions during the Florida Gators and Tim Tebow loss to Alabama in a crushing end to their undefeated season.

I, on the other hand, won a co-prize for best sous chef. I think it's only because I stood over the hot stove for a long time. The chopping crew made it all possible!

Joann organized the fun evening of good food, new friends, and our coach/Chef. She doesn't know how to cook but she can certainly throw a great dinner party! Jin hosted and I'm quite jealous of the amazing kitchen renovation. We had a great time.