Harrell Christmas 2009

Because both our families do not live near us, we always have to travel for the holidays. Therefore, we have our Christmas on the morning of Chrismas Eve. We wake up bright and early to enjoy some Harrell family Christmas tradition. I bake the sausage pinwheels and put on a pot of coffee. Slowly I start to wake up the sleeping beast (lol).   Once we all get downstairs, we enjoy our breakfast while we unwrap our stockings. Then we proceed on to the gifts under the tree. Ever since our first Christmas together (6 years ago), we set a budget for each other and I'm proud to say that through the years (through good times and bad) we have continued to stick to it! Christmas is not about how much money we can spend (even though it's on someone else), but it is (in part) about sharing something nice with the people you love and blessing them with gifts that they wait all year for :) Because this last year was a little different for us (since i was unemployed), we decided to make something special for our family members this year. I can't post what we made for the Strong family (yet) b/c they read my blog daily :) But here's what we did for the Stikeleather side of the family. We went to the Pottery Place and painted a piece of pottery for them! When weighing our options, we liked this idea the most b/c this was a gift that would take some effort and thought and required our time and personal attention. It wasn't something we just went out and bought at a store (that could likely be in next years Goodwill pile).

Chris painted a large platter for his parents:

And I painted a square bowl for his sister and brother-in-law:

They're not perfect by any means, but it's the little imperfections that give them character :) We were very pleaseed with how they turned out . . . hopefully they will be as well :)

Here are some pics from our Christmas morning together:

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT! :)