My Wonderful Christmas fun!(LONG POST-grab some Hot Coco!

What a wonderful Christmas it has been. I hope every one has had a blessed Christmas Day. We started ours on Saturday with my family all gathering at my Moms. There was some of the family that couldn't make it but we had fun and missed them. Mother made a great lunch and we all brought a dish too. The weather was perfect, nice and warm, and we could sit out on her deck too.

This is my brother Rick, his granddaughter, Sernity and me. We all gathered around the table for a great lunch.
We all gathered in the den to open our presents and have fun!
And below is a cute picture of my baby brother Tony and his wife and their new "baby", taking a nice nap after a good meal and opening presents!
Next is a pic of me and my sweet Mommy! Merry Christmas Mom!
After we got home from Mom's I went to my bedroom and on my pillow was a 1 G memory card. Well I had been hinting to Santa Daniel for the past few months about how I really wanted a new camera. When I saw that on my pillow, I knew my sneaky hub had a wonderful surprise for me. He is really fun how he wraps presents, always in different boxes so I can't guess whats in them. He had wrapped the camera in a big heater box, so I didn't have a clue that a camera was in it.
We went out in the sunroom and proceeded to open our presents. Here is a pic of me tearing into the camera box,,lol.

Next picture is of him taking a pic of me taking a pic of him. The picture of me is from our old camera,,see how badly I needed my deluxo brand new Cannon Powershot with 12x optical zoom? lol.
Now this camera is so much fun. The pictures it takes are excellent. It has alot more "bells and whistles" than my old one had. I really want to learn how to use all of the great settings it has on it. I have been finding tutorial sites online on how to use all of the different features that it has. So,,,,you know that I will be posting ALOT OF PICTURES for the next year, just be prepared,,lol. I guess I got the love of photography from my dear sweet father. He was an excellent photographer and I have many wonderful photographs that he had taken.
Tonite, 20 years ago, my dear, strong, funny, and wonderful Daddy, passed away. And I wish I could talk to him and ask him how to use my new toy. I also think about how much he would have loved the world of Digital Photography and the World Wide Web. He passed away of Leukemia and it was a long, miserable death for him. I stayed with him and so did my brother Ricky. I was pregnant with his last Grandbaby, my daughter Kalyn. I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU DADDY!!

Dad's name was Charles, but every one called him "Charlie".

Yesterday was a really nice day. Very relaxed and did not have alot to do. Just Daniel and I, hanging around the house. The weather was very warm and sunny most of the day. Of course my favorite Football team , my beloved Tennessee Titans, were playing Buffalo at noon.(We won)
Most of the morning I was just cleaning and straightening up. Then I proceeded to play with my new toy. Its going to take me forever to really learn what I want to know about it, but I must experiment in order to learn. So here are a few pictures from my awesome new toy! The zoom is incredible. I stood in my sun room and took these pictures of the birds at our bird feeders in the back yard. It was like being right next to them, just remember I am not a expert yet,,lol.

I Love to make "macro" shots of my beautiful flowers. The next picture is one I took of my winter pansys.
Now isn't that cool pic? Did I say "I Love my new toy?"
Later in the day I re-potted some new plants that I had recieved for my anniversary in Nov. and my "blue" poinsetta that Daniel bought me a few weeks ago. So, Daniel decided to try the new "toy" out, and proceeded to snap some shots of me playing in the dirt (I miss doing that this time of year.)

And now for a close up of our plants in their new pots. Isn't the Blue poinsetta pretty? It had glitter on it too. Only the top leaves are blue, the new growth is the natural green. I baby my poinsetta all the way through winter, and then in the spring after the last frost, I plant it in my garden. They get hugh! I don't dig them up and bring them in as I have never been able to follow the routine of how they must have darkness for a certain amount of hours in order to turn red again. I just get a new one each Christmas,lol. The other plants are calancheos that have little orangish blooms and also some english ivy mixed in with them. Daniel gave me those in a hugh candle arrangement for our anniversary last month.
They all look so much happier in their new pots. After we played gardners, Daniel cooked us a wonderful Lamb roast, complete with fresh rosemary from my herb bed. So far the frost has not killed it. We had the Lamb, and some new baby red potatoes with herbs, and some fresh asparagus,,,yum!
Today when we woke up, it was raining very hard, just a very nasty day. I was so glad that we didn't have to go any where. It was a nice lazy, morning. Then around noon my children, Kyle and Kalyn came over to celebrate Christmas with us.
This year, Kalyn has worked at Macy's department store part-time while she has been going to college. She came in with alot of beautiful packages for us! The is the first time that she has been able to buy some nice presents for her family with her own, hard-earned money. You could tell she was so proud to bring those to her family. She is such a sweet girl, and growing up to be a awesome young lady!
Kyle is wearing sunglasses in all of his pictures because of his eye injury.
The week-end before Thanksgiving, a very strung out, transient, man at the bus station that Kyle was a Armed Guard at, tried to poke his eye out.
His eye is much better now, he is going to a specialist, but they said it will take at least 6 months to heal completely. It bugs him because he thinks it still looks bad, thus he is wearing his sunglasses, he's really not a "gangsta",,lol. He is my big old baby boy. I am so proud of both of my "babies", and loved being with them today!!
They were acting silly in this picture,,they are both clowns,,great sense of humor, and big hearts!
Next pic is of me and my Babies! I LOVE YOU BOTH, K & K !!!

I sure hope everyone forgives me for such a long post. But just had to blog about my Christmas fun! Tonight they are predicting that the rain will turn to a little snow. I sure hope so, as tomorrow I will take the new "toy" out to take some wintery pics. Thanks for letting me share.
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of my wonderful friends and family!