Purcell Family Christmas 2012

This past Saturday we had the Purcell Family Christmas at Gale and Martha's house. It was a smaller crowd this year and we missed everyone that could not be with us, but we still had a great time. Before the kids began to scatter around the house, we got a cousin picture.

Corey and Maddie arrived after we took the picture. Maddie still has her touch with little kids.

Emily loved holding Benjamin, and she asked a few times during the day to do so. I see a future babysitter, Sherry.

As always, the company was great, Gale and Martha's home was beautifully decorated, and the food was plentiful and delicious. 

Martha had stockings for everyone in the Purcell family, which is a lot of people.

She creatively decorated the downstairs tree with pictures of the family over the years. She scanned old pictures (yes, before digital cameras), and it turned out great!

Here are some fun pictures of family that we missed. Though they could not be with us in person, we managed to Skype with all of them...21st Century Christmas.

I'm not sure when this picture of Hap and Elizabeth was taken, but I think it was before I started attending the Purcell Christmas in 2006.

Sam and Emily's 2nd Christmas

Uncle Ed always wears his Christmas sweater, and this year he got new green socks!

Luke did a great job with all of the kids, as usual.

Jackson played us some tunes.

Caleb was very interested in conversation with Brian and Valerie

We played a new gift game this year. There was a lot of 'who has ever' and present stealing going on.

This little guy loves to be cuddled by his grandma.

We were pretty excited to get this cool gift. Everyone needs toe tunes...

But it was a gag box, and it really had one million dollars inside, which was great too!

Ron and Kurt had a good arm wrestling match going on. Ron won, and you can see from his face he was pretty happy about the pain he was inflicting on Kurt.

Eveyone had a great time.

And we even got a Purcell sibling picture.

We had a great time and were so glad we could celebrate an early Christmas with everyone!

Caleb's First Haircut

Caleb got his first haircut earlier this week. It was getting pretty scraggly the last couple of months, but I wanted to hold onto his long baby hair. We are in Illinois this week visiting Nathan's family for Christmas, so we made him an appointment at a place where Nathan used to get his hair cut.

The woman that cut his hair did a great job. She entertained Caleb with a comb, candy cane, and an iPad with dancing elves. Caleb was such a good boy, and he sat contently the entire time and let her cut away.

We love his new haircut, and think he looks so handsome with his new do.

Our last week in Virginia

During our last week in town, we saw some friends, visited places we enjoy, and packed a lot. In preparation for our posting overseas, we moved out of our home and are renting a temporary place until we depart. As I was packing, I many memories came to mind, and I wanted to write about some of the things we have enjoyed and will miss.

Last Sunday we attended our last young couple's class. We joined the group in January of last year, and since then have had wonderful experiences because of the teaching and the people we have met. We are fortunate to be able to attend one of the church satellite campuses, and we are looking forward to meeting more new people, but we will miss this group and will look forward to seeing them again one day. Later that week, I attended the womens' group brunch. I joined this bible study when I was home with Caleb, and I was thankful to hop back into the group for the last few weeks after Ben was born. Through this group, I met some really great women who have become friends and encouragers. I wish I had gotten to know some of these ladies sooner, and I am thankful for the friendships gained and times that we shared.

One of my favorite places to visit in town is a local coffee shop. Over the past couple of months, I went almost every week (sometimes more often) to relax with Nathan and read, meet up with friends, or work on my computer...and of course drink coffee and eat delicious cupcakes! I will miss our local coffee shop and the people that I met because it was there.

Later in the week, Ben and I stopped by to see Mackenzie, Delaney, Zoey, and Tara. They have a beautiful Christmas tree in their living room, which I was admiring since we did not put one up this year because of our move. It is always nice to hang out with the girls, and for them to cuddle with the boys. We have known them for almost 6 years now, and we love watching the girls grow up and being a part of their lives. We won't see them as often once we move, but we know we will see them over the next few months.

Caleb's favorite playground is at a grade school near his daycare. He likes to run around in the open space, and play on the different slides and swings.

We played till dark, which was not that late this time of year. It was a beautiful sunset, the picture does not give the sky the justice it deserved.

By Thursday, our house was practically empty, like the day we moved in over 2 years ago. It was sad to see things packed up. We have had so many wonderful experiences and memories as a family in our home. It was the first home Nathan and I bought together, the place we expanded our family, and a place that we had many relaxing days and nights. Nathan did a lot of projects around our home, my favorite is our deck, that we enjoyed many evenings together. I asked Nathan the other night at dinner what some of his favorite memories of our home were, and he said being outside with Caleb when he was learning to walk, and letting him explore. Caleb did a lot of exploring around our home. He may be too young to remember it, but we have lots of pictures to show him one day. 

I must give tremendous credit to Nathan for getting us packed up. He is a packing machine, so well organized, and quite efficient. This may be the easiest moving job our movers will have had in a while!

While living here we have had some wonderful neighbors, turned friends. This is our neighbor across the street, Michelle. We will miss our neighbors and look forward to hopefully seeing them when we return in a few years!

Here are some pictures of the boys just hanging out. Ben keeps a close eye on his big brother!

Caleb is a very sweet big brother and he loves kissing Ben on the head:).

This cool dude learned how to put sunglasses on...

One of my favorite memories of our home is watching Nathan and Caleb play together. It is ritual that after dinner, they rough house and tickle for a while before Caleb's bath.

And this little guy is sweet as ever and growing fast! The day before we moved, my friend Sonny came over to visit and meet Ben.

On Saturday, my good friend Heidi came over to hang out with Caleb while the movers were here, and she is babysitting our cat, Twix for the next couple of weeks while we are out of town. She and Caleb had a fun morning together, and we really appreciate all of her help and for being such a great friend.

We are sad to leave, but excited about the places we will go and people we will be meeting!