Christmas 2009

It is hard to believe that this was our THIRD Christmas as a married couple. Time flies so fast. I remember last Christmas saying next year will be different….next year we will celebrate the birth of Christ with our child. We will start new traditions and tell him or her how much they are loved, not only by us and our extended family and friends, but by the tiny baby that was born in a manger so long ago. But that was not God’s plan for us in 2009. We pray that Christmas 2010 will be different.

During the Advent I really sympathized with Elizabeth and Zechariah. How they long for a child so badly and prayed and prayed for the Lord to give them a child. God answered their prayers with a son. He was to be named John. John was to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus, as it says in Luke 1:17 “He will go before the Lord…..to make ready a people prepared for the Lord”. Elizabeth and Zechariah had an incredible responsibility to raise their son whose sole purpose in life was to point others to Christ. It is our prayer that one day we will have that responsibility too and pray we will fulfill the role as God has planned, that our child will also point others to Christ.

This year we enjoyed the family that we do have. Everyone gathered again at Mom and Dad’s house on Christmas Eve. This year we had one missing. Benny Bean (our brother-in-law, Scott’s dad) lost his battle with lung cancer this year. It is so hard to believe that last year he was here with all of us…..his big happy smile….watching the kids getting so excited about the boxes under the tree. He was healthy and then one month later diagnosed with lung cancer and went to be with Jesus in September. We missed Benny this year. He will always be with us in our hearts.
There were some new additions this year. Scott’s Aunt Benda was with us. And Paul’s Aunt Wanda, Uncle Jimmy and Cousin Mike and his wife Shannon. And my Pawpaw Bates spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us. Sophie is particularly fond of Pawpaw so she was glad to see him.

One tradition we have is that Mom loves to give everyone matching pajamas….EVERYONE…this year that even included the dogs. Here is a picture of all the ladies in their matching PJs….including Sophie, even though it is hard to see hers under all that hair.

Mom got the girls something that matched their pajamas too.

Wonder where Lori is going to store these monsters? But the girls love them!! I hope one day we will get to go meet the real Mickey and Minnie in Disney World with them.

The adults had the best time and stayed up late playing games in our matching pajamas. Mike and Shannon won the trophy this year. They are the King and Queen of board games. We played several rounds including Pictionary, Taboo and Cranium. But Mike and Shannon definitely dominated and the trophy went home to Tennessee.

Serious game of Pictionary

We had our traditional Christmas Breakfast, which was wonderful and then hung out a little more until it was time to say goodbye to the Greene’s.

Then we did Christmas presents with our parents. There was one present we have been waiting on for days. It was a special gift from all of us to my dad. Even though I went to UA and we are all big Bama fans….my dad grew up in Tennessee and has always been a big Vols fan. My brother and I grew up going to games in Knoxville with him. We still enjoy traveling there for an occasional Bama vs. Tenn game in the fall. It is such a beautiful campus. Well for the last few years Tennessee has had a player that has been special to all of us. He is senior this year and we have really enjoyed watching him play. His name is Wes Brown. For any of you that do not know in 1996 my only brother, William Weston “Wes” Brown was killed in a car accident. So this player had special meaning to all of us. Every time his name was announced after a big play we would all smile. And surprisingly he is from our same hometown. So for several weeks we worked on finding him. His family has moved to Tennessee and mom was finally able to get in touch with his SWEET, SWEET momma. We asked if he would mind signing a photo for my dad for Christmas and she said he would be glad to, but it wasn’t going to be easy because Wes would not be home until December 22nd. So we mailed them the photo with return postage for next day air….but when the photo arrived they ran into a problem. The texture of the photo was so glossy that no pen would stick to it….they tried everything. Mrs. Brown called to tell us what happened and said that Wes had an idea and he hoped we would like it. Mom told her whatever it was he would be thrilled. So we couldn’t wait for it to get here. It was the most unbelievable surprise. My dad was so happy Christmas morning to open an autographed game jersey worn by Wes Brown of the Tennessee Volunteers.

I still can’t get over this young man and his family going through so much trouble to make Christmas so special for complete strangers. When mom called to thank them, Mrs. Brown told her someone wanted to talk to her and put Wes on the phone. He was such a nice young man. “Yes mam” and “No mam.” And when mom cried and told him how much this was going to mean to all of us he said “Mam, it’s just an old beat up jersey.” But it is much more than that…it was the best Christmas present we have ever given my dad. He loves it and is so proud of it. Thank you Browns! You are a very kind family and we pray for nothing but the best for Wes both on and off the field. I know he is going to accomplish great things.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families! Hug them tight! Christmas 2010 will be here before you know it.