Whew!

Wow! It's been a while since I have written.  I regularly read the blogs I follow but haven't found the time to write my own lately.  I came home for Christmas break on December 10th and have been going, going, going ever since. 

On December 15th, I made a special day trip to Athens to surprise my good friend, Ashlee Culverhouse at her graduation lunch.  She graduated with a degree in photo journalism from UGA with honors. I was so proud of her! She is the BEST photographer and I feel so lucky to be friends with such a sweet person.
I met her and her family at Chops and Hops in Watkinsville.  Their burgers were delicious and the company was even better!

The next day, I returned to Valdosta to check on things at my house and to babysit for a new family.  I was particularly excited about this job because they have 2 girls and one of them is 6 months old.  I LOVE baby's and NEVER get to babysit girls! We had a ball! They were so sweet!  The next morning, I went to visit with my friend Amy, her husband, and little girl, Summer.  It was a quick visit, but fun!

Summer just went to Disney World! She didn't put Minnie down the whole time! So cute!

On the 22nd, we had our Connell Christmas with my mother's side of the family. It was held at my cousin, Tyler's house.  We had tons of food and presents. Tyler married this past fall and has two step children.  They are the center of attention now at family gatherings!  They rushed through dinner because they wanted to get to opening their presents.

Yes, this is my plate.  No, I didn't eat it all.  I wanted to b/c it was soo good!

Uncle David and older cousins opening presents.

I grabbed these books at Target for my grandma to give me.  I'm reading Kris Jenner's book right now.

 

CHRISTMAS EVE!

Every Christmas Eve, our bank has a "Christmas Eve Breakfast".  This year, because Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday, we had our breakfast on Friday morning.  This was my 8th year attending the breakfast. It's hard to believe I have been working at Planters First that long.  I am so thankful for such a wonderful job and co-workers.  I love that we have that time to spend together as a bank family on such an important day. 

Christmas Eve afternoon was super busy for me this year. I started off by swapping gifts with my sweet Hardy children.  Our Darlene has been keeping them since the oldest, Trae, was born. My brother and  I have become very close with them. They are like our own little brother and sister.  Darlene usually starts out at their house in the mornings and ends up at ours around lunch with them.  We wouldn't have it any other way!

Kate loves to take pictures on my phone. She is in the "sticking-out-her-tongue" phase. But she is still oh so cute!

My big "Trae-Trae" in front of the tree!

After leaving the Hardy's, I went to mama's to swap gifts with Cody's girlfriend, Taylor.  I gave her a note pad, ornament, and coin purse in the Vera Bradley pattern she collects.  She loved it!  She visited a while and mama gave her her gifts.

Around 3:00, Amy, Jared, and Summer came over to exchange presents.  I gave Summer a Little Mermaid vanity, 2 dvd's, and 1 outfit.  She showed up wearing an outfit I bought her this summer at the Bailey Boy's outlet in St. Simons. She looked precious!!

Isn't that outfit the cutest?!  It had matching red and white stripped leggings to go with it!

So precious!

She loved her vanity! Amy sent this to me Christmas morning.

At 6:00, we had Christmas Eve Communion service at our church in Perry, Grace Church.  We usually go with our mom to Christmas Eve service but I wish we had gone with our dad because we didn't sing 1 Christmas song! Not even Silent Night with candles! I was so mad!  I'm very routine so this kinda upset me.  We use to go to church in Cordele during my youth days.  We made life long friends there are are still invited to our friend's (the Turton's) Christmas Eve party every year.  So we headed to Cordele after church to have dinner with them.  It was so much fun to see all of our friends that we miss so much!  We had mexican dishes and a huge dessert bar.  I only took one picture, here it is...

Champagne

Chrismas will be a whole seperate post! Check back soon!