The Lunsford Family: Thanksgiving and Texas Christmas

One of the table settings

Homemade floral arrangement

My parents/Trey's parents table

Dining room

Closeup of a place setting, I had everyone's names on little leaves with Thanksgiving Bible verses on the underside!

Food table (minus the food) We used almost all of mom's Peter's/McCarty's pottery to serve on

We hosted our very first Thanksgiving in the new house and as a married couple actually this past November! We had my parents, sister and brother, Trey's mom, dad and sister and the Milcic's Trey's sister's boyfriend's family from Illinois. It was a ton of people, ton of food and alot of fun! We did a dinner instead of lunch (much to Trey's dismay) b/c leigh anne had to work. I had three tables of place settings and enough food to feed a small army. I was exhausted by the end of the day but was so happy we did it, although I may opt for Cracker Barrel next year!! Luckily I only had to cook a few items, we all chipped in and cooked pieces of the meal so no one was stuck with a large amount to cook! Mom, Tracy and I did the big Black Friday shopping trip and got up around 5:30 to get some deals. I did get myself a canon SLR camera that I have been waiting and saving to buy for months and a few christmas gifts. I finally finished up my semester last week and couldn't be happier!! My life has been consumed with school lately and have been feeling guilty that I haven't spent more time with Trey and Camden nor have I gotten very prepared for the new baby. I did end up with a B in my class and hopefully an A in my clinical making my overall gpa 3.6! I am very proud of that. I still have another year and a half to go though, so it will be a much longer road but the next few years but well worth the work I think!

My beautiful cousin Melissa on her wedding day

My family

Trey and I at the reception

The majority of the Cresswells at the reception (minus the bride's mother and father and my mom) See how pregnant I looked?? I felt like I took up half the picture!!

Dad, Walker and Cam at Cheesecake Factory enjoying my dad's ice cream!

Trey and I celebrated (briefly) our 5th wedding anniversary December 3rd. It's hard to believe where we are now compared to where we started. In 2005 I was a graphic designer in a dead end job and Trey was a professional baseball player on the disabled list. We had gone through career changes, lay offs, continued education, new jobs, financial strain, the birth of our first child, buying our second home, returning to graduate school and now preparing for yet another child! Whew, that makes me tired! I couldn't be happier with my family and all the things we have built together. Also, I celebrated my 31st birthday which seemed like a blip on the screen with all the things I had going on that week! I had clinical or work every single day plus shopping for christmas and studying for my final exam. The next weekend we traveled to B'ham, AL for my cousin Melissa's wedding. My sister and I were both bridesmaids. I wasn't extremely pumped about being a bridesmaid at 7.5 months pregnant, but I think that it ended up being fine. I hated that I was so big, but hopefully everyone understood! It was a sweet ceremony and fun weekend with bridesmaids luncheons, rehearsals, dinners and of course the wedding and reception! Camden and Walker had to stay with a babysitter in the hotel, and they must have scared her off b/c she backed out for night #2 and Mom and Trey had to take turns missing the wedding/reception so they both could come. All in all it was a great weekend and my family treated me to cheesecake factory on Sunday on the way out of town for my birthday. It was great!!

" Hey, Santa I want the big truck with all the cars in it"

The "North Pole" at Bass Pro shops

Hey, Mom can Santa bring me this for Christmas??

This past weekend we made the annual trek (10 hours) to Dallas then on to Brownwood, TX to visit with Trey's grandparents and spend a few days with them. We made it to Dallas on Thursday night and stayed in a hotel rather than with Trey's uncle Gene who was out of town which was interesting (we went for the cheap route, rather than luxury). We stopped in Dallas at the huge Bass Pro shop by the interstate to let Cam meet Santa. I was nervous he would chicken out like last year and cry, but he was so brave and sat in Santa's lap and even told him what he wanted! I couldn't have been a prouder mom! He was so sweet up there innocently asking Santa for " the big truck with all the cars in it" (that is all he keeps asking for) and smiling for a few pics. We then traveled to see great g'ma maylene and spent the day and night with them even taking Cam to his first movie Yogi Bear in 3-D! I was so amazed how well he did and when he finally was convinced him to put the 3-D glasses on he really got into and laughed and clapped and sat still in his Jo Jo's lap watching the movie intently! We then went to the other grandma's house the next day to open even more presents and ate, ate ate. While there we celebrated Trey's uncle Craige's 50th birthday (late) with a big party! Then we played Dirty Santa which was a fun change and twist to our usual Christmas gift exchange. We got up this morning at 6:00 am and drove straight back and did pretty well on time. We had a great time on our short trip and enjoyed visiting with this side of the family whom we usually only see once a year.