grace anne kepley

Catching Up is hard to do...

Wow! I've not blogged in a week and soo much has happened! I hope I can hit the highlights, not bore you, and manage to catch you up on the Kepleys happenings this past week!

To begin with I want you to know.. I love holidays and I love traditions. I have a hard time letting go of my traditions and accepting changes in the traditions I enjoyed as a young tot! That may seem somewhat selfish, but its even hard to let go of those after losing Mom. Luckily, my loving husband didn't grow up with annual traditions.. at least not to the extent I did and he doen;t wants that for Grace Anne. So, he and I agreed to start those traditions now, not next year or the next... so that is much needed info for explaining whats to come...
My Mom was quite the baker and always made candies and cookies among other things at Christmas time. I didn't get the head start Mom always had, but nonetheless I introduced Grace Anne to baking Christmas cookies! (She spent most of the time in her bouncy seat sleeping)

Christmas Eve is always the big day. As a kid I hated waiting until that night, but loved every moment of it once the festivities began. I am continuing the traditions that were established in my childhood. Mom would always fix finger foods and we opened our presents. See Santa only brought one big present on Christmas morning. All the other presents were exchanged Christmas Eve -- and that tradition continues. This year the Rigglets were the only present spectators. (we have people come watch us open presents.. does that tell you anything? I was an only child.. I was spoiled.. no lies) But, now they come to see Grace Anne. This year they even helped her open presents-- well lets be honest-- they took turns opening her presents for her! She got some neat toys that Mommy really liked shopping for... and she got a few new outfits -- of course.



Santa came to visit our house (we left him cookies). He brought Grace Anne a really cool UT Vols Rocking Chair. It's adoreable. Daddy had no idea what Santa was bringing and he was super excited for Grace Anne!



Christmas morning is always spent with the Riggs. For several years we have gone next door to see what the Riggs got from Santa and then watch them open the presents under the tree. This year was no different.. well with the exception of our newest addition. The rest of Christmas Day is laid back and no firm traditions are in place!
Typically we go to my family's farm for Christmas on the Saturday before Christmas. This year we had a conflict that made for justifiable "tradition-changing"... Kris' graduation. Growing up we always went on Christmas Day, right after Santa came! It was so hard to leave my toys and make that 4 1/2 drive to Hopkinsville, KY. I never wanted to put my kids through that and I'm very thankful we have changed that tradition.

We had a good time in Kentucky and even got to actually surprise Aunt Beth!! We showed up on Christmas night at about 9pm. She wasn't expecting us that early, but we wanted her to get a little extra time Grace Anne.

Grace Anne got lots of goodies for Christmas. Mommy and Daddy racked up as well. We are so thankful our family and wonderful friends. We wish everyone a happy new year!