Merry Christmas

Well Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone. We had a very busy holiday season like most of you. We took the "Clark Griswold Express" down to Sumter, SC to spend the holidays with the Lyles family. It was so great to spend time with family and Finn loved all of the extra attention. 

I do have some sad news to pass along. While we were in SC, Mark's grandmother Mrs. Agnes Lyles, Grand M as she was called, passed away. She was 103 years old. One of nine children, she went on to have nine children of her own. Because of this fact alone, she should have had a street named after her or a holiday in her honor. Raising one child is hard enough . . .  but NINE! She was a wonderful and amazing lady who made such an impact on her family, friends, church, community and complete strangers--anyone who came in contact with her. She will be missed but we all take comfort in the fact that she has gone Home.

Finn and his great-grandmother Mrs. Agnes Lyles in September 2008

I didn't really take too many pictures over Christmas, believe it or not. Finn had such a big blow-out birthday party only a few days earlier that we decided to have a very low-key Christmas. Mark and I just enjoyed watching Finn experience Christmas and more importantly being surrounded by his family. He's a very lucky little boy to have so many people that love him and want to spend time with him. Oh, and he did open plenty of presents, but seemed more interested in playing in the dishwasher than playing with his new toys.