Christmas Eve on the Farm

Last year Chris and I decided that we didn't want to travel on Christmas day anymore. It became so tiresome getting up opening our gifts at home then driving to Hephzibah to visit my Dad and Mama Hancock then driving all the way back for the evening with my Mom and if we were in North Carolina we were house jumping there too. We realized that we dreaded Christmas day and considering it's the most important day of the year we decided to reevaluate how we spent it. My brother and I spent Christmas being shuffled between houses too and lets face it when you're a kid you want to wake up open presents and play with them all day. We never got to do that as kids and I want to make sure Ivy gets to have fun playing with her new gifts on Christmas and spend the day focusing on whats really important - Family and Jesus.

We have made our own tradition now of getting up early on Christmas Eve and going to spend the day with my Dad, Deb, and Mama Hancock. Chris made a delicious Jambalaya the night before and we took it to Dad's and warmed it up in the Crock pot. It was very delicious and I've never seen my Dad enjoy a meal so much! The pot was about to run over because we made a double recipe and it was almost empty after we ate (Seriously I think my Dad had 8 bowls)! We gave Dad and Deb a car seat for Ivy and they were ecstatic about it! We also made a DVD of Ivy's first year from birth to birthday they loved that too!

After Ivy had opened all her presents from Paw Paw and Nana Hannah (Deb - that name is another whole story I'll save for later) we roamed around the farm. It's 200 acres of pure bliss. God I LOVE that place. It's so peaceful and I feel so relaxed out there. I'm very lucky to have gotten the chance to live out there and help my Papa do work on it when I was young...I only hope that Ivy enjoys it as much as me one day! She was so funny walking around, I bet she tripped and fell 50 times and each time she would say "Oooooo Man!" then stand up and brush off her hands and turn around and wave them at me and say "Ivy OK!" and then keep trucking along. It was the cutest!

Here are a few pictures from the day. The first 3 and the very last one are in a new format Chris has been playing with called HDR (no I don't know what that stands for) that's why they kinda look like they are glowing. I love them!


One of the roads on the farm. This makes me feel like a little girl again!

Dad and his beloved dog Hatten. I've never seen a man love his dog so much and this is Hatten's favorite place to stand.


Ivy playing peekaboo with the cows. She is so cute!


Giving Hatten kisses. She loves him so much and bless his heart he's so old he can't get away from her.


Petting her new buddy Hatten.


Ivy on the hay all by herself such a big girl...don't worry I was very close by.


Me and Dad playing in the hay like little kids with Ivy.


Driving the tracker with Paw Paw.


She was so proud of herself driving the tractor with Paw Paw.


I had to post this picture last because it is my favorite of the day. This is Ivy walking with Mama Hancock (her Great Grandma) down to the hay field. If you don't know Mama Hancock then you should know that she has probably had the most profound impact on me as a person. I get teary eyed just thinking about her because I love her so much. When I turned around and saw Ivy holding her hand (with out being told to or coached) I started crying. I asked Chris to snap a quick picture before they noticed me looking at them. I feel so blessed to have had her in my life and I love to watch her do the same things with Ivy that she did with me. Now the field we were walking through has lots of ant beds in it sometimes built a foot high. We quickly taught Ivy that these were "Bad" and that she should stay away from them. I had turned around to check on them because with Mama Hancock being 84 and Ivy being 2 I didn't want to get too far ahead of them. But as they were walking Ivy kept pointing to the ant beds and looking up at Mama Hancock and saying "Bad!" then she would help Mama Hancock walk around them. It melted my heart!