December 2009

December was a busy month for the Parhams!  We had a great Christmas-week of celebrating with all our families: 
Saturday, December 19 we celebrated with the Loftin family at my MIL Jaynie's house.  The entire Loftin clan was in attendance:  Jaynie & Randy Nesmith; Aunt Janice & Uncle Andy Wasden; Patrick, Jodi, Baylen, & Bowen Wasden (who are moving back home--yay!!); Allison Wasden & Hillary, Avery, & Little Jason; Uncle Jerry & Aunt Elaine; Lynley & Bennett Hipps; and of course, Allen & I!  What a crew!  We had a fun night with LOTS of good food (courtesy of our favorite chef, Chad Garrett!) 

Allen & Aunt Janice

Aunt Janice, Jaynie, & Uncle Jerry

Aunt Janice with her 2 grandsons

Sunday, December 20 we spent the afternoon celebrating with the Nesmiths: Jaynie & Randy, Randy's 3 girls Gege, Kim, & Connie plus their families, George & June Nesmith, & Karen & Jimmy Mitchem.
Wednesday, December 23 we had quite a crowd at our house (which I, of course, LOVE since I always seem to cook for an army anyway!!)    Allen's Aunt Ann and her husband Gary were here from D.C. and they brought Allen's grandmother up; Ann's cousin Bob flew in to visit them for a few days, so he was able to come over; Jaynie & Randy joined us for dinner, AND my mother, stepfather, and Mimi were in town staying with us for a couple days.  We were so lucky to be able to have a nice long visit with everyone that afternoon and then all have dinner together.  I love when we're able to get both Allen's family and my family together at the same time!

Thursday, December 24 (Christmas Eve) Allen and I had a VERY busy day!  In the morning we helped deliver Christmas presents to families in our community that our church helped through the "Empty Stocking" program which Allen helped organize for our church.  This is such a great program and it truly helps us to focus on what Christmas is really all about.  The generosity of people in our church and community was just amazing, and getting to help people who would otherwise not have had presents for their kids, or food for Christmas dinner...well, it really  puts things in perspective and makes you realize how blessed and how lucky we really are.  After we finished delivering presents, we went to Jaynie's (Allen's mom) house and spent a few hours with her, doing our Christmas present exchange (since we were all going out of town on Christmas day), then Allen & I drove to Columbus to my dad's house where we joined them and my sisters for cocktails and appetizers while we exchanged presents.  After that, we all went to our very good friends, the Fullers', house for their annual Christmas Eve dinner party.  John & Mallory Fuller have been great friends of my dad's for a really long time and they are really more like family to us!  As usual, it was a big, fun crowd and we all had a great time!

Allen & I

Jaque, Mallory, & Kelsey

Kaki, Anna, & Gabe (Anna's BF)

Me & Dad

Too many glasses of wine, Rick?? :)

 Mallory with two of her sisters, Marquette & Marissa

Friday, December 25 (Christmas Day!!)  Finally finished with all our various Christmas celebrations, so off on our Christmas trip to Quebec City, Canada!  Jaynie, Randy, Allen, & I left Christmas morning and flew from Atlanta to Newark, NJ, then from Newark to QC.  (Side note--on the first leg of the trip, I made sure to stick out the baby bump while we were standing in line to get on the plane & the very nice gate agent called us out of line and bumped us to 1st class!  yay!  Sadly, that trick only worked that one time, darn!)  We spent the next few days exploring the city, eating some GREAT food, and doing our best to keep WARM!!  It snowed almost every day we were there which was beautiful, but made walking around a little treacherous!!  I took tons of pictures, here are just a few:

HUGE chunks of ice floating down the St. Lawrence River

We stayed in a beautiful historic hotel, the Chateau Frontenac, which is located in the heart of Old Quebec.  It was originally built as a "Chateau" style hotel for the Canadian Pacific Railroad company.  We took a tour of the hotel, led by a guide in period costume, which was fun AND kept us out of the cold one afternoon :)  We also had high tea one afternoon in the Cafe de Terrace which overlooks the beautiful St. Lawrence River.  Here are a few pictures of the exterior of our hotel:

We also took a horse-drawn carriage ride around the city one afternoon which was fun, but very cold!

Randy & Jaynie, trying to stay warm on the ride!

Our horse and driver

On a side note, this is the SECOND Christmas trip that Jaynie & I have decided some sort of horse ride sounds like a really fun idea, and while it is fun, it turns out to be even more ridiculously cold than we realized it would be!  haha!  However, at least this time we were better dressed/ prepared than we were last year in Jackson Hole!