Clara's favorite part of opening gifts is the tissue paper.....yummy!
Papa Dave helping Christian open up his bag full of gifts!
Taffy and Papa Dave always manage to get a "yucky" Christmas present every year. One year the kids got a poopin' moose and this year they got gross balls filled with little roaches or rats...YUCK!! The kids thought they were neat though as you can tell by the look on Cullen's face.
Here is a pic of Clara in the cute PJs Taffy got her.
The boys got these neat riding carts from Taffy and Papa. Clara gave them a whirl and loved them just as much too. I have video of the grownups and Clara having a blast on them. I will have to get it uploaded soon. Just watch the video links at the upper right corner of the blog.
The next stop was Meemaw and Pawpaw's for our traditional Christmas. We have been having Christmas the same way for as long as I can remember. When I was young we celebrated Christmas by spending Christmas Eve at my grandparents house (GG's house; my dad's (pawpaw) mom & dad). We would wait forever to open our PJ's for Christmas Eve and that was the only present we could open up before Christmas morning. We would then play cards, eat, hang out, and enjoy families together. Christmas morning, up bright and early, we would wait to be surprised at our "walk out" to see what was left under the tree for us. We focused a bit more on Santa as kids but we just have it as surprises and do not do Santa now. We want the focus to be on Christ's birth and the life He gave for us. So no Santa photos here.....sorry! =) We would rush out and there would be a blur of wrapping paper, oohs, awws, and excitement filled the air. It is very much like that today but we now spend the night at my parents house. We play cards and open our Christmas PJs like all the years before and I pray many more to come. The difference was that PJ time came late this year as the newly married couple, Matt & Candy, have many Christmases and arrived after midnight. Clara could not wait that long and got her own special time to open her PJ package. Here is my treasure sporting her Christmas PJs.
Here Clara is cuddled up and goofing off with Pawpaw as usual. Does she look like she is ready for bed?? She ended up waking back up later that night and hanging out with us for quite a while.
I hate that Clara went to bed early and missed the group open of PJs. Here we are in ours....yes the grown kids still get their PJs and we VERY HAPPILY look forward to it each year!! Who doesn't want new PJs?? 
We played our usual cards and had a blast. Pawpaw changed things up this year and made 2 different tables. We had a tournament of sorts. We played golf. The winners of one table moved to the next and had a play off. Here is a shot of all of us playing cards. The next shot is of Cullen as the winner of the award for the Double Loser (notice the 2 L's on his forehead). He lost at the loser's table.....=) Cullen is quite like his daddy and can be quite cocky while playing cards....it bit him in the butt this time. =) It was a BLAST!! Time you can never have again!
By the way...I belong at this table too. Somebody has to take the pictures!
Then, we all went to bed way too late...something like 1 I think. Candy and Matt made it safe and sound. The kids cannnot see the living/dining room presents until the "walk-in" so they are protected away from there until time to walk in. Here is a shot of Clara's first "walk-in" with the boys!!
This was Clara's stocking present. She picked it out herself at the store but don't remind her...=)
The big present this year was a laptop. We needed one (wanted one) for the schoolroom. The boys have other ideas for it but I really could use it in the schoolroom. So now we finally have our schoolroom and a computer in there to top it off. God is good!!
I have the sweetest boys God ever made. They went to a football game with Meemaw and Pawpaw and Uncle Jerry. They did some Christmas shopping after the game. The boys wanted to pick something out just for Clara. They picked out a GREAT hippo ball pit! Clara just LOVES it!! They are so thoughtful and caring and it does not hurt that they are head over hills in love with their sister!! Makes my heart feel great!!
My Cullen already eating his stocking candy before it is over....that is my boy!
After playing with Clara inside we moved the hippo and balls outside and watched a great game fo Christmas football!!
We put Clara's stocking stuffer together and brought it out for her. She got the hang of it pretty good. It has a place up front for her to carry her babies. 
Here is a picture of the spread before it got demolished!!
Okay...after this post I realize I take WAY TOO MANY pictures but I cannot stop myself. I just LOVE to take them. I wish I would have taken more when the boys were little. We spent some time New Year's Eve at mom and dad's (Meemaw & Pawpaw) playing cards and looking at old photos. Life is just a glimpse, a whisp of time that passes so quickly. I like to document each moment on film. Here are a few more shots then I am quitting on this post. I hope to post sooner next time. 
Okay, okay....one more picture. But I did not take this one. I stole it from my new sister-in-law, Candy. I use the term "new" loosely because Candy has been around as long as Clay and I have been married if not longer. But it was so nice to have her at Christmas morning with us and she actually spent the night at mom and dad's and as she put it in her blog....got to sleep in the same bed as Matt finally! See....being married is a good thing! Okay, I could not resist stealing this picture and sharing it with you guys. (Don't worry, Candy steals my pics often too). Candy got a new camera for Christmas and is now a picture-taking-fool like I am. When you have a good camera it is very difficult not to see life in little snapshots that can be saved forever. Okay, get ready...How cute is this?? My Treasure and the best hubby ever!! God is GREAT!!
Thursday the boat got way too rough and we ended up leaving dinner early and went back to the room. I was so scared I was going to be seasick this whole trip. This is a much older boat with less stability technology I guess but most of the trip was great weather and we still rocked, swayed, and stumbled our way around ship. 
This is a view of our ship alongside another Carnival boat.
Cozumel made our trip again! We did not plan on doing an excursion because we have done most of it before. Last time we had the kids with us and were unable to do some of the snorkeling b/c they wouldn't allow kids under a certain age. Our kids swim better than most adults and we knew this but you cannot explain that to people and I don't blame them for being cautious. We ended up doing an underwater 
After our day in Cozumel ended...all too soon....we took the easy way out and rode in these little bikes.
This is the sunset on the way back. Magnificent!
This is the boat we wish we would have been getting back on!! Royal Caribbean!! 
NOTE to readers****I tried to make this post as clear as possible. I am trying to blog, cook dinner, and was watching Clara all at the same time....my mind just cannot multitask well.
Papa Dave and Taffy have a 2-story house with a balcony on the 2nd floor. The "big" kids were playing with Clara from above. She thought it was too funny.
Here are some shots of the "3 Pierce's". Jampaw is named Pierce Joseph, then we have Pierce David, and then we have our own Cullen Pierce. All of our children have names after their grandparents. Christian's middle name is Bo (not my grandfather's "official" name but what we all called him and knew him by) after my dad's dad. He passed away a month and a day after Christian was born from colon cancer. He was a great father that provided well for his family and raised a great son, if I say so myself. (I LOVE my daddy!!). Then Cullen Pierce was named after Jampaw (Clay's grandfather). He also was a great provider and loving father. Clara is named after my mom's mom. She was a wonderful Christian woman and loved everyone. She was a strong, caring person that wanted to help others. One day I will try and post pictures of them too. 
This is Katelyn with her new baby brother, Pierce. Katelyn is the daughter of Clay's brother, Clint. She is a wonderful cousin and it is topped off that she lives down the street so they kids can play together whenever they want. =)
We were able to get a shot of all the grandkids together for Taffy and Papa Dave. The process was not easy with a 2-month old, a 1-year old and 3 restless kids ready to get down and go play.
We then went to my mom and dad's for the latter part of the day. The whole day consisted of way too much good food and too much football watching....=( We did play a hand of cards and guess who won??? You guessed....me. =) I had to throw that in. Here are some pics of us playing cards around the table.
This is Matt, Jerry (my dad's brother), and GG. GG is THE card player!! I learned from the best.
Okay...not the best pic of my folks but I could not leave them out. By this time they were sick of me snapping pictures!! I couldn't help it....Candy was doing it too!!
Prior to the Thanksgiving gatherings I tried to find a good food craft for the kids and Katelyn to help me with. I picked a cute one but looking back....not too kid friendly. We picked cake pops which were YUMMY but they were decorated as turkeys. Great idea!! The faces were pretty easy and the kids did wonderful with them. Take a Skittle stick on a Nerds beak and a leaf-shaped sprinkle for the waddle and wallah...(sp) a turkey face. That was easy. It was even easy to get it stuck to the cake ball with chocolate. Then......the turkey feathers (candy corn). This was too hard for the kids to do and very time consuming. I ended up with a tone of cake balls with faces and no feathers. I was in the kitchen by myself for quite some time sticking those little candy corns on those turkey butts.....urrgh. I do think they turned out cute though. Although many cake balls got eaten before they became the beautiful feathered turkeys they were meant to be......ha ha!
These are the Fall cupcakes I made also. The acorn on top is made from caramel and the leaf is chocolate plastic. They are chocolate chip peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate ganache buttercream. The boys made (well, Christian) most of the acorns for on top. They were easy and looked so much like realy acorns it was kind of scary.
Clara loves the cat and he had hopped on the back of the bench...too much for her to stay focused on Clay and I. 
And this one is my favorite!!
