Christmas is finally here…

Well another year has passed and we all survived the chaos of Christmas. Gung Gung and Nana came down for a couple of days and we were all able to spend some together. As the boys get older and everyone is working it does get harder to get everyone in the same house, much less the same room but we managed to do it to open some gifts, have some nice dinners and even watch a movie. Although, trying to get 6 people to agree on a movie is almost impossible with this group but we finally settled on The Meg, a good sci-fi flick about a megladon shark. 😃

Each year it gets harder, but with a lot of convincing and some patience we were able to get the boys to come out to help pick up the tree again this year. This was the only night Sam didn’t have something going on and/or Alex wasn’t working.

Santa just arrived with a lot of shopping bags this year as he found them to be much faster than wrapping. 😃

The fire is ready, but we are still trying to get everyone downstairs to begin the festivities. The boys used to be the first ones up and now are the hardest to get downstairs on Christmas morning.

Mom’s new pink tool kit was a surprise hit. Nana ended up getting one the next day too.

Sam finally gets his GPS and backup camera…. now to just get it installed. Dad had to make a special rig to install it in his car, but we still need to get the Geek Squad agents to hard wire it to power so it turns on when the car starts (Alex has the same set up in his car).

Alex with one of his 3 Arsenal Gunner tops, this one and another one are part of this year’s kit, while the cotton hoodie was from the Arsenal shop and the new 1812 collection. Alex certainly can pull off the European soccer look.

Sam’s been a little busy….

It’s been a little while since our last post, but everyone has been quite busy with work, school and of course, life in general over the last couple of months. Sam however has probably been the most busy of all of us. Below is just a little taste of what it’s like to be the socialite Sam Payne…. these are probably not posted in chronological order though. Alex has been just as busy, but nothing quite as fun. Alex finished up another semester at PCCC and has been working quite a few hours at Best Buy each week. Since Alex will be taking a pretty heavy workload next semester he has been working quite a few shifts this holiday season so that he can bank some money for next year. He has already told him that he wants to cut down to 15-20 hours (he’s been working over 30 hours almost every week since starting.

47575919_2084607361656523_1554562948930732032_o — Sam and a bunch of his friends from JPII went to the local senior center to sing Christmas carols.

47577872_2083181958465730_8076132692376158208_n — Sam and the JPII swim team have had 2 Swim Meets over the last month. Unfortunately, they have lost both meets as most of the swim team is new to competition, including Sam. They seem to be having a lot of fun though and of course, it’s great exercise. The only drawback…. 5:30am practice on Monday and Wednesday mornings

47579791_2083025705148022_1926610582526492672_n — JPII had a Ugly Sweater day at school – Sam actually looked pretty good in his ugly sweater. 😊

48355975_2084195121697747_2089068012555468800_n — JPII participated in the Annual Greenville Christmas Parade. You can see Sam here in his trademark Trapper Hat.

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