The McMillins

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! We've had a nice couple of days together as a family. We've been able to relax a lot. Corey has been able to play his xbox 360 except he's had problems with it the past day. He called Microsoft yesterday and they are sending a box to us to ship it in. Hopefully they'll be able to fix it. It plays on a regular TV but when we try to play it on our new 62" HD TV, it won't stay in the HD setting. So, hopefully we can get it fixed so all of us can play it. :)

We got this TV about a month ago. We weren't planning on getting a TV but Gretchen saw an ad on craigeslist.com for this TV. The guy had bought it 4 months prior w/ a 4 year warranty but had measured wrong in his house. The TV was too big for his house. So, we got it for half the price that it cost him (including the stand). It was such a good deal, we couldn't pass it up. Plus, Corey works really hard to support his family.... he deserves to buy what he wants, which he basically does. lol Besides, he has the final say anyway. He IS the leader of our home.

We're not doing much tonight. New Year's isn't a huge event for us. It's just the beginning of another year that we've been blessed to still be here for. We hope all of you have a Happy New year! BE SAFE!

We had our first family Christmas together! Corey was scheduled to work but fortunately, his company decided to shut down for Christmas Eve AND Christmas. It was so nice to have him with us.

We had a lot of fun since this was the first year that Zach really "understands" that there is a Santa Claus. We did the usual leaving cookies and milk out for Santa Claus and of course Santa coming Christmas Eve night. We didn't want Zach to focus completely on presents. We want him to realize the most important gift that we were given.... Jesus! We sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus before we opened gifts and he really seemed to like that. He got kind of bored with the Christmas story but he's a pre-schooler.... that's to be expected.

All of us got spoiled for Christmas. Corey got Gretchen a KitchenAid electric mixer. It's VERY nice. You can add attachments to it. He also got Gretchen a new cell phone. It's a Treo Palm 700P. She got that early! :) Of course, Corey got his xbox 360 that he wanted along with the HD DVD player that goes with it. He got lots of games and movies to use on them. He also got a very nice dress watch that he wanted. Santa brought the family a Sony camcorder that has a 3 MP camera in it. Zach got some video games that he really enjoys (the V.Smile learning system and the Leapster handheld learning system). Santa also brought him some slippers, clothes and games to go with the videos. Plus, he got some videos that he wanted from other people in the family (Poppa Larry and Aunt Brandy, Uncle Russ and Kara).

We didn't really do much after opening gifts. Corey played his xbox 360 the entire day (between 7 & 8 hours). Gretchen kind of expected that so she played with Zach most of the day. She didn't feel 100% that day, so her and Zach took a nap. All in all, it was a nice relaxing day! We are so thankful that God has blessed us with the Christmas that we had. This was all possible because of God. Even if we had nothing, we are just thankful that God gave us his most precious gift.... Jesus. :)

We got our first pictures, as a family, taken together. It was rough. It took 1 1/2 hours to get some good pictures. The very first picture they took didn't turn out very well but that's what we had to go with for the big package. We plan on ordering other ones. It took forever to get a good smile from Zach. He just smiles too big most of the time.

Corey FINALLY has 4 days off this week. Just in time for Zach's Christmas play that he's in at school. It should be really cute. Don't worry... we're going to video tape it. He supposed to be a little shepherd. We have Corey's work Christmas party this week. It should be fun. We'll see how Zach does with a babysitter. :)

We're both REALLY excited about Christmas. Gretchen found out about the gift that Corey got her for Christmas so she already has it. She got a Palm Treo PDA cell phone. It's REALLY cool. It's palm pilot in combination with a cell phone. Plus, it has MS Word, Excel, and Powerpoint on it. It's VERY nice. Gretchen has SEVERAL gifts for Corey but we can't mention them on here until after Christmas. He doesn't know about them yet. ;)

We had our first Thanksgiving as a family and unfortunately, Corey had to work. However, Gretchen's parents were down for the weekend. Gretchen made everything herself for Thanksgiving. She was really trying to impress her parents. ;) It turned out pretty good. She made a stuffed Turkey, Ham, homemade baked macaroni and cheese, stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, a double layer pumpkin pie, a cheesecake, and a pumpkin roll. It was really good. Gretchen's parents loved it. We think they were impressed. lol

We celebrated Christmas with Gretchen's parents early. Her mom bought her a sewing machine. Now she can really be a homemaker. Hopefully, if she makes clothes, one arm won't be longer than the other. lol ;)

Gretchen was brave enough to go out on "Black Friday" shopping. She got up WAY before everyone else to make it to the stores. She got almost everything she was looking for. She finished Christmas shopping and even finished wrapping the gifts. AAAHHH... how good it feels to be done! :) Now, it's just time to finish baking.

Corey has been working so much lately. He's had to work so much overtime. We're hoping that will end soon, maybe even in a couple of weeks.