A Favorite

This year, we made a Christmas "to-do" list in the form of our Advent calendar. It was really a great way to be more intentional with our month! Now that I've gotten my feet wet with it, next year, I'll be ready with even more fun things!

One of the favorites this year was sleeping under the tree. Kristen really wanted in on this one so I scheduled it for a night when she didn't have plans. The kids were surprised when they opened the Advent calender that morning! They looked forward to it all day long! Once night finally came:

Kristen grabbed her laptop and put in "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Then they all went to sleep. It was so sweet to hear all the whispering and giggling. Good, sweet memories :)

The Rest of the Day

The gifting did not end on Christmas morning. There was more fun to be had! Russ and Judy come to our house on Christmas Day to have lunch with us and exchange gifts. I love that our Christmas Days are so laid back and relaxing. We usually need the rest!

To "get" these pictures, I have to give you a bit of background. Recently, during a visit with Russ and Judy, the conversation turned to food. It went from there to food we ate as kids that we absolutely HATED! Just for full disclosure, mine was/is oatmeal. I will not eat it and I think I may have sat at the table for quite a long time as a child because of my aversion ;) I have issues with food textures.

Anyway, Todd's "special" food was/is canned mixed vegetables. He hated it when that was served for dinner, so guess what his Christmas gift was?

 I love the look on his face in that first picture!

 Punk'd!

We all got a huge laugh out of it! That was, of course, just a prank and not his actual gift :) 

We all really enjoyed our time together.

 No, Kristen did not get a stuffed dog...she's just a good big sister helping Megan get that cutie out of it's packaging (what's the deal with packaging?!?) Kristen's gift was smaller! Mine was too! And we had so much fun spending them ;)

Russ and Judy, thanks for coming to our house and gifting us with your presence as well as presents :)

Christmas Day

Twas the night before Christmas...

Santa stuffs their stockings and brings each of our children one gift in addition to a basket (or two!) of "family" gifts; things like books, movies, and board games...things we all use or do together as a family. The kids are always very excited to see what gift Santa chose for them and they LOVE looking through the family baskets.

 Then each child takes a turn passing out the gifts they chose for their siblings and for Todd and me.

 There are so many hugs!

 Then the rest of the gifts are passed out and the gifting frenzy begins! Nick asked everyone he knew for the new Skylander Spiro game. I think he was a bit excited ;) Truly I think if that was all he got, he would have been just as happy!

 When Megan saw Nick's excitement, she was not to be outdone so the next gift she opened..a fuzzy blanket...got this response...

That kid cracks me up! Actually, the more authentic excitement happened over this:

And it's still her favorite a week and a half later!

Number one on Brandon's list was a chemistry set. He actually got two!

 Lucky guy :)

Kristen's favorite was an Express gift card. She's had a great time this week shopping with all her various gift cards! Yay for after Christmas sales!

After the opening frenzy, the kids started busting their new things out of the packaging:

I had whipped up a breakfast casserole the night before so as soon as the kids were awake I headed downstairs before they were allowed, put the casserole in the oven, poured two mugs of steaming coffee, and grabbed my camera. The casserole was finished just about the time all the gifts were opened making our morning very relaxing and low-key....just the way I like it!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is spent every year at my mom's house. We have a nice dinner, then head to the Christmas Eve service at our church, then back to Mom's to exchange gifts. It's a fun evening!

I had all kinds of trouble getting our Christmas card picture this year (to all my friends and family that visit here, thank you for your cards! I loved them and I'm sorry I didn't reciprocate. I already have a plan for next year so that doesn't happen again!) but right before we left for Mom's house, I snapped the perfect picture:

Now why didn't any of my earlier attempts turn out that good! Oh well, I'm glad I have that one :)

The evening was a flurry of fun:

 Brandon loves this game book! Great challenges!

 Megan's favorite of the night:

 She had that on her wish list and I new it would be the perfect gift to come from Grandma ;)

And here's another perfect gift! ;)

 More gifting...Sour Apples to Apples! Have you played that? It's awesome!

 Nick's favorite...can you tell?!

 This little robot thingy (which is named Willa, so appropriate since that is my late aunt's name and it's kind of crazy just like she was!) was a big hit!

 Apparently there's a learning curve figuring out how close you need to be for it to hear your voice ;)

It was a very fun evening and the perfect prelude to the main event of Christmas morning!

A Little More Party Fun

What happened around the dessert table...

 Meemaw Judy gave Brandon a handful of whipped cream...

 Then as he lifted it to his mouth for a nice big bite of sugary cream, she "helped" him a bit...

 Then this little guy decided a handful of whipped cream sounded good...

 So he got a bit of "help" too ;)

And STILL they perused the dessert table! 

The Beginning of Our Christmas Celebrations

Last Saturday, Todd's family had their family Christmas party! It's always a good time with a fun group of people that we don't see nearly enough. Food and Family! Oh, and presents! What a good combination, right?

Earlier this year, Russ and Judy had their porch enclosed. It's become the perfect hangout for family gatherings!

 We all gathered in the living room, though, for our gift exchange game.

 Everyone's eyeing a newly opened gift....

 because in this game, you can steal!

 These two came late, but don't worry, there was plenty of food! ;)

 This little (big?) guy made his way in the frame of my camera many times that evening :) Love that cutie!

 And there was a new little guy at the party this year! Aunt Carol and Uncle Wayne are great-grandparents! It was weird that someone else had the toddler and the party. For once, it wasn't us!

As always, it was a wonderful evening!