We had a wonderful Christmas and it was all the more exciting with extra family members this year! Of course, H spent Christmas with us and got to participate in all the family Christmas traditions. In addition, Onni, Grace, and Murphy came for Christmas this year. We do lunch with my dad's side of the family on Christmas Eve. So, Uncle Pete and Aunt Linda came down and spent most of the afternoon with us. We then went to the Christmas Even service at church. It's my favorite because it's all music - our pianist and organist play as well as a trumpet player. AMAZING. Then, we came home and enjoyed snack foods with my mom's family. It was very relaxed and fun to eat and chat.
Several years ago, my mom started buying all of us (including my parents) matching pajamas for Christmas Eve. So, of course, that tradition had to continue this year! She passed out the 9 sets of pajamas and we all changed for a family picture...
Onni was truly mortified, but I love it!!
My parents had to wake everyone up Christmas morning at 8am (including my 4-year-old nephew!) to make sure we had time to open presents before breakfast. Here is the tree with the presents before we came and tore it all up!
Murphy had to finish waking up, so he wasn't exactly happy to see everything. In fact, when he saw the dinosaur he said, "I don't want it." We were all shocked but knew better than to laugh because he would get angry. No worries, he definitely came around and got really excited with every gift he opened. It was fun to watch (and listen). My grandparents and our neighbor came over for breakfast, and after that, we just chilled for part of the day.
After H and I got the car loaded, we came home to get ready for Christmas dinner at my aunt's house. We had lots of time, so we laid in the den and took power naps while watching tv. Then, we headed over to Aunt Carla's house. We ate dinner, swapped gifts, ate dessert, and just hung out.
He's so cute, I could just eat him up! He was showing me his game on his new Leapster. It was incredible what that thing will teach kids - I highly recommend it after watching him play and learn! He loved it and I loved that he climbed up into his "Aunt Awesome's lap" and played with me.
We have a family tradition of listening to my Grandpa read a poem called Tippy Toe and Pitty Pat. Precious, and definitely a favorite memory of mine from Christmas.
Those who don't know, my Aunt Michele was my mom's younger sister and she was killed in a car accident almost 18 years ago. My mom made this quilt for my grandparents out of her t-shirts. It was a sweet moment for our family.
Is he not the cutest?! He just laid there and watched those for a good five minutes!
And here is ALL of us: Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Bill and Aunt Carla, Russ and Keegan, Mandy, Zach, and Michele, Mom and Dad, Onni, Grace, and Murphy, me, Kristen, Heather, and Andrew. (And special thanks for Thomas for taking the picture!) We think this may be the first time we've had a picture of ALL of us together. 3 live in Katy, TX; 2 in Decatur, GA; 1 now in Huntsville, AL; 1 in Auburn, AL; and the rest of us are here in Marietta. We thoroughly enjoyed our time together - it was definitely a Christmas to remember.
The day after Christmas, we made Christmas cookies (yes, it was the day after on purpose because we wanted to make them with Murphy).
Here we are proudly displaying some of our cookies! Almost ready to go in the oven...
Murphy was hilarious with the cookie cutters. He'd pick one and then just plop in onto the dough and push it down. We were trying to cut out as many as possible between balling the dough up and rolling it back out, but we weren't too successful with his method.
Adding sprinkles for some more fun on the cookies!
And then he got bored... PRECIOUS!!!!
So, that was our Christmas in a nutshell (well, sort of, sorry for the long post). It was great overall and I had a blast. I love my family and love the time we get to spend together without interruptions. It was SO nice to spend Christmas with Onni, Grace, and Murphy as well. And I'll leave you with one last picture...
1 comment:
It looks like y'all had sooo much fun! I loved all the pictures! Hope to see you SOON!
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