Christmas 2013

Can you believe Christmas has come and gone?  Neither can I!  I feel like I just put the tree up last week, only to take it down this afternoon.  It's always a little sad putting the tree away because it really means the season is over, and we are onto new things.

As for Christmas, our Christmas is pretty simple.  We have 2 gatherings.  We celebrate with my family on Christmas Eve and Aaron's family on Christmas Day.

Let's get to it, shall we?

Christmas Eve was really great this year.  I told Aaron that I would love to have a Christmas Eve like this every year.  Aaron had the whole day off on Christmas Eve.  We were done with all our wrapping, so there was no scrambling to wrap last minute gifts.  We just did what we wanted on our time.  After breakfast, we went to visit my Mema in her nursing home.  Then, we had lunch at Wendy's and got J a haircut before his nap.  A super relaxed day!!!

 

Christmas Eve this year was a little different.  My aunt and one of my cousins didn't come because of some strange circumstances.  It made for an unusual gathering with two major players missing, but it still was great.
Our Christmas Eve tradition is tamales.  My parents always go and get tamales and then my mom makes a meal around them.  This year we had tamales, chips and chili queso, rice, veggie enchiladas, and snickerdoodle bars. It was delicious.  My contribution each year is fudge.  I don't know when I started making fudge, but I have been making it for a LONG time!!!

Addi loves J and J loves Addi!!!

 Sweet Addi

 Owen and Jeremy

 RaRa and J

 Done opening gifts so time for dessert.

 One of J's gifts from RaRa and GPa- a slide

Addi took the only family pic of the night.  This was at 8:30.  J was not cooperating at this point because he was DONE!!!  As usual Christmas Eve was great!!!  I love my family and spending time with them.  We all just "get" each other, and it makes for a fun night.

Christmas Eve- After Dark

So now that we are parents, we get to do the really fun stuff on Christmas Eve night.  We become Santa's elves putting together toys!!! We were up until 2 am putting toys together.  In fact, the truck didn't get finished because it was so complex!!!  We ended up giving it to J on Dec. 26, so Daddy would have an extra night to work on the construction.  I definitely think I got the easier toy to assemble, which is a good thing because I am not mechanical AT ALL!!!

Christmas morning--

 Cars Race Car Garage

 

 My First Slide

 First set of "car" legos

 

Another tradition of mine is that I always take a dessert to our Christmas Day gathering.  I am not asked or expected to bring it.  I started this tradition back in 2007 and just haven't stopped.  It's something I look forward to doing and am always looking for a new dessert I haven't made before to take each year.

This year I made an Oreo Brownie Trifle using candy cane oreos.  It was so delicious!!!

 

Christmas Day with the Chandlers-- 

Before we start opening gifts each year, my mother-in-law always takes a photo of the crew.

 

 Aaron drew that Daredevil picture for Will.

 Yes, in the middle of all the chaos everyone stopped and took a nap.  Even Aaron and I laid down and slept for about 45 minutes.  I personally think it is torture for the kiddos to have to wait to open the rest of the presents, but I don't think Brooke minded!!

After naps, we finished up opening gifts, watched 2 episodes of Duck Dynasty, and played a game as a family.  I can't remember the name of it because I was too busy playing with J.  Then, we ate a second time before heading home.  It was a long but fun day!!!

 





And here' s a pic of J the day after Christmas with his truck.  It took Aaron another 2 hours on Christmas Day evening to get this bad boy put together.  Note to self, from now on, we might need to start assembling toys a few nights early so they are ready on Christmas morning.  Luckily, J didn't know the difference! Somehow, I think in coming years it might not work out as well though.  What do you think? 

All in all, we had a great Christmas.  J was so much fun this year.  He really could have cared less about most of his gifts.  It was usually the first one or two toys he opened that got him distracted and he wanted to play with them.  I think next year will be even more fun because I really think he will be more into the whole thing!!!

Until next year... Merry Christmas!!!