Christmas Morning

A couple of years ago, me and my brother and Ryder all started to stay at my parent's house on Christmas Eve.  We had all permanently moved out and this was just a fun time for us to all be together and it made it much simpler on Christmas morning!  

Ryder didn't wake up until about 8:30...and he did the sweetest thing!  He rolled over in bed and looked up at me and said, "Merry Christmas Mom!"  How did he remember that soon after waking up?  I don't even know if I had remembered it was Christmas morning yet!  I will never forget that special moment with my sweet boy!

Yes..KeeKee and Poppy got my crazy child a drum set!  But...he LOVES it, so it's ALL worth it!  =)

Sweet boy before waking up...

Santa did pretty good & brought him everything he asked for!  Which mainly included an accordion and shaving cream!  Hehe!

Getting new slippers has become a tradition and I think Santa will try and continue with it...it's just too much fun looking for new ones for him, and he just loves wearing them around the house!

We all had so much fun watching him dig through both of his stockings (Mama Santa and KeeKee and Poppy Santa...lucky dog!  ;) )  He got so excited about the littlest a things and just kept saying "Thank You!"  Warmed my heart!

I got some wonderful surprise gifts that I didn't know about which is always FUN!

My mom made this notepad (it really is bound like a real notepad you buy at the store) that is a form for me to leave with the teacher I am subbing for each day this semester.  I am so excited about this new adventure and know that it will just get me that much more ready and excited to have my own classroom soon and  VERY soon!  I can now say I graduate in less than a year!  WAHOO!  Mom even painted the back of the clipboard that the notepad goes onto in leopard print!  LOVE IT!  She did good!  Thanks mom!  =) There are some major perks to having a mom that works in the field you are going into...I should have started listening to her a LONG time ago!  ;)

Please laugh at the tacky "rudolph" sucker he has in mouth!  Kinda freaky lookin'...but he is GETTIN' IT on those drums!

& on his accordion...he LOVES it!

This is mom's beautiful sign we got her!  She recently re-did her kitchen in golds, blacks, old metal and turquoise!  Random bunch of colors I know...but they look GREAT together!  She has been wanting this sign for a while, and definitely needed it for a BIG open wall in her kitchen--I'll have to take a picture of it now hanging up because it looks FABULOUS!  We ordered it from Aimee Weaver Designs.  A very talented lady to work with that's for sure!

Loving his new cash register!  This isn't something he asked for, but I knew he would love it just as much as I did as a kid!  ;)

Using his new fancy tooth-bruth and getting ready to head to Christmas at Mimi & Pawpaw's!  I am sad to say, this is all the pictures I got for the day (including non of us together :( )  Luckily I got R back from his dad before the snow got TOO bad, but it was a close call!

Mom made a wonderful Christmas lunch for us, and we just enjoyed our time at home instead of going to the movies like we normally do...which was fine by me!

Such a fun and merry Christmas with my family--I loved every minute of it!  It's so hard to believe that it is all over with so quickly after all the effort that we seem to put into it!--But definitely worth it all!  =)

Christmas Eve @ Nana & Papaw's

We go to my mom's parent's every Christmas Eve.  We used to have some appetizers and then all eat chili...well over the years, we have all snacked so much nobody wanted any chili after the fact--so it kinda turned into a heavy appis and then chili if you want it to top it off!  ;)

We got there before Naynee & "her friends" so Ryder honestly didn't even know what to do with himself!  He just kept walking around like looking for something to do!  We kept telling him that they would be here soon!  He finally parked it on the couch and looked at the front window watching for them to pull into the driveway!  Ha!

Mom & I made some yummy brie bites...we have been wanting to make them for a while, & were finally glad we had a reason to!  They were super yummy & delish!

I made my annual duck poppers...YUM is all I can say!  Just wish I would have made more!  They were practically gone before they hit the table!

& look how cute these bags are!  This is my aunt & uncles organic farm...I LOVE their logo!  You can buy all sorts of yummy stuff from them at the Hillcrest Market on (most) Saturdays!  YUMM!

No telling what this crazy boy is thinking!  We had fun eating & decorating our annual sugar cookies!  Of course all R cared about was licking the icing!

Papaw read us The Christmas Story & then it was time for some Dirty Santa (with gift cards) which is always fun, and then present time!

We sure do love each other...can't ya tell!?  ;)

We had yet another wonderful Christmas Eve at Nana & Papaw's!  Always something I look forward to most!  =)

Christmas Church

I always look forward to Christmas Church service...it's literally what the whole "Christmas" thing is all about, but I think too often we forget that.  Without Jesus, there would be no Christmas, and without christmas there would be no Easter.  Think about it!  ;)  I'm thankful we get to celebrate that sweet baby's birth every year, but I pray that I never lose sight of the true meaning.

I wanted to take pics of R outside before we left...and he insisted I take one of him with the bow and arrow!  Ha!

Horrible cheesy grin...but will you PLEASE STOP GROWING UP!!  :(

Tried to snap a few selfies of us...because the pictures of the two of us are limited.  :/

And look who we ran into on our way to church!

We went to Taziki's for lunch afterwards...and we happy to have Uncle G join us!  Sad I didn't get any pics with Poppy!

Trip To The Shug!

This was our third year to take a little trip down to The Delta to visit some of our favorite people!  We always have spaghetti for dinner, and then go out to look at lights and get ice cream!--& that's exactly what we did this year!  It was super windy & cold this year, but R wanted his ice cream & of course Pooh delivered!  ;)

I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends I met in college that I still keep in touch with & am so thankful her family opens their home to not only me, but my little man as well!  =)

Sweet boy slept most of the way there thankfully!

We followed Pooh back to LR & ate lunch together before she did some Chrsitmas shopping & we headed home.  The trip was short & sweet but it is always very memorable!  I hope it continues for years to come!

Thank you Pooh for letting us come & visit you during our break!  =)

Pre-Christmas Fun!

Ryder had been looking forward to building our Gingerbread House since they day KeeKee gave it to us!  I kept telling him we had to wait until closer to Christmas!  When our advent calendar finally said it was time to make our GBH, he was so excited!  Well...we do these every year, & I must have done something wrong or different this year than usual!  I think we started adding candy before the house had fully dried and it didn't turn out too well.  But R still had fun, and I let him lick the icing from the bag and eat some of the candy instead!  ;)  {Great mom award, I know!}

Disaster...

A couple of nights before Christmas we mixed up some reindeer food for Santa's reindeer!  R loves doing this as well!

He pretty much did it all by himself!  & then we poured it all in a jar, to take over to KeeKee's with us on Christmas Eve to sprinkle on their front lawn!  

I love making sweet and precious memories like these with my precious baby boy!