We started decorating early, as in before Thanksgiving early, so we had all of the decorations out and ready to be put up. This really is my favorite time of year! I love to see the tree lit up every evening and it just seems like there isn't enough time to enjoy it.
Of course our elves Joseph and Josie made their yearly appearance so Cash broke out their book to show Emma. She just adores him and its so fun to watch them together.
Cash wanted a tree put up for him and Emma upstairs...so I put up our old, leaning, tree. Its definitely a Charlie Brown tree...but he loved it. He helped me decorate it from start to finish.
I finally found the swag I wanted for the door..at Target of all places...but I love it as its so simple ...perfect! When Arianna and I had our annual Black Friday outing we found these reindeer at Walmart...and to say that I had a hard time putting them together is somewhat of an understatement. I ended up taking one back as I thought it had a missing a piece but of course it didn't... I just had no idea what I was doing! I did get them both up and running and they turned out super cute.
Ben had a gig at the Marriott the night they lit the tree so I wanted to take the kids. Emma loved all the lights but she wasn't so crazy about seeing Santa!!
Ben took Cash over the Blanco State Park to camp...so my dad and I drove over with Emma to meet them. Blanco has an annual lighting of the Courthouse and a visit with Santa. It was so beautiful!!!! Cash got to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas...which of course was a black lab.....and we know how that turned out..yes he got one and she is now at my parents..with her sister.
These pics were taken at Guadalupe State Park as that was their next stop after Blanco.
While out doing some Christmas shopping we came across this Minnie of which Emma just had to have!! There was no getting around it....she is obsessed with Minnie.
Yvonne and her family had their annual Christmas party which was so fun!!!! We didn't leave until 10ish that night and had a great time! I love seeing all of the girls!!
For the last couple of years I have had a gift for Cash, and now Emma, to open for Christmas Eve...can't remember where I saw this idea but just fell in love with it. Wish I had seen it when Cash was younger but glad we have the tradition now. They get a pair of Christmas pi's, candy, a movie or for E a toy. Just a few things to enjoy as they prepare for the big morning!
Andy and Cheryl came over so we could exchange gifts and enjoy some Christmas festivities together! They were way to good to us and spoiled the kids rotten!!
All I wanted for Christmas was this chair for our master from Haverty's. So of course Ben came through and had Andy and Cheryl bring it that evening! I was pleasantly surprised and just love it!!!!!
Cookies put out for Santa, kids in bed, cookies and milk consumed and now ready for Santa to deliver the loot! I will skip over the dog drama from that evening since, as noted above, she is now at my parents house with her sister..where she should be. All I will say is..yet again...the dog thing didn't work out. Even with all my determination its just not meant to be right now. I told Ben as we laid in bed trying to decide on when we should put the gifts out that this Santa crap is just that crap! SO much work and we have at least 6 more years..thats at a minimum...as Emma could go to 8 like Cash if she doesn't suspect that we are Santa.
We finally decided to set our alarm for 4 as we just never knew, with all of Cash's excitement, when he would decide to get up. Ugh...the anxiety!!!!!! Well we got up at 4, started taking the gifts out, setting everything up as quickly as possible...with our hearts beating uncontrollably.....just waiting for Cash to run out. So....back to the dog for a moment...the puppy was in her kennel in the living room, and of course as we went to get back in bed as if we had never gotten out of bed, she began to yelp...which of course woke Cash up. I had to run in there to get her to calm down and out came Cash. Thank goodness our sweet little boy doesn't have the common sense he will need later in life because he bought that Santa placed her in the living room and I heard her yelp and got up just like him! He was so excited! While we were putting out gifts Ben saw one of the fireplace doors open a little and a toy sitting in front of it that Emma left there. He said I should move it so that Cash would't think it was weird that Santa wouldn't have knocked the toy off when coming out of the fireplace. I told him he wouldn't even notice as he just doesn't think of things like that but I moved it anyway and left the fireplace door open a little as it was...well Cash did notice that and thought it was proof that Santa is real! Score 1 for mommy and daddy!!!!!
Emma woke up a bit later and they both just had a blast going through all of things that "Santa" brought them!
We of course have gumbo each Christmas so the cooking began and it smelled so yummy. Below is a before and after...the roux and then the finished product. My parents came over Christmas morning and we cooked, opened gifts and enjoyed some family time! As noted in my Thanksgiving blog Ben wanted a chocolate pie and of course I didn't want to go through trying to find one again and it turn out not to be good...SO...I decided to make one from scratch!! It actually turned out pretty good!! Hoping to perfect it each year!
Just some fun pics of the kids during the holidays! Looking forward to next year and we know it will be here before we know it! Time is just passing by so fast...too fast!
