Our Final Christmas Destination

Our final stop for the day was at my grandparents with my entire family. We left Ben's grandparents at 2:30 for what we thought was an hour and a half drive but quickly found out it would be a 2 and a half hours. The interstate was still flooded from all the rain and was closed, so we had to drive the long way around it. It did actually give the girls a chance to get good nap. Once we all got there we let the kids open a few gifts to entertain them for the evening. We ate another good meal with ham, turkey and all the fixings; and the girls even pigged out. Before we left we bathed all 3 girls in my grandparents big jacuzzi tub. My sister and I use to take baths in that same tub when we were younger and would have the best time adding bubbles and letting the jacuzzi jets blow them up huge. I was excited for my girls to get in on some of my childhood fun. The girls fell asleep again on the way home. But once we got home at 10:30 they had a cat nap and were ready to play. The fun of new toys lasted for an hour until we put them down and called it a day at 11:30. We had an extremely long busy holiday, but it was still fun. We also made many memories to add for the girls 2nd Christmas. I hope everyone else had a great Christmas as well.

The girls had a blast playing in the boxes and all the wrapping paper.

Brinlee and Brittyn riding the rocking horses.

My sweet niece

Second and Third Christmas stop

Our second stop for the day was Ben's parents house. We opened gifts with his family and then ate a great lunch. I ate entirely too much that day, well really all week. I don't understand why the ham and all the works is a meal only once or twice a year. It is always the best meal, and we stuff ourselves from it and then don't eat it all again until the next year. Somewhere we need to change that tradition!

The girls got lots more gifts and fun toys from Nana and Papaw too. We left several things there for the girls to play with at their house, but we did bring home our new stuffed rocking horses. The girls love their rocking horses, and they are the perfect height for them to climb on all by themselves. After we enjoyed several hours there, we packed up everything we got and headed to Ben's grandparents house. The entire Brown family met there at 2:00. We read the Christmas story from the Bible, and then exchanged gifts. It was nice getting to be with everyone, about 25 or 30 of us under one small roof. That is one of my favorite parts about the holidays, getting to be with family you don't usually see, all at one time!

Santa came to our house

Christmas morning Ben and I got up before the girls and exchanged our gifts and then got ready. At 10:15 we woke our girls up so they could see what Santa brought and open their gifts from us. As soon as they got done opening their gifts, we had to get them dressed and run out the door. We were suppose to be at Ben's parents house at 10:45. Obviously we were a little late, but we did our best. We left paper, boxes, and toys laying in the middle of the living room floor. It was definitely a fast, rushed Christmas morning. It was not our idea of how we want our Christmas to be anymore. After traveling to 3 other places during the day we got home at 10:30 at night, and the girls were wide awake playing with their new toys. I couldn't put them to bed, I knew how they felt getting new things and not being able to play with them all day. They were in the best mood for that last hour playing away will all their new toys. Finally at 11:30pm, we put the girls in their beds and never heard a peep from them. They were so worn out.



Lexyn getting her new ball out of her stocking.



Brittyn found her new ball too.



Opening a gift with mommy.

Lexyn playing with her new pots and pans we got her.

Brittyn feeding daddy out of her new pots. The girls love to pretend feeding us while holding play spoons.

Playing with their new laptop from Santa.

Brittyn liked her new princess music playing microphone from Santa.

The girls LOVE balls. Can you tell who the toy hog is? We are learning to share but sometimes we forget what that word is!

The girls got a lot of new things, and enjoyed opening gifts. They did really well bouncing from place to place through out the day. Having them has brought back some of the fun in Christmas. I look forward to the many years to come as we enjoy Christmas and all it's fun traditions but most importantly being able to teach them what the true meaning of Christmas is all about.

Christmas at Gamma's

Christmas Eve at 8:30pm we got our girls out of bed after letting them catch a good nap, and headed into my parents house. My sister picked up my niece at 8:00pm, and since our Christmas Day was packed way too full, we all met together to open gifts once she got there. Santa came by a little early and filled all our stockings at Gamma's house. We had a good time being together, and watching the girls play together with their new toys while all wearing the Christmas jammies.



Gamma and Papa got my girls a tunnel that has a house and a tent attached. The 3 kids had a blast crawling through it and chasing each other. Such a fun toy for everyone.



Brittyn crawling through the tunnel.



Lexyn crawling through the tunnel.



And Brinlee crawling through the tunnel.



Santa left all the girls suckers in their stockings. We looked over at Lexyn, and she had her sucker open and was eating it all by herself. So then of course the other 2 had to have one too. Like they needed a little sugar to go with the Christmas excitement at 9:00pm at night!


We left my parents house at 10:30 to hurry up and get home before Santa came by our house.

Great Birthday

On Christmas Eve I turned 26. My husband did a great job at making it a special day for me. He brought my gift to me in bed because he was so excited for me to open it. He got me Ed Hardy perfume. I love it. We then joined my mom, sister and her fiance for lunch at my mom's house. The weather was NASTY. There was flooding everywhere and a lot of the roads including part of the interstate were closed. It took my sister's fiance almost 2 hours to get to my mom's house when it normally is only a 20 minute drive. Because of the weather we were limited as to what we could do, so we just hung out with family all day. Ben brought this wonderful cake to me at lunch. If you live locally, Harp's Grocery store makes the BEST cakes. I am not a fan of store bakery cakes, but this one even beats several cakery's around here. We ordered one this past summer for the the girl's first birthday party and it was awesome, so I was sure to remind Ben about that! It was marble cake with whipped icing. The icing is so smooth and fluffy and not too sweet; it tasted like Bavarian cream. Ummm makes me want another one just talking about it! Shortly after eating lunch, we visited my in-laws. They we so kind to play with the girls while Ben and I caught a 30 minute cat nap. It was great day spent with family; not really any other way I would want it.




My sweet Brittyn enjoyed the chocolate icing too

Our First Christmas Celebration

Tonight we got together with our friends Larry and Kelly (aka - Aunt Kelly and Uncle Larry) and celebrated Christmas as well as my birthday that is tomorrow, Christmas Eve. They spoil us rotten, or should I say they spoil my girls rotten. They are very good to us as well, but the girls are the highlight. We are blessed to have such good friends that love us all like we are family.

We started out opening gifts, then filled our tummy's, and then sliced the best cookie cake from Great American Cookie Company. Kelly knows me well, and knows I love Great American Cookie Company's chocolate chip cookies with lots of icing. And that is just what she brought over tonight only in a huge cake form! I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was iced with brown, white, lime green and hot pink icing. Super cute and SUPER yummy!



Uncle Larry opening the Santa bag while the girls wait patiently by his side











Lexyn was really excited about this box...



full of clothes!



They pulled the clothes out one by one jabbering about each item.
Kelly is a penguin lover so almost all the clothes she got the girls had a penguin on it.



They got the Little People Farm House, and enjoyed making it sing and play the animal noises.



Brittyn and Aunt Kelly playing with the new see 'n say.



Lexyn playing with the farm house



The ultimate gift was these pink chairs monogrammed with their names on it from Pottery Barn. The girls loved them. They had the best time climbing over them, standing in them, sitting in them, pushing them around the living room, and switching chairs.



For some odd reason the girls would not sit in their chair. They kept sitting in their sisters chair. We would switch them and set them in their own chair with their name on it, trying to get a picture, and immediately they would hop up and run to the opposite chair. It was so funny.

Lexyn sitting in Brittyn's chair, again, and talking to Uncle Larry about something serious!

Uncle Larry is so much fun, he gets on the floor and acts like a kid with us!

This picture cracks me up! First the dog, Allie, was begging for Larry to pick her up, so he did. Then Lexyn got jealous of Allie so she fussed for Larry to pick her up too, so he did. Then Brittyn got jealous of both of them, the dog and Lexyn, so she fussed for Larry to pick her up too, and he did. But his hands were mighty full with 3 extremely energetic living creatures, so it didn't last long!

We had a great night enjoying our time with good friends, and got entirely too many things already and we haven't even been to either set of grandparents yet.

Thanks Larry and Kelly for everything.

Traditions

Ben and I have been married for 5 Christmas's now, and we started several traditions of our own and carried a few childhood traditions into our family. Now that we have our own kids, we are trying to make a few more traditions for our family that make it special for us around the holidays. I grew up with some traditions and even though they may not be anything big to everyone else, it is what made our family special, so that is what we are wanting for our girls.

Since this is our girls second Christmas, even though they are only 18 months old, we carried through with some of our normal traditions. We hope to make more over the years that our girls say are special to them. But for now, here are a few of our traditions.



1. Every year we go look at our local courthouse lights and decorations, and get out to walk around them. Our courthouse is decorated very pretty, with several scenes that are fun to look at. I know as the girls get older they will enjoy the decorations that much more.




2. We also go look at our state capitol. It is lit up very well on the outside and has a manger scene on the front lawn. But the doors are always open on the weekend nights to go inside and see the decorations in there as well. It is so pretty, and is a chance to wonder around and look at the original capital decorations.

3. We LOVE to drive several nights and look at local neighborhood's lights. It is cheap entertainment that includes the entire family.

4. Since our girls were born Christmas jammies are a must, for the girls of course! It makes for some really cute pictures Christmas morning as everyone is still in their jammies opening gifts and looking in their stocking.

5. When Ben and I got married we said that once we had kids we would want Christmas morning to be our family time. We started that tradition our first year just so that everyone would expect it. Up until this year we have stuck to it, enjoying our morning at home with each other before the kaos of driving to 10 different places begins. This year there was some family timing conflicts so we are adjusting this tradition, but next year we are getting right back on it especially considering our girls will be older and enjoy their gifts more.

6. We take a large family trip to Branson the 2nd or 3rd weekend in December. The lights and decorations, and even the atmosphere are awesome there. We enjoy this tradition with my family and Ben's family. It makes for a big group but we have a blast.

7. Sometime during the holiday's we watch "The Grinch", and "The Santa Clause". Ben and I love these movies so much that we actually own them and watch them year round!

8. Sometime during the season my mom and I get together and make Christmas cookies. The past 2 years we got with my niece to make them, and give a few more years my daughters will be joining us as well.

What are some of your Holiday traditions?