This year we hosted my family's Thanksgiving lunch so I put my most of my Christmas decoration up before Thanksgiving!!
Our Christmas madness started with AR's Christmas program at school! Several classes at the elementary school put on an adorable program full of grade appropriate songs and solos! The big man himself showed up at the end to give a way the first gift of Christmas! AR talked about it for days!!
AR and Westin also had their classroom Christmas parties. My classroom Christmas party was on the same day and time as AR's so I wasn't able to attend hers but Westin's was the last day before Christmas break so I took the day off to be Momma!!
Before Christmas, I had mentioned wanting a pallet tree and a ruffled tree skirt. Heath is so crafty so I showed him a picture of what I wanted and he produced!!!! They go perfectly with our decor!
Heath's mom was secretly in the works on this gorgeous tree skirt not even knowing that I'd mention to Heath that I wanted to make one! I know how much hard work it takes to make one so I was beyond thrilled when I was surprised with this beauty!
Our bible study group always has a Christmas dinner and gift exchange. We draw names each year and my sweet friend Kristin drew my name! She knows me well because this star fits right in around this house!! I absolutely love it!!
Our Christmas family gatherings started on Sunday. Heath's moms side of the family had Christmas lunch at Heath's Aunt Bonnie's. Heath's mom has tons of brothers and sisters so we enjoyed the afternoon catching up with aunts, uncles, and cousins, watching old home movies for the 80's, and going through mounds of pictures!
My dad and step mom agreed that beginning this year it would be best for our little families to stay at home on Christmas morning so instead of having our Christmas breakfast on Christmas morning like we have done every year, we decided to have dinner the Sunday evening before.
Sarah and I and a house full of Littles {in dress up} set out to make and decorate Santa cookies Monday morning! It was our first time making cookies from scratch and we learned quite a few lessons along the way. We all had a blast and the cookies turned out "cute!" :)
On Monday night we enjoyed a Christmas service at Church of the Highlands with my Aunt Sarah, Uncle Eric, JiJi, Pops, and Uncle Jo!! We even had our cousins join us!! The service was beautiful!!!
On Christmas Eve we always have Christmas lunch at Heath's Granny's!! The Waldrop family is growing rapidly and this year we were able to grab several family shots!! I can't express how much I adore this family!
After we left Granny's and ran home for a nap we headed over to Heath's mom's for Christmas Eve roast. Nana and Poppa always do so much for us and this Christmas didn't disappoint!! We all racked up!!
When we got home from Nana's we put our Christmas jammies on and set out our cookies and chocolate milk. I forgot about buying carrots for the reindeer so AR snagged a couple of celery sticks and insisted those would do!!!
Thankfully, Christmas set up wasn't laborious this year. I had already wrapped all of the presents so all we had to do was pull everything out and put Westin's bike together. Mr. and Mrs. Clause were in the bed by 11:30!! Oh, and the dude in camo on the couch is PawPaw. He spent the night with us so he could witness the excitement Christmas morning :)
Since the kids stayed up so late on Christmas Eve they actually slept in on Christmas morning. Westin came stumbling down the hall after 8:00 and we quickly distracted him and made him go wake up AR!! Daddy made them close their eyes before seeing their loot and their sleepy faces were so precious!!
This was the first year we got to spend the entire morning and afternoon at home. It was so nice to open toys, put together puzzles, sip on coffee and never get out of our jammies. We even snuck in a nap or 2 between family visits. Pops, JiJi, and Uncle Jo showed up around noon to see what Santa had dropped off and Nana and Poppa came soon after while Westin napped! AR made sure to put on a concert before they left!!
On Christmas night we cleaned up and headed to Memaw's for our last family gathering! We always have a meatball lasagna dinner and dirty santa exchange for the adults!! My mom and Memaw always make sure the kids are set on clothes and shoes but Jake and Ariel showed their faces too!!
My cousin Buddy was asked to hold Andie for just a second and this is how he held her. It was so funny!
The next morning on MiMi and Poppa's way back to Blairsville, they stopped by to put together puzzles and say one last goodbye!!
Christmas is such a busy time of year for us but I wouldn't have it any other way! Our families are huge so traveling is required if we want to spend time with everyone! We have one more stop on Wednesday to see my grandparents, MawMaw and PawPaw!! I can't wait to get my arms around them!! Mommy also has a very girly Christmas party on Thursday night with my high school girlfriends!!
We are riding this Christmas break out to the very end and it's going way too fast!!
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