Well Christmas was great as always. It feels so magical having a child running around. I really tried to soak up every minute I could, because it was over far too quickly. Eventhough this was Briley's 2nd Christmas it almost felt like her 1st. I think it was because she had no idea what was going on last year since she was only 8 months old. She was MUCH more in tune with everything this year. I was surprised that she had no interest in opening gifts, though. For some reason I thought she would be into that a little more. Next year I'm sure she will be into it all ;o)! We plan on doing elf on the shelf next year as well so i'm very excited about that, we will see if it helps with her "tantrums" a little before Santa comes to visit, ha! We defiantly had a time with the tree this year...she loved pulling all of the ornaments off and throwing them. she thought they were "balls". Technically she was right I guess, lol.
Briley's Tree
Wednesday the 22nd kicked off our Christmas fun at Michael dad and step-mom's house. They have a farm in Henderson so we headed that way to celebrate Christmas with them. We had a non-traditional dinner which was great since we would be eating alot of turkey and dressing in the days to come :o)! It was a great night. The girls got the cutest little tutus, Briley's was orange for the Vols and Reagan's was purple for LSU! That was by far one of my favorite gifts she got! Briley acted a little shy that night and she didn't want to eat anything. She just wanted to play and run around. Guess who was hungry as soon as we got ready to leave?!? lol.
Thursday I didn't feel great so I sort of layed around most of the day and started cooking around 5pm and lets just say I didn't finish until about 1am. I was pooped. Guess I shouldn't have layed around all day, huh? lol I made, 3 hashbrown casseroles, 1 squash casserole, 1 sweet potato casserole, 2 apple pies, and 1 caramel pie. I also layed stuff out for the overnight breakfast casserole I put together on Christmas eve night.
Melt-down mode...Someone was ready for bed ;o)
Friday around 1pm we headed over to my parents house to celebrate with them. Everyone was running late as usual. I think we finally ate around 2 or so (we were supposed to start at 12!). Briley was so tired by that point so we ended up laying her down for a nap. Unfortunately we had to wake her up to head to the next stop. Around 4:30, after my grandfather read the Christmas story from the Bible, we headed over to Michael's moms house. Briley had a "costume" change there. We have so many Christmas outfits, I wanted her to be able to wear them all, lol. We ate dinner and all opened gifts there. It was a very fun day! I guess we headed home around 9:30-10pm to get ready for Santa. Santa came to visit Reagan at our house this year so Stephanie and Jeff stopped by too :o)! Again, we were up till about 2am. Santa couldn't decide how he wanted to display all of the toys and we had some last minute cleaning to do and I had to put together the breakfast casserole. Busy, busy, busy...non-stop! lol
outfit 1
Sweetness!
outfit 2! we coordinated their "fun" Christmas outfits for Christmas Eve! They are so bright and festive!!
Saturday morning, 7:15am came far too early. Stephanie, Jeff, Reagan, Nana, and Jeff's mom arrived around 8ish or so (everyone was supposed to be there at 8...go figure my family were the late ones, lol :o) We ended up letting Briley sleep till the food was ready, which was about 8:45. She probably would have slept half the day if we would have let her. She was pooped! My grandparents arrived around 9am. My grandfather came dressed as Santa which was a nice treat! I don't think the girls knew who he was and they really didn't care much for him either, lol. Reagan is scared of Santa and Briley just wanted to play her her toys, or should I say Reagan's toys. Yep, Reagan was more interested in Briley's toys and Briley was more interested in Reagan's toys. It was pretty funny actually! They got a few of the same things but mostly different. I think Briley's favorite Santa gift was her kitchen, she loves to "cook", her play make-up, and a little elmo etch a sketch doodler. Anyway Santa went back to the North Pole to rest up for next year and my parents trickled in (they got to see santa for a few minutes before he left). We all took a break to eat. Our menu included Overnight breakfast casserole, hashbrown casserole, blueberry muffins, sausage squares, fruit salad, and Panera Bread bagels and cream cheese. It was all so yummy! The girls must have been extra good this year because Santa sure was generous! They got lots of goodies to keep them busy for the year ahead! It was defiantly a fun and memorable morning! Can't wait for next year ;o)!!
After getting some rest we headed over to Michael's moms house to do gifts with her and to eat leftovers for lunch. I wasn't feeling too great that day so we ended up coming home around 5pm or so. Briley and I were able to get a good nap in. After she was fed and bathed, my grandparents came to pick her up. We let her spend the night with them because all they wanted for Christmas was to take her to Church. So we let them ;o).
cookies and milk for Santa
Briley's toys!
Playing with Briley's new make-up case
Santa!
horse-back riding in the living room ;o)
riding her mini princess 4-wheeler before heading to Nanny and Maw's house to go night night!
Sunday, we had planned on going to our church like normal but we were both so tired that we slept straight through the alarm and didn't get up till almost noon. I haven't slept that late in years it seems like. The sad thing is I still felt tired :o/ We got ready and grabbed some lunch at Rafferty's and headed over to my parents house. We were told Briley did great at church which was nice. After church she also got to meet her great, great, great aunt! Yes, that's 3 greats, she is 95 years old and my dad's great aunt. She lives nearby my parents/grandparents church so they went to spend some time with her for Christmas. We let Briley finish opening gifts over there. There were several things she didn't get to open from my grandparents because she fell asleep on Christmas Eve and 1 big gift from my parents. My parents ended up getting her the cutest little table and chairs which was a nice surprise. It wasn't out on Christmas Eve because it wasn't put together yet! Apparently my dad had a time getting it together and we actually had to finish one of the chairs on Sunday because he was too frustrated to finish. lol We actually ended up having to drill one of the holes where the screws went because it just wasn't lining up right. We finally got it! She is almost tall enough to sit in them by herself too!! I think her favorite gift from my grandparents was a Disney princess keyboard! She loves to play the keyboard and piano. I hope think she is going to have some musical talent! Her daddy has a great voice, so how cool would it be if she sang and played the piano in the Miss Tennessee Pageant?? lol, just saying...ha!
All in all it was a great week! We defiantly spread things out a little more this year but it wasn't as hectic and as compact as the years past, which was nice. It was also nice to have all of my shopping done and wrapped this year several days before Christmas! I hope everyone out there in blog land had a great Christmas! I feel so blessed to be surrounded by the ones I love during the holidays!
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