We had a wonderful Christmas weekend. I say that every year but it's true. I still can't believe it's over. (I know it's been over a week get over it already!) This seems to have been a theme this year on the blog but this year seriously has flown by. We didn't have any big exciting events this year (like the fire of 2009 and the snow of 2010), we just all enjoyed being together.
The best shot of the whole family Christmas Eve at my Grandmothers house.
Patrick and I ended up getting each other the same thing. We decided that we wanted to buy a tv for our bedroom as our big gift this year so we just did small things so we'd have something to open Christmas morning. I opened the jewerly box first then I let Patrick open his. When he saw it was an alarm clock he just started laughing. I was afraid he didn't like it. Then I started to open mine and I saw why he was laughing. We got a big kick out of this. We use seperate alarm clocks, not really sure why but we do. Patrick needed a new one so he was thinking he'd get me a new one and he'd just use my old one.
Annual Christmas morning picture in front of the tree. (This is one of my favorite traditions!) Ally didn't want to cooperate.
This is the best we could get with her.
(I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I normally do.)
Porter and Ally. Ally got the cutest sweater from Santa!
At my parents house this year the four siblings and significant others drew names instead of buying for everyone. Then we all bought for the kids. We got Clay and Hope's names and they actually got our names too. Kinda funny. We really had a blast watching the kids open their gifts. They were so excited. 
Dad fixed a nice spread for breakfast and lunch.
Patrick and Ally, Patrick had to work the night before and then we stayed at Mom and Dad's really late playing wii so he'd had about 4 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours and was exhausted. Plus he had to go back to work Christmas night.
Harper, John, Hope and Bentley.
Porter asked for was a chainsaw, it's the one thing he always said when you asked him what he wanted. I finally found one and drove to Cullman to get it for him. It was so worth it. He was so excited. While we were playing wii he came over to me and said "Thank you so much Maggie, I just love my Chainsaw!" Totally worth the hour drive to get it. He also wanted a cooler for his room like John has. So dad found this little old cooler and I put his name on it. He was pretty excited about it too. Plus Dad put some root beer in it for him.
I think John was a bit jealous.
Harper hit the jackpot in the dress-up category. She got this awesome tiara with 3 pairs of shoes. Then my sister found this trunk thing and filled it with some of her old dress up clothes. She was in heaven. She pranced around in those plastic shoes all day long!
Babo gave us aprons. Clay's says Roll Tide and Liz's is a snowman. They were really cute!
Drew opening some of his loot. This boy has changed so much this year. He's grown about 5 inches and is taller than me. It's crazy!
Ava and Leslie.
Harper wanted to try out the chainsaw.
She was pooped. She crawled up on the couch right by Patrick. She looked so sweet curled up with him taking a nap.
We went to Patrick's parents house for dinner. The girls were so excited wearing their headbands from us. I was so excited this year because all the kids seemed really excited about their gifts. I got Tripp the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie and he was so excited. I love getting that reaction. I'm always a picture slacker by the time we get here. We got lots of great things. We were spoiled this year for sure. Melissa made a delicious meal once again. In fact we went back on the 26th to eat again!
I loved this picture of Ally looking over Patrick's shoulder. She looks like a stuffed animal. She was so tired by the time we got home.
We had an amazing holiday this year. It was one of the least stressful of my adult life. (Probably because I got my shopping and wrapping done early) We loved getting to surprise my parents with a new tv, we loved getting the kids little gifts that we knew would light up their faces. We loved all the special gifts that everyone took the time to pick out for us. But my favorite memory this year was sitting at midnight mass (at 8:00) when the lights went dim and the choir started singing Silent Night. I was sad that Patrick had to work but it was in those quiet, still moments that I was able to take it all in and just be thankful and truly remember the reason for the season.
No comments:
Post a Comment