Christmas!

I finally got Christmas pictures uploaded!

 

We had the best, most wonderful, most blessed Christmas ever.  Family, blessings, happiness, togetherness…all the things that Christmas should bring abounded for us, and I hope for many more Christmas just like it!

 

We did our first Christmas gathering at my in-laws…so fun!   The girls got some great presents, and we had a fun time together.

 

Mattie loves Barbie movies, and she got two that night…happy girl!

Presley got the cutest pair of “blinged” Converse shoes.  She loved them and had to put them on immediately.  They’ve gotten lots of wear since Christmas!

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to the Christmas Eve service at church.  We never miss it, and for me, it’s the perfect way to really get your mind and heart focused on Christ at Christmastime.   I didn’t get any pictures before, but afterwards we came back to my parents house, along with my in-laws, and had a wonderful time together eating and letting the kids entertain us!

 

My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew always come at Christmas, and to say my girls adore their cousin may be a slight understatement.  They absolutely love him, rightfully so, because he is precious and sweet.   He is five years older than Mattie, but they get along so good, and he is such a good big cousin to her. 

 

Here they are being silly.  Christmas Eve had all the kids particularly amped up:

I really wanted to get some good pictures of the cousins while they were together, but this turned into mission impossible.  I have about 150 outtake pictures of the three of them in front of the Christmas tree and either someone is giggling, someone’s eyes are shut, or someone is getting up to run away in ALL of them! 

 

I also tried to get a good picture of my mom with her grandkids (my dad, like Mattie, felt the need to immediately get into his PJ’s after dinner, so he was not camera ready).  We got lots of outtakes from that as well. 

 

Here is Presley wanting Jolie (the Goldendoodle) in the picture:

Finally get all the kids wrangled, and Presley won’t quit loving on the dog:

 

Finally, success!  Mimi and her grands:

Presley was watching me while I edited these pictures, and she wanted to know why she has her finger out in the picture above.  She kept saying “What I saying, mom?  What I saying?”, and she finally answered herself and said “I saying ‘no cwib fo’ a bed, Mom’”.  Which, no she wasn’t, but how cute is that?

 

Presley is one of the most loving little people I’ve ever known.  She loves everybody, and I have never seen her be mean to anybody (except Mattie, on occasion).  As much as she loves people, she also loves animals, and she is particularly dog (and cat) obsessed.  My brother’s family always brings their dog, and Presley LOVES her…we joke that this is her favorite cousin:

Diamond is a golden retriever that they got from a shelter, and she’s sweet as can be. 

PJ-clad Mattie and daddy:

My precious and adorable nephew who gets more handsome and photogenic every year:

So we finally get home on Christmas Eve, and Mattie puts out the reindeer food:

And then we put out cookies for Santa.  I wanted a cute picture of the girls in their Christmas pj’s by the cookies for Santa, but Presley threw a huge fit that we wouldn’t let her eat Santa’s cookies, so this is the pic I got….memories!:

 

I love, love, love playing Santa after the girl’s go to bed.  We have been parents now for six Christmases and I really cannot remember what the fun was in this holiday before we had kids.  We turn on The Christmas Story marathon (thank you, TBS), and start putting together Santa stuff, and stuffing stockings.  This is one of my favorite parts of Christmas to spend with Matthew…love it!

 

Awesome daddy working hard on the baby doll bed:

Santa has been here!

This is Mattie’s side….she got an Easy Bake Oven and a Nintendo DS (on the arm of the couch):

This is little Presley’s side.  All during Christmas, anytime we would ask Presley what she wanted Santa to bring, she would say “COOKIES!!”, every single time.  We got the biggest kick out of this, and I knew Santa would bring something else, but he better deliver on the cookies too.  So she got a sweet bed for her baby dolls, but notice the oreos (her fave) on the arm of the chair:

 

Just waking up to see what Santa brought….please notice me in the mirror reflection because that is the only photographic evidence that I was even around on Christmas day.  I’ve got to get better about handing the camera to someone else every now and then!

 

Love this….Mattie amazed that Santa actually ate the cookies and drank the milk:

 

Tearing into presents!  I wish I had a video of Presley opening this baby doll….she kept saying “ohhhhhhh!  oh, oh, ohhhhhhhh!!”…so cute!

 

Santa brought the cookies, and she immediately tore into them!  Happy girl:

Operation for Mattie…big hit:

Presley was pretty uninterested in opening gifts once she realized her stocking had candy in it:

Helping sister open:

SMURFS!!:

Mattie is a textbook Choco-holic….loves, loves, loves Chocolate.  Sour and sweet candy like skittles, starburst, etc….she can take it or leave it, but she loves some chocolate.  So Santa always brings her a huge, 1lb Hershey Bar, and this is her when she pulled it out of her stocking:

 

We spent Christmas lunch at my parents, and the girls got more fun stuff there as well. 

Mattie has a Bitty Baby that Presley is kind of in love with, so Presley got her very own Bitty Baby from Mimi and Poppa:

Loving her new baby:

Mattie also got a new baby doll that she’s holding in this picture.  It’s very realistic looking, and she is in love with it. 

 

Presley got a penguin named “Eric” that is from the Happy Feet Two movie….he sings and dances, and she has loved it…I need to video her dancing with it:

We have another Christmas tradition I love, which is to go to the movies on Christmas night.  We have done this for many, many years now.  Some years I’ve missed because of having Christmas gatherings on Matthew’s side of the family, and every other year my sister misses b/c she does Christmas with her in-laws.  But every Christmas, my dad and whoever else can go, goes to the movies on Christmas Day.  This year it was just me, my dad, and my brother.  We saw Mission Impossible 4, and while I fought hard for us to go see Sherlock Holmes instead, I really enjoyed this movie.  Totally not something I would have ever picked (I don’t think I’ve seen any of the other MI movies), but this was pretty good. 

 

A few days after Christmas, Matthew and the girls, and I loaded up and went to spend several days with my sister and brother-in-law in Memphis since they didn’t get to spend Christmas with us.  We had tons of fun, but I didn’t take one single picture.  Angela and I shopped till we dropped….I think we went to every Target in the greater Memphis area, and we hit some great after Christmas sales.  We rang in the new year with them, and then it was back home to start the new year!  I hope everyone had as wonderful a Christmas as we did!