Christmas 2013

Our first Christmas in Texas!!  It felt a little strange to celebrate without bitterly cold winds and snow, but there were a few chilly days so we took full advantage of our fireplace.  I loved having a mantel this year!  The extra lights made the room look so nice at night.

I was so happy when I found the glitter letters at Walmart.  The flip side of our stockings have some lovely glitter pen writing on them.  I like to tell people the kids made them when it was really me and my inability to use a glitter glue pen. Ha!

 Candy,candy,candy!!  We were successful with our gingerbread houses this year.  Last year they fell apart when we tried to decorate them, so I made sure they were sturdy before we started.  I think this was the first year we didn't have to stop them from eating the candy while decorating.  It was a Christmas miracle!! :)

Jude wasn't as focused as the girls.  He put a few pieces of candy on his house and then yelled "I done!!"

Then he started kissing his house.

Finally moving on to licking the icing.  I couldn't get a picture of him just holding the house and smiling.  Life with a boy!

Grace was extremely focused as usual.  Everything had to have a pattern to it.  I expected nothing less from my Type A firstborn.

What a cutie!!  She was really excited about decorating her house.  I was surprised by her attention to detail, and the fact that she was the last one done.  She has grown up so much this year!

The kids were able to open their present from Mamaw and Papaw Scott on Christmas Eve.  Avery was so happy with her wooden cupcake decorating set.

Grace looks crazy, but she was overjoyed with her new Nook.  The girl LOVES to read!

Jude received a Star Wars toy.  He kept talking about the little R2-D2 inside the box.  He's a big fan!

Decorating cookies for "Santa"  We don't really make a big deal out of Santa and Grace hates pretending for the younger ones.  I could tell she wanted to tell Avery about him while they were making cookies.  Luckily she didn't because Avery loves the magic of it all!

Why does cookie making having to be so messy?  I need to remember to do this project a day or two ahead of time.  I'm already stressed with a million things to do on Christmas Eve, yet I make it even harder every year by doing cookies before bed.  I need to work on my holiday time management skills. :)

Again with the licking...

I don't want my Judey Bear to grow up!!

Christmas morning!!

Jude wasn't feeling it.  He wanted to go back to bed.  It's  funny because there's a picture of me doing the exact same thing on Christmas morning when I was his age.

Presents!!

After two days of driving we made it to Indiana and were able to open presents with Nana and Papa Steve the first night.  Avery is obsessed with the new movie Frozen so the doll was an instant favorite!

The next day was our big family party on my mom's side.  The boys were learning about chess from Ken.  I doubt Jude learned anything, he just wanted to hang around other boys.  That's what happens when you have two sisters, you drop them immediately when there are other males around. 

Poor kid had a hard time understanding that he wasn't going to get a mountain of presents every time we had a party.  He had been on present overload from the past couple of days so he just couldn't believe that he wasn't going to rip into a multitude of gifts.  Big bummer.

He's in the middle of the room crying about presents.  After taking this picture I had to take him out of the room for a bit.  Lack of sleep, days of traveling, lots of candy...cranky toddler!!

Papa J checking out our family sketches. My mom came up with the idea of exchanging homemade sketches of each other.  Everyone in the family participated, even the toddlers.  We each received a name of a family member, and then we had to draw them and put it in a frame.  At the party we went around and had to guess the person in the drawing.  It was a lot of fun!!  Apparently it was dark in there since Papa  kept shining the flashlight on all the pictures. :)

I love this one of Uncle Matt.  My cousin Katie decided to draw a picture of Shroeder.  My uncle plays the piano and has always played the Peanuts theme song for us.  I thought it was a great picture! (Oh, and when I say draw I really mean she traced it. Ha! Ha!)

Game time!  We always play games when we get together, and there is always a lot of laughter.  What can I say?  We're funny people. ;)

This our family.  Never a dull moment.

Happy boy with more presents at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Piles of presents!  These kids are so spoiled. :)

I guess Grace likes her gift???

My first baby...Kingsley.  We got to visit him when we went to my in-laws house for a couple of days.  I think I need to crop this picture and frame it.  It's so cute!!

The girls are loving on their Bubba.  Grace gets so upset every time we have to leave.  Kingsley is very special to her and she hates that he doesn't live with us anymore.  She even took a piece of his hair and put it in her new locket.

Uncle Joe and Aunt Alice. Although Avery doesn't want to call her Aunt Alice now that they're married.  I'm not sure why, but she's "just Alice."  Ok.

I really like this one!

Silly faces!

The kids got to walk out on the frozen pond at Nana's.  It made me nervous, but they loved it!

Oh, those dimples!!

A rare, and brief, moment when the girls were getting along.  It lasted about 10 minutes before the name calling and fighting began.  I think we had all had enough of each other by this point. They were pretty happy to get back to school and our daily routine.  I know I was really happy about it!

Snow!!

They loved playing in the snow and couldn't wait to tell their friends in Texas about it.

This was the morning of our second day of driving.  Pure misery.  The trip from Texas to Indiana went really well.  I was impressed.  The trip back?  I'm currently trying to suppress the memories, otherwise I'll never drive back home!  It was a great, but exhausting week, visiting our family.  Hopefully we just have one more Christmas far away.  It's just not the same without your family around.