Sunday, December 25th

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

What a fantastic day! Just seeing the joy on the kids' face knowing it was Christmas morning made the day bright!

I was laying in bed this morning and I could hear Keira whispering to Aden, "Aden, wake up. It's Christmas." He must not have woken up the first 2 times she told him because she kept whispering it to him until they both walked into the room.

We opened gifts, ate our biscuits and gravy then got ready and went to nana and papa's for my mom's Christmas. Two out of 3 brothers were there. It's always good to see my brothers, I don't get to see them very often.

Long night last night. Taygen was up a couple of times. One time she lost her blanky and the second time she lost her Elmo. She also just started a little croup like cough last night. I could hear it when she was crying, when she would breath in I could hear it. She still has it today, but is not running a very high fever. I haven't checked her temp, but if I had to guess, I would say 99-100. Gave her some Tylenol before bed, hopefully she sleeps tonight. She fell asleep on the way to nana's for about an hour then fell asleep on the way home for about 30 minutes and slept in her bed about an hour, now she is sleeping. She is losing her voice. I think it's cute, but she probably don't.

Sneak Peek!

I am making the hubby something special for Christmas. But...he doesn't know yet, but here are a couple sneak peek pictures.....

Holiday Traditions

Since the kids are getting bigger and can help a lot more, we have made a couple of family traditions for the Holidays.

Christmas Tree

• The first one is putting up the Christmas tree. We put the Christmas tree up the Friday after Thanksgiving. Keira doesn't have school on that Friday, daddy doesn't work on Friday's (normally), we have nothing to do that Friday, so that is a great time to sit as a family and decorate the tree. 

Christmas Tree Ornaments

• We let the kids pick out 2 ornaments every year and they get to put them on the tree themselves (along with the normal ornaments that belong on the tree).

Christmas Cooking/Baking

• I like to make the cake balls and cake suckers. I also like to make sugar cookies dipped in chocolate. 
• I will let the kids dip the cookies or cake balls in the chocolate. 
• Last year was the first year I actually baked stuff for Christmas. I really didn't think I could do it or had time, but if you make time and see the results after it is done then it is worth it.

Christmas Crafts

• Ornaments
• Stockings
• Cards

Christmas Morning

• Wake kids up (if they are not awake already ;) )
• Usually set the kids in a circle (so they can all see each other)
• Pass out presents
• Watch the glow on their faces when they open their presents....priceless
• After all the wrapping paper is cleaned up, we have breakfast (last year, homemade biscuits & gravy).
• We get the kids ready to go to my mom's (nana's)
• Depends on when grandma (Dan's mom) wants to do Christmas (if it is on Christmas, then we usually cut our time short at my mom's and go to his mom's) Sometimes it is on the day after or a couple days after. 

Holidays

I love the Holidays. I love Christmas, it just makes me feel happy and cheerful. We usually start decorating for Christmas around the first of December. The kids love to put the tree up and decorate it as a family.

Some of my favorite outdoor decorations are...

Outdoor Wreath

Outdoor Garland

Outdoor oversized decorations

Outdoor Trees

Got my PotteryBarn catalog, so had to do some shopping :)