Christmas

I love everything about Christmas!!  I love the cheesy Christmas music, I love shopping (duh!!), but most of all I love all the time spent with family.  This year was the most fun to date.  The girls are at that perfect age, where they are old enough to understand everything going on, but still young enough to BELIEVE. 

Clint's sister arrived in town last Saturday.  Anytime they are in town it's a given that we will try to spend as much time as possible with them.  Saturday was a rainy, yucky day.  We started like we do EVERY Saturday - cheer practice from 9:00-11:00, then gymnastics from 12:00-2:30.  After practice we went to Mimi's house and the clan had just arrived.  The girls get so excited to see Hudson.  he's 3 now, and changes a ton every time we see him.  He and the girls just run around and play all over the house, having a ball.  When Clint got off work we went out to finish some last minute shopping with Amanda and Houston - NO KIDS!!  So much thanks to Mimi and Poppie for kid free night.  We went to the mall, Dick's and even had dinner at J. Alexander's.  We got back to their house at about 10:30 and the kids were still going strong.  The girls had Hudson sitting on a blanket and they were pulling him around the house.  He was Santa and they were the reindeer pulling the sleigh!!  It was hilarious!

The girls ended up spending the night there, so I was on my own at church Sunday morning.  I teach the 3-4 year old Sunday School class.  I started a few years ago as a way to get more involved in the church (and because I couldn't say no when asked), but now I LOVE my class and couldn't imagine going to a grown up Sunday School class.  I learn just as much from the kids as they learn from me!

After church we had a birthday party for my cousin's little boy out at the Collierville Skating Center.  We go every year, and that's the only time the girls are ever on skates.  They love it!  Houston even brought Hudson to skate, and of course Clay's kids were there too so the girls got to hang out with all their cousins....

After skating, we all went to Paint a Piece in Germantown.  For years now I have been wanting to make a platter for Mom and Gisele with all the grandkids' hand prints.  This year we finally made it happen!  All the kids did their hand prints and even made their own ornaments, and we shut the place down that day.  Gisele loved her platter and I can't wait to give Mom hers tonight!  I'll take pics and post them soon.

Every year Clay's company has a Christmas party in Tunica on December 23rd and gives everyone a room at the casino.  Usually mom watches the kids, but this year I offered to keep them.  I also brought Hudson to our house Monday morning, so I had 6 kids all day.  We ran around the house, decorated a gingerbread house, ate 6 bags of popcorn, watched Polar Express, ate 4 pizzas and made cookies for Santa.  It was loud, messy, exhausting, loud, fun and LOUD.  Seriously though, we all had a blast.  I need to take some pics of the house and the cookies.  I took the tablecloth off the kitchen table, set out bowls of icing, candies, sprinkles, marshmallows, and ice cream cones (Christmas trees).  At one point I even heard my niece Isabel, who is usually so quiet, saying in a giddy voice, "this is SO fun"!!  I turned around to find Isabel and Aubrey smearing handfuls of icing on the house and dumping sprinkles all over the house, and floor.  It was sooooo funny!!!

Here is poor little Hudson.  He was so worn out, but tried his hardest to stay awake until his Mommy came to pick him up.  He lost the fight about 10 minutes before she came....

We got up Christmas Eve and ate breakfast, got dressed and cleaned up the house.  All the kids were so good and cleaned without complaining one bit.  Then we went to pick up our finished pottery masterpieces and got some sandwiches at Jimmy Johns.  While there I had my first experience with one of the kids saying a "bad word".  Madelyn, Aubrey, Isabel and Colton sat at one table and Ben and I sat at a table a little bit away from them.  if you've been to Jimmy John's you know that they have random signs up on the walls.  Colton comes up to me while I'm eating and said, "Aunt Summer, Madelyn just said A-S-S"  I immediately got up and asked Madelyn what she said.  She just looked at me totally dumbfounded, like she had no idea what I was talking about.  Finally she said, "Mom, I was just reading that sign that says don't be a smart-ass...."  I stopped her right there and explained that we don't say ass because it's not a nice word.  Bless her heart, she was so upset.  She had no idea because she had never heard that word before!!

After Clay and Kelly picked the kids up, we went to Clint's parents to hang out a bit, then home to get dressed for church.  After church was Christmas at my aunt's house.  The kids got to play with their cousins again, while Clint and I enjoyed dinner and wine with my cousin and her husband.  The kids were busy tracking Santa on the tv and would come in every 15 minutes or so to tell us how close he was.  All the cousins on mom's side of the family draw names for the kids' gifts so that each of our children will get to open a gift on Christmas Eve.  Madelyn got a purse and a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book and Aubrey got a Crayola drawing thing.  As soon as gifts were all opened, Madelyn informed me that Santa was now in Maine and we HAD to get home before he made his way to Tennessee.

The kids were asleep by 9:30.  I made a coconut cake, and Santa's gifts were all out by 11:00 and we went to bed.  I felt like Santa didn't leave as much this year.   Usually he leaves tons of little toys for the girls.  While he did bring each girl a bike and one other thing they asked for, the only other stuff were clothes, books and stockings.

At 6:30 am I hear the girls in the den gasping and then running in our room screaming about ALL the stuff Santa brought.  The both loved the bikes, even though they are both a little too big....

Madelyn had also asked for  Furby Boom.  She got it and was happy, but still hasn't opened it.  However,  a little plush Monster High animal that we picked up last minute was carried around with her all day!!  I guess you never really know what they are going to be most excited about.

Aubrey had been saying for over a month that she wanted Santa to bring her a "really big, really soft light pink elephant with a hot pink cheetah print scarf".  She had never seen it before, but was just sure that Santa could make exactly what she envisioned.  Well, Santa had a HARD time, but somehow made her dream come true.  The biggest hit of the day come from Mom and Dad.  We had decided to get each of the girls their own Kindle Fire.  We even got them set up with a subscription to Kids Unlimited so that they can have any kids game or book instantly.  The girls were totally shocked and LOVED them!!!!!

After playing for a bit, we piled up the truck and went to Mimi and Poppie's house in our pj's, as we do every year.  Since it was 8:00 we just knew everyone was up and ready.  WRONG!!!  Apparently, Hudson had been up for 2 hours screaming in the middle of the night and no one had any sleep.   But, it was Christmas Day so everyone got up and ran to find out what Santa left at Mimi and Poppie's house.  The girls got a vanity table, karaoke machine, Spirograph, Chimealong, Boomer robotic dog and more.  They didn't know what to do with everything!!!  We opened gifts and they got more toys, a ton of clothes and shoes.  It was a HUGE Christmas.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing with family, eating, playing and napping. 

As always we were totally spoiled and had a fabulous Christmas.  All the gifts were great, but my favorite thing is just all the time together.  We have Christmas with my family tonight, so I'm looking forward to another great evening.

Until next time....