These Are The Days: Christmas 2014

Woooow, was this Christmas break the longest to date! Many of our friends have shared that sentiment and we determined that with the way the holidays fell right in the middle of the week this year (Christmas Eve and NYE on Wednesdays & Christmas & New Years Day on Thursdays), there was no chance for anyone to return to work or any kind of normalcy between and it just made for one looooong Groundhog's Day type of break! Eating/drinking/playing/sleeping/repeat was the name of the game around here. But with plenty of fun with family and friends sprinkled in!

Grayson's class celebrated their last day with a PJ party. Grayson (and his bedhead) are far left in the green old man PJs ;) He's precious in this picture!!

MOPS Steering Christmas Brunch! A good kid-free morning with no agenda, just good convo. It was so nice! And my mom (a mentor mom for the 2nd year!) can pour a mean poinsettia! :)

Grayson's best friend Cole gave him his Christmas gift early since they'll be OOT. Superman Legos! They could not have gotten him anything better. Look at that face :) He's obsessed! And can I brag? He's really good at putting the 6-12 year ones together. I'm totally impressed ;)

Even great sleepers have super early mornings sometimes. But I loved the snuggles.

This was deemed the businest shopping day of the year. So what did we do? Family trip to Target! We went in for ONE thing (a gingerbread house kit) and left with a 100 impulse purchases and zero kits. And don't judge us for breaking cart rules. It was a tough trip!

We got the kit and Beau tried teaching Walker that you decorate with the candy, not eat it. An impossible concept for any 22 month old to grasp!

This sums it all up - Walker ate candy while Grayson decorated the house!

Final product. The tree was my (only) contribution. :)

Couples night out to CoalVines with these girls from our 2010 play group. It was SO nice to be out without the kids! We get together a lot but it's always with kids. These are nights are rare but so, so special!

An evening of caroling at Mr. Welman's house. This is his second Christmas without his wife Merry, who adored this time of year. He was very teary-eyed and appreciative that we came by. (Not pictured: my two boys OF COURSE.)

And then, the day we all waited for....Aunt Andrea and Uncle Rogan came to town!! We love being with them and it was so special having them here for Christmas! We usually see them at Thanksgiving, and while that wasn't as fun without them this year, Christmas really is just a cooler holiday to spend with family (if we had to choose just one :) ).

Kisses!

We had them over the night before Christmas Eve for braised short ribs, which Beau has perfected. And these were the wine options. A very good night! Thanks to my parents for contributing :)

We attended the 2pm Christmas Eve service with Andrea, Rogan and Mimi. It was geared towards children and the youth band was awwwwesome!

Three pocket squares and a lady. :)

We headed back to Mimi and Pop's to get ready for their annual Christmas Eve cocktail party. Our extended family attends and it's always a good time. However, Beau crashed (with what turned out to be the flu) quickly and after a couple of hours of curling up with the chills upstairs, we decided to get him home and away from people. He remained in bed for the next 4 days, which meant I was on my own with the boys celebrating Christmas morning :/ The cool thing was that Andrea and Rogan came over after the cocktail party the night before to help me put together toys. I will love them forever for that!!

My musical boy skipped right over the presents and headed straight for the leftover cookies that Santa left. Waste not, want not! ;)

He loves all of his instruments!

Grayson got a lot of sports stuff. Most can be played indoors. Here he's playing with the croquet set that Maw Caldwell gave him :)

All Grayson wanted for Christmas was a laser gun. And despite my every effort to resist, I thought just one gun under the tree couldn't hurt ;) He's in love! And it's frikkin LOUD! Beau and I are scheming to dismantle it.

Beau and I were supposed to host both of our families on Christmas Day. An event for which we spent weeks preparing. We canceled with Beau's flu and my parents were sweet to scurry and put something together at their house. They never skip a beat! We then decided to just stay and have a sleep over! The boys loved it!

Walker thanking Mimi and Pop for feeding us ;)

Uncle Rogan (i.e. Uncken Rogan) was the best playmate!

Aunt Andrea was too!

We watched a Christmas Story that night after baths. So fun being family.

The next day, Andrea and I were off to shop the sales while my mom kept the boys. Bless that woman!

We continued on with playing with the kids' toys and relaxing.

Delicious meal at Taverna Rosa. Still missing a very fluish Beau :/

The Pharrs were in town so we took off down to Dallas and some great food and (too much) wine with some of my favorite people. I miss my Dallas girls (and guys) dearly!

I got this cool Ninja 3-in-1 thing and have already made a great soup. I look forward to more creations! It's putting the fun back into cooking for me!