Christmas Highlights

This weekend has been a whirlwind and I can’t believe it is already over!  I am so very grateful that we were all back to being healthy and happy after a long two weeks of fighting the flu and everything else!!

Friday kicked off our Christmas celebrations.  Lance’s parents, sister and nephews came over midday.  We ate a late lunch and then got to open presents.  I hate that I don’t remember everything that they got (they were spoiled by everyone this Christmas).  I do know that I got a KitchenAid mixer and I am sooooo excited to use it!

After presents Reese and I made cookies for Santa.  The boys were not interested in helping make them but they both decorated some…and of course loved eating some too!

Thanks to Aunt Kathy for capturing these pictures.

That evening we all went to our church for the candlelight service.  That was a horrible idea on our part.  Ha!  Sam was not interested in sitting at all.  I ended up taking him out to crawl around.  Reese enjoyed dancing in the aisle to the music for a little while but then just started to be disruptive so she had to come out with me too.  After the service I was waiting out in the hall for everyone to come out and a sweet man asked if Reese belonged to me.  I said yes and he said that her dancing in the aisle made the whole night for him. 

After the service we headed home and Lance’s family went home.  As soon as we got home we had a quick dinner, quick baths, and then it was off to bed for the little monkeys.

As the kids slept soundly in their beds, Santa came, worked hard putting together all of the toys, and was gone in a flash.

Fortunately, the kids slept in a bit Christmas morning because of the busy day before. 

As we were coming down the stair, Lance was trying to race down before us to get the video camera started.  Unfortunately, Reese looked through the bannister and saw her dollhouse and took off running.  We didn’t get the best part of the morning on video!!  She ran down the stairs, around the corner to the family room and squealed with delight that Santa had brought her a dollhouse.  It was so sweet!! 

They both enjoyed opening their gifts and stockings. They also had a lot of fun playing with their toys and each others toys!  We have to remind Reese that some of the toys are Sam’s!

My parents and Becca (Leah had to work) got to our house around noon or so, we had a quick lunch, and then once again tore in to some presents.

It had started snowing right as my parents were arriving so Lance and the kids went out for a second to check it out.

After opening presents inside, my parents had one more surprise for the kids outside. 

Their very own Jeep!!

Even though it was freezing out and snowing pretty hard we had to let the kids go for a ride!  Reese loved driving it but still has a lot to learn in the way of steering.

Sam had a huge grin on his face the whole time and loved having his sister drive him around the neighborhood.  I think they are going to both love this…until Sam is old enough to know he can drive it too!

It continued to snow the whole day and stopped shortly after the kids went to bed.  It really was beautiful.  According to the AJC, there has not been a white Christmas in over 100 years in Atlanta.

The day after Christmas some of my mom’s family came over to celebrate Christmas with us again.  Some of them could not make it due to icy roads and trying to get my Grandma out of the house on icy steps.  We had a great time visiting with those that did make it!!  Some of them got roped in to going upstairs to play with Reese’s dollhouse and all her new toys  (haha…thanks Amy and Bryan!)

Later that afternoon, Lance, Reese and I went outside to play in the snow.  We had so much fun chasing each other around and throwing snowballs at each other.  The snow was actually not icy enough for us to make a snowman.  It was really hard getting it to stick together.

One of my gifts from Lance was a new lens for the camera.  We enjoyed playing with it outside and seeing what it could do.  Basically it makes the background super blurry the closer you are to your subject. 

Reese wanted to make a snow angel. 

Our little snow angel has a head full of curly hair!

Sam had been taking a long nap so I woke him up so he could play in the snow with us for a bit.

We had a wonderful Christmas.  I can’t believe it is already over and Lance is back to work.