Weekend Wrap-Up On Tuesday....Christmas Edition

Happy Monday Ladies!

 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  All the planning, shopping, prepping...and BAM its over so quick! 

 

 

Our Santa was definitely doing this December 26:)

 

Our Christmas was pretty darn perfect.  I was DEFINITELY missing Harrison and my mom, but we did A LOT of facetiming and hey...I'll take what I can get!

 

Mark had to work until noon on Christmas Eve, and I was up early running around picking up a few last minute things and doing a little food shopping!

 

We went to church at 5:15, we found "our" church a few weeks ago and we definitely feel very much at home there...we were very excited for the Christmas Eve service.

 

All 6 of us loaded in the car on our way to church.

 

 

I snapped this quick when we got into church, the service was absolutely beautiful.  Hands down the BEST Christmas service I have ever attended.  It was filled with a great message, amazing songs and we ended with nothing but the candles we were holding as we all sang Silent Night..I actually teared up...it was that beautiful and that moving.

 

 

A quick little selfie before service started.

 

 

I just LOVE these two so much!

 

After church we came home and dug into our Chick Fill A nugget platter, and watched Christmas movies and opened some gifts my mom sent down!

 

We made some reindeer food....

 

 

 

and a Gingerbread house...

 

 

and then we sprinkled the reindeer food....

 

 

and then we snuggled and tracked Santa!

 

 

Brooke and Jack...hands down my 2 best behaved kiddos!!!!

 

 

Olivia got these Descendents dolls and well...her life was pretty much made!

 

After presents, we watched A Christmas Story, and we turn it on at 8 every Christmas Eve and the channel literally doesn't change for a full 24 hours...we never really sit and watch the whole thing through, but it is always on in the background for the full 24 hours!  It's definitely part of our tradition for sure!

 

Every year we always leave Santa beer and cookies...AJ decided that when he was about 2 and it has just stuck...however the kids were wanting to leave him Fireball this year..Olivia wasn't happy about it.  We did have Fireball...however she left him this note, letting he know we left him milk and NOT Fireball.  When we asked her why she said..."mom I don't want him to get drunk and crash his sleigh"...this girl at the ripe old age of 7 is just too much!

 

After the kids settled down, and we put out the milk and cookies, we got the kiddos all in one room and pretty much threatened the heck out of them to not come out of there until the morning!  Yes...we are those parents that totally believe in dishing out threats to our kids!

 

 

I miss the days of the kids being little and there being a million presents under the tree...I also miss the days of the items they are asking for not exceeding $50....lol!  The bigger they get....the BIGGER the pricetag!

 

I just love Christmas!

 

Olivia asked us to set up a spy cam to see if we could see Santa...so we downloaded the Kringl app and BAM...we got to see Santa in our house...she couldn't even believe it when she saw it Christmas morning.  I love seeing the magic of the season through her sweet little eyes!

 

The kids woke up around 7:30, found their stockings, but by 8 they were in our room telling us to get up to see what Santa brought!  So much fun!

 

We were all missing Harrison! 

 

AJ was pretty happy with his new JETS hat Santa delivered!

 

 

Olivia was SO excited opening each gift...literally screaming in delight!  There is nothing better than having kids on Christmas morning!

 

Beats were a hot item over here this Christmas!

 

 

She couldn't have been more excited...she was hoping hard for a solid month that she would get Mary Ellen...because you know mom she is so fancy like me!

 

Happy Girl!!

 

 

  

This is probably my favorite video we took...hearing Olivia thanking Santa because AJ got his Beats and she got her Shopkins...I mean so precious!

 

 

 

 

AJ has been wanting a phone for a good year now...and we decided to give him one for Christmas.  He was VERY specific that it 'had' to be an iPhone, he didn't want some dumb flip phone...well we decided to have a little fun with him Christmas morning!  We of course did get him an iPhone, but we also went to Walmart and grabbed one of those flip phone, pay as you go phones...we wrapped it up and put it under the tree...we hid the iPhone in the tree...and as he was expressing his disappointment, without trying to be "ugly", the tree started ringing and he found his iPhone!  It was so great!

 

It probably wasn't the nicest little prank to play on Christmas...but it was great and he was such a good sport about it!

 

After presents we ate breakfast and just enjoyed the rest of the morning....

 

Just a girl, her doll, and a Gator pillow pet....

 

I just love how she propped up her pillow pet to sit at the table with her! 

 

 

 

I spent the entire day in my pajamas and it was amazing!  And these pina coladas Mark made...pretty darn amazing too!

 

 

I loved getting lots of pics from my mom on Christmas!  I miss them all so much!

 

 

Harrison and my sweet niece London.

 

This picture is getting printed and put into a frame...it is just perfect....I love the way they are looking at each other!  Not only is he a great son and big brother...he is a pretty awesome cousin too!

 

My fam!

 

We spent the rest of the day playing and watching A Christmas story...it was low key and perfect in every single way!

 

Saturday morning we all slept in!  Olivia got Orbeez crush and she was so excited to wake up Saturday morning to play with it.

 

Such a fun little toy!

 

After a slow morning...we showered and Mark took the boys for haircuts and to the bait store, and I ran to Target for a return....

 

And yes it was 90 degrees here Saturday...I am not saying it has to be freezing out...but does it need to be 90 on December 26???

 

This girl never got dressed Saturday and was happy to watch Shopkins videos on the ipad out on the porch most of the day!

 

 

We ended the night with some intense pillow fights and wrestling matches on my bed!  Mark is such a good sport!

 

I curled up in my bed by 9:30 and fell asleep to the Hallmark channel!

 

Sunday morning I was up by 6:30....YUCK!  I wasn't loving being up so early, however the peace and quiet while everyone was still sleeping was pretty nice.

 

Coffee, my tree and complete silence...PERFECTION!

 

Once everyone woke up...around 11...we cleaned up the house and Mark and Olivia washed the cars, the boys fished, Brooke watched Hallmark (she is SO my daughter), then we watched football!  We were pretty disappointed to see the Panther's perfect season come to an end...however we were THRILLED to see the Jets beat the Patriots...those of you that are Jets fans will totally understand what a big deal that is!

 

It was a nice low key day...the perfect way to end Christmas weekend! 

 

I am hoping to get lots of organizing done this week!  We are still deciding what we will do New Year's Eve...and the kiddos are super excited their dad is coming to visit this week!

 

Thanks for sticking around for this super long post!  Be sure to check back tomorrow...I'll be sharing some super good after Christmas deals with you guys!