Holiday Cheer

It starts with a tree.

Then the stockings are hung. 

My sweet sister-in-law, Laura, made the cutest advent calendar that contained a quote, scripture, task, and song for each day. It helped us to stay focused on the true meaning of Christmas. 

This year was the longest I've ever taken to finish decorating for Christmas (over a week!). It was worth it though to have some feeling of the holiday spirit in our home.

This is how it looked before the kids got to it.

 I tried using the gate again this year. It helped somewhat, but Annabelle loooved the tree and messed with it daily, causing some of the lights to go out. I didn't have any energy left to change them out.

 She could only last so long on the outside. One day, I came out of my room to find her like this (below). So much for the gate. Ha! Actually, it helped keep her mostly out of it. Without it, I think the tree never would have survived till Christmas.

Our complex gets into the spirit as well. I love driving into the parking lot at night and being welcomed to bright shiny balconies.

Annabelle loved all the decor around the building. Getting upstairs takes longer in December as we always have to stop and say hello to the reindeer, snowman, and penguins.

 Per Chateau Tower tradition and right before Robert left for the Baseball Winter Meetings, we watched the St. Pete Beach boat parade.

 It was a great night.

When he got back home we picked right back up with the light fun and went out one evening to Largo City Park to see their lights and play on the playground.

Dawson enjoyed riding along.

They had tons of motorcycles decorated with fun decor and lights. We held our own little dance party.

The following weekend we attended Safety Harbor's Christmas parade.

Annabelle was a very active participant in the parade.

Dawson thought the parade was boring. :D

We had a great time. Annabelle kept wanting her candy opened, but never ate the entire piece. Additionally, she wore each necklace she received.

She raked in the gifts. Someone gave her this Beanie Baby-score! I think she is running out of hands.

In case you're wondering what it looks like to see a monster truck pass you while you are sitting on the curb, here's a glimpse:

I thought for a moment I was back in Georgia.

Just before the big day, we went to see a local house in St. Pete that puts on one of the most interesting light displays I've ever seen. I was in my pjs already when we decided to head out, so I made everyone else get in there jammies as well. We had a lot of fun, so a new tradition was born!

Bubbles!

 This is their yard!

 I'm going to fill this post up with lots of pictures. I kept a lot of duplicates because they are funnier in succession, so hopefully you enjoy. First, you have to envision all those picture perfect photographs you see of kids sweetly laying cookies out for Santa, family Christmas morning photos, etc. 

Got it? Okay...
Here's ours! Starting on Christmas Eve:

This is how we do Santa cookies.

"Cookies! Let me give one a try. Yes, I do think these taste quite nice. I think he'll like them."

Caught red handed!

"No, it wasn't me. I wouldn't eat Santa's cookies. Please, no pictures."

"Hey, look what I can do with this cup!"

"What was in that milk?"

"Just making sure they are still good. Yep. I think these will do nicely."

"Okay, okay, I will put the cookies out. I'm sure he's going to love them. Here you go Santa, I left you the good parts."

"Oh man. I can't help it, the cookies want me to eat them."

"Ummm. I don't have anything in my mouth, I promise. I am finished. I'll be a good girl."

Luckily, it looked like the cookies were good enough because Santa did come and left LOTS of presents for the kiddos.

Family picture time!

Annabelle: "UGH!"

Annabelle: "This isn't any better on Dad's side. How do you like this pose?"

Annabelle: "At least give me some milk." 

Dawson: "Um...she's sitting on me. THIS IS NOT A SEAT. Help! Anyone?" 

Dawson: "I guess we are going with that then?"

Sometimes you just have to shake things up a bit.

Okay, enough. It's not going to happen, so we finally let them open their presents.

Finally! Let's rip and tear.

Dawson had a great time helping out

and playing with all the paper.

 There were so many presents that we had to take a break to get through them all. Lucky kids!

 Merry Christmas!

 One of our favorite gifts was the slide! It's been a great addition to our living room.

Even Dawson gets a turn on it once in awhile. I think he likes it just a little. ;)

Here I am opening my present from Robert. 

SURPRISE! I am going on a cruise at the end of January with my sisters. We have awesome husbands. They got together and booked a cruise for all of us. Even arranged airfare and will be taking care of the kids. 

Robert spoiled me with one of the best gifts I've received. I'm so excited for my girls trip! Thank you Robert!

 Needless to say, it was a looong day. This is what happens when you open and play with presents all morning.

Crashed out in Grandpa's arms. 

The Holidays Begin

For Thanksgiving this year we packed up the car and headed up to Georgia to spend the break with my my mom and brother, Jason, and his family.

The kids did well in the car. Robert probably felt like a chauffeur toting us three in the back all the way up. We didn't leave until late Tuesday night, so we stopped halfway in Tifton, GA for the night. It was a blast. Hotels can be a lot of fun especially to kids as it's like a brand new playground to play on after being in the car all evening.

Luckily, they didn't stay up too late. We snacked, got out our wiggles, and then said goodnight.

In the morning we woke up, grabbed some breakfast, cleaned up, and then set back out on the road for a two-hour drive to my brother's house. When we arrived we immediately started with a rousing game of basketball, after saying hello of course.

This caption best summarizes what is going on here:

"You can take the girl out of the beach, but you can't take the beach out of the girl."

I just laughed so hard watching her try to shovel grass into Kaden's bucket that she had found. Just like last Christmas, Annabelle spent a lot of her time, and received lots of enjoyment from, chasing Blizzard the cat around the house. She was on cloud nine when she got close enough to pet him!

We went for walks down to the park where we played catch and tennis.

Grandma took good care of little Dawson during the trip. We also finally got to meet the infamous Keith, Kayla's first boyfriend. Oo-la-la.

He was a fun guy and we got to spend lots of time with him playing Apples to Apples.

Annabelle loved playing with her cousin Keaton during the trip. He is tracing her hand here. The boys were so good to her and they let her boss them around. It was hilarious watching as she would pull them upstairs to play with her in the playroom. They are so sweet and always obliged.

Turkey Day arrived! This is how we look on Turkey day morning. At least one of us is cute!

While we pulled ourselves together, the cooks were busy prepping away in the kitchen.

Lori put together a fabulous meal for all of us to gobble up. 

Thank you Jason and Lori for being such great hosts as always!

While they were busy cooking and prepping, Mama T and the boys put together the gumball Turkey. Kayla helped me with an activity for dinner.

Dawson was getting sleepy, so we fed him his Thanksgiving dinner early.

Yummy green beans. 

First Thanksgiving for D!

Our family picture.

It was time to dig in! At dinner, I arranged to have each person decorate their own pumpkin (see above picture) and then place it in a bowl. At dinner, we passed the bowl around, each person had to draw a pumpkin out and tell everyone why they were thankful for that person. Afterward, we placed it on the paper that Kayla decorated for our pumpkins. It was a great memory to have and I enjoyed listening to my family share loving thoughts about each other. I have a great family!

Dinner was excellent! I loved every bite.

Dawson woke up from his nap and decided to come join the party. 

After dinner the kids decorated Turkey cookies for dessert.

We had a lot of fun making them, and they were yummy to eat.

Annabelle surprised me that she followed each step.

After dinner, we lounged around a bit, ate some more, 

the boys had a good chat, and then we went to my friend Kitty's house to see her and her kids. Annabelle and Miles had a great time playing with each other. Sadly, I didn't get a photo of the two babies or of Kitty and I. :( Kitty and I are old friends from high school and we have kids about the same age just opposite genders for each age group. I so wish we lived closer, so we could raise our kids together.

This picture sums up how a lot of the vacation went for Annabelle as we tried to do some adult things during the trip. She would find the phone and stream her Disney or PBS shows. It always seemed like she attracted two followers when she did this. :)

Don't worry, they were not always TV junkies. They had a lot of fun chasing each other, playing guns with Robert, playing outside, and playing with playdough.

 

Following Thanksgiving day, we took Kaden out for his birthday to a laser tag play zone. Most everyone got in on the action, except for these two little ones who had to watch from the glass while we all shot at each other.

Here's Keaton picking off someone.

In between laser tag games we would play the arcade games. Annabelle loved the skeeball and almost took out a few things or people by launching the balls overhead.

She was a natural at Whack-a-Shark.

We actually got to celebrate Lori's birthday with her! It was on Saturday, which happened to be the Georgia Tech vs. Georgia game as well so they hosted a football party and decorated the cake for the winner. Kaden got to celebrate his birthday as well since it follows Lori's by a couple of days.

I think the wishing and the cake sent good vibes for Tech because they pulled off an exciting win against Georgia. It was an intense ending!

Present time.

These two fell asleep after watching too much football.

We were sad our trip had to come to an end. We had a wonderful time hanging out and relaxing, it was just what we needed. We were not there too long, but it felt like a long time of vacationing and we were glad for it. It was sad to have to get back in the car and head home, but we did it like rockstars.

Things were going so well and we were making awesome time

until we hit this near home.

Regardless, we are so thankful for all the blessings we have had this year, for our great family, and especially for these two little turkeys we call ours.

Love.