2012 Holiday Fun

Well, the holidays came and went (in a blink of an eye!) and we can't adequately tell you how fun it was to share them with our little Evie.  Oh my!  She was so stinkin' fun and she made this holiday season so special!  Here's a brief summary of our going-ons (well, it's kind of brief considering I'm lumping all the events in one post).

Christmas Eve With Beau's Mom & Family
It's our tradition to spend every Christmas Eve down at Beau's mom's house.  The whole family comes and we eat delicious food (of course), sing Christmas carols (I played the piano and Jamie played the violin . . . sad we didn't get pics of this), we play Christmas songs with chimes (so fun!), read Christmas stories, open gifts, and play a family game called, "Tess."  The family declared this party a pajama party, so most of us were able to enjoy the night in complete comfort.  The night was a blast, and we loved having our "little candy cane" with us.  Our 98-year old grandma even came and she wore footie/onsie pajamas!  How fun is that!?  We all got completely spoiled . . . not only in gifts, but in good fun and loving company.  Sadly, we didn't get a chance to stay for the traditional "Tess" game this year because we needed to get Evie home to bed.  Here's a small sampling of photos from the night.

Christmas Morning at Home
Oh, what a special little morning!  Because Evie went to bed late, she slept in a little longer than her momma could hardly stand!  I was dying for her to wake up to see what Santa brought for all of us!  She woke up just before 9am and she was starving.  So, she ate her breakfast and then we made our way to the tree.  Sure enough, Santa came!  We must have been good this year (I'm sure Evie made up enough goodness for all three of us!).

As you can imagine, she enjoyed the paper, ribbons, and bows the most.  We didn't get her a lot of gifts because we knew she would be spoiled to the 9's by lots of others as well.  We got her some doggy hand puppets, some board books (she LOVES reading books), Disney movies, and other miscellaneous things that she needed.  She also helped me and Beau open our gifts and Beau put one of the packaging bows on her head and she left it there the entire time (she must be used to wearing headbands and such!).  Beau's big gift this year was a new Dewalt Drill with all the bits and screws.  Mine was a bike!  Whoohoo!  Beau also spoiled both me and Evie with jewelry from Tiffany's.  Fancy!  It took us nearly an hour to open the gifts (because we wanted to soak up every minute of the morning) and Evie did really well, but ran out of steam right at the end.  We hurried to take a picture with her and her stocking and that was pushing it.  :)

Christmas Day with My Family
My family does a traditional Christmas breakfast every year.  We have Monte Cristo Sandwiches (French Toast sandwiches filled with ham and Swiss cheese).  We look forward to it EVERY year.  So, as soon as we were done opening presents at home we hurried down for some breakfast.  It was SOOO tasty, as usual.  We were then spoiled again with gifts (Evie got a stick horse and a Cabbage Patch Baby), love, and good company.  Beau and I like to stay and hang around for a few hours and we usually play games.  Evie had SO much fun watching all of the kids and action (she loved watching everyone open presents) that she would NOT fall asleep for her morning nap.  I eventually (at like 12:30pm) snuck her into a quiet room and the instant she laid down she fell asleep.  Beau joined her for a Christmas nap.  I should have taken a picture, but didn't.

Christmas Night with Beau's Dad & Family

The festivities continued as we made our way to Beau's dad's house for a traditional Christmas dinner.  Well, it was mostly traditional with the ham and beans, but Dad totally forgot to make his peach Jell-O with bananas!  We were all completely shocked since that's his favorite and he makes it EVERY year!  Beyond that, everything went as usual.  Well, other than we had the two little girls to entertain us.  HaLee is currently in love with anything that has to do with Elmo.  Grandma and Grandpa gave her a musical Elmo and HaLee was all smiles!  When she tore open the paper and saw Elmo I think she grinned one of the biggest smiles I've ever seen on her.  Then, when Elmo started singing, dancing, and playing the drums our little HaLee danced right along with him.  Grandma was just as excited as HaLee was!  HaLee and Elmo were the highlight of the night.  Of course, the rest of us were spoiled too (Evie got some new Camo gear and a fun board book) and we played Bananagrams . . . a family favorite game.

  

New Year's Eve at Beau's Mom's House
We also had a fun New Year's Eve bash at Beau's Mom's House.  Everyone was there except for Bronco, Jody, and HaLee.

Happy New Year from the three of us!!

We ate good food and enjoyed everyone's company.

Evie LOVES her uncle Chance.  He has a way with her - not even kidding!

Jamie & Chance

We also played games.  We played the family "Tess" game since we didn't really get to play it in full force on Christmas Eve.  And, guess what!?  I won!  And, not only did I win 1 round, I actually won TWO rounds!  I've been in the family for 8 Christmas/New Year seasons and NEVER have won.  Seriously!  So, I must document this event because it is most likely going to be another 8 years before it happens again.

This was my winning team.  We are #1!!  Even Evie thinks so!

We also had a fun Fireworks show - you know, the kind that go high in the sky like you see at the county fair - thanks to Don.  He also made homemade ice cream that was killer!

Don, Amber, James

It was fun to be with everyone and, in case any of you are wondering, we didn't make it all the way until Midnight.  We ran out of steam by 11pm and still had to drive home.  But, that doesn't mean that we aren't excited to bring on 2013.  We're sure it will offer more adventure and as long as we have each other to share the journey with, we'll be happy!