Christmas Happenings :: Honey & Pops

So as I mentioned, we were at my parents' house for a couple of days leading up to Christmas. Jase and I felt bogged down with traveling {even though it's only a 3 hour turn around to my folks and back} and last year said we'd like to begin a new way of doing things with my side of the family. It went very well in 2010...no rushing, lots of food and laughter and good times had by all. So this year, we did a repeat! Which makes this mama oh, so happy!

We spent the 23rd morning baking {previous post} and then around 4ish, my brothers and their wives came over to spend the evening. It was great. The kids were bouncing off the walls. In a good way really. But they sat in front of the tree counting presents and seeing who had the most! lol. My mom wraps each of our kids gifts in their own certain paper. So they can just look at any gift and know who it's for. Pretty fun for them...and great for us to torture them! :)

Mom also bought the kids some of those Santa hats that play music and sway back and forth with an obnoxious bell on the tip. Have you seen these things? Oh, they are loud. But our kiddos put on a show for us dancing with them. You gotta love some weird Christmas attire. Joel could hardly keep it on his head...which just totally made me laugh.

My mom's mini schnauzer, Bella, had puppies in November. Joel has been so good with them...and they really took a liking to him as well!

We did the annual sit/stand in front of the tree for family pictures. Nice, nice.

We got everything all passed out...Joel was just chilaxin', waiting for the moment we said "GO!"

He loves all things Star Wars, superheroes, Indiana Jones, etc. He's a real boy's boy. He got a Darth Vader mask that makes the sounds and talks just like he does. Score one for Joel. He absolutely hearts himself some "Dar Bay-wa".

He also got an Indiana Jones set complete with fedora, whip, machete, etc. And he's just about the cutest Dr. Jones you've ever seen. He was so thrilled with all of his gifts and so appreciative. Sweet boy.

Syd is still an aspiring teacher. My mom blew her away this year with her own, full sized, straight out of a real school wall projector. Heaven help us. AND a bulletin board with calendar complete with months of the year and days of the week velcro pieces.

It's at this point that I think Syd may have lost bladder control a tiny bit.

Okay. Not really. But she was pretty darn excited. There was jumping and squealing and there was also a crate chock FULL of school stuff. On the side of the crate read, "Miss R's Books". Oh, yeah. She was in 7th Heaven. She also got a gift card to The School Box from Karen and some girly nail stuff from Kevin and Deanna. Mattie and Keith were not to be outdone with another butterfly style shirt they got for her either. It's like the one she is wearing here, only red. And it looks beautiful on her. :) Wow. Syd had so many great gifts this year!

Kennedy may have been most surprised and taken aback by her gifts from Honey and Pops. It's no secret, the girl is obsessed with all things Harry Potter. She only has the paperback books...but has read them all numerous times. And she swears she will become Mrs. Ron Weasley one day.

Ahem.

So you can imagine her surprise when she opened these...

Her own little Hedwig...

Dad had a Santa appointment so before he left, we had a few pics with the kids like we do every year!

After the gift giving, Karen and I retreated to grab some of the many wrapping paper rolls that she had stockpiled to ambush our brothers with. How fun this was! I had empty rolls stuck down the legs of my jeans, between my bootie and jeans, in my shirt and anywhere I could manage to stash them. Karen and I came into the living room from two different directions yelling to the top of our lungs and just put a whoopin' on those brothers of ours! And mom was there to snap a few. :)

Mom and Dad spoil us and gave us some wonderful gifts...a custom built Cornhole set among them! We are stoked to have one now! We love our family so much. It's always loud and crazy and nuts. But it's just who we are! Good times. Much needed, really hoped for, good times.

We went to my grandmother's on Christmas Eve and saw my extended family for a couple of hours. Nan knitted the girls the most beautiful and soft ponchos. I absolutely love them...so do they! We headed home that afternoon. Pulled in our driveway at 5:10 pm.

Lovely.

Plenty of time to get unpacked and settled in. Jase and the girls were heading to our church's 10pm Christmas Eve Communion service. But before they left, I attempted some pics of the three of them in front of our tree. One day, they will cooperate for a nice tree picture! lol. But hey, this is real life around here!

Blessed.