Late Holiday Re-Cap

Yep. It's February and I'm finally posting about our holidays. Whoops! I haven't even posted about Thanksgiving!  This might be a long one, so bear with me.  

Thanksgiving was a bit different this year since my parents went down to Charleston, SC to visit my sister and her family.  We ate with my parents the Sunday before, but had lasagna instead of the traditional foods.  It was delicious!

  On Thanksgiving, we celebrated with Daniel’s family for lunch.  The girls had fun playing with their cousins and we enjoyed lots and lots of food!  I actually missed going Black Friday shopping with my mom and sister more than not being with them for Thanksgiving – is that bad?  Daniel, the girls and I came home after lunch and vegged out. Perfect ending to a Thanksgiving Day J

We didn't get any professional pictures done this fall, so it was up to me to get a picture of the girls for our Christmas cards.  It was quite last minute, and crazy enough, the first picture I took was the best one!  I got them into their Christmas dresses (which were adorable by the way) and had them sit in front of the tree for some pictures. It was nothing over the top – very simple.  We’ll see how next year goes with trying to get a picture of THREE in front of the Christmas tree!

Christmas Eve – While Daniel and I love Christmas, it is so exhausting for our family.  Having both families in the same city is wonderful, but it has us running around a lot in two days.  We wouldn’t trade it for anything! Nice naps are definitely needed after the Christmas craziness!  We started out Christmas Eve by cleaning the house. Horrible idea.  We were rushed and in bad moods during the entire thing. It was noted not to do that again!  We finally got everyone ready and out the door for Daniel’s family celebration.  We started at his aunt & uncles where we eat, visit, and open gifts.  The girls loved running around with their cousin Linsay, who is a couple years older than Hadleigh.  The adults have a few gift exchanges and Grandma & Pop are always very generous.  

This is what happens when Hadleigh and her Uncle Steve play with the camera! Good photo skills Hadleigh! 

We then head back to Nene & Baba’s house (Daniel’s parents) for just our immediate family celebration.  We were all spoiled!  The girls even got a Benz, which they have since been able to enjoy a few times. 

We had to wake the girls up on Christmas morning, can you believe it?!  Well, I guess Hayden is too young to get excited, but I figured Hadleigh would be up. Once we woke them up, we immediately headed downstairs to see what Santa had brought.  The girls must have been really good! 

 Hayden loved her baby care center and Hadleigh loved the medical cart and all the girly things. Santa brought Hadleigh a bike, which she still isn't too fond of. She says “It’s too big”.  Hopefully, she will like it once the weather starts warming up.  She needs to learn to ride a bike!  

After the girls played for a little bit, we headed to my parents’ house.  We celebrate with breakfast & presents.  It was nice because my sister was in town, so the girls got to play with their cousins Erik & Jaxson.  We all got spoiled again – we are so grateful for our families and how generous they are.  Hayden’s favorite things were anything baby doll or jewelry and Hadleigh’s favorite was anything Belle from Beauty and the Beast. We got the boys a green machine and were pretty excited to give it to them.  

They weren't able to open it and ride it until they got back home, but they ride it a lot!  We then headed home to get ready and head back to Nene & Baba’s for Daniel’s other side of the family get-together.  Yummy food, great company, and more presents for the girls! They even got to try out their Benz in the driveway.  The girls were exhausted, so we didn't stay as late as usual, but we still had a great time.  

 Yes, Hadleigh insisted on wearing her Belle dress Christmas day (pick your battles)

We celebrated with my mom’s side of the family a few days after Christmas, so we had a small recovery period. J  There are lots of kids for the girls to play with, so they were running around having a great time.  All the kids open gifts first, and then the adults play “Bad Santa” (it’s our version of white elephant). Some of the gifts were good, some re-gifts, some funny, and some average – all across the board! It’s fun though, and a way for the adults to have a little gift to take home. We headed home that night with only one child – Hadleigh wanted to stay and play with Erik & Jaxson for the night.

Christmas is definitely one of my favorite times of year!  As we get older and now that we have kids it’s even more special for us.  Hopefully next year, we will have some family coming to our house – you know, since we will have THREE kids to load up J I’ll try to milk that…we shall see if it works!