Here Comes Santa Claus!

What a fun Christmas morning we had this year! Santa left a wild, curvy trail of Kisses that HG had a ball following to his note, and she was so excited to find BOOKS and lots of American Girl stuff. Cress was excited to see her sister excited but was still a little confused at what was happening. Cressey followed HG to HG’s stash, and after HG ‘re-directed her’ to her own toys, she finally found what Santa left for her and played happily. John and I later surprised HG with tickets to Taylor Swift’s concert in Nashville in August, which will be her first concert. We had a nice, slow morning in our pajamas, and then our family came over for lunch around 1:00. We were back in our comfy clothes and many blankets that the girls received as gifts by dinnertime and stayed there in front of the fire until bedtime. I couldn’t stop snapping pics of the cuddling happening. Those must have been magical blankets, although some of Cressey’s stillness is due to her newfound fascination with Bubble Guppies!

Cressey’s stash

And HG’s pile

Chapter books!

She has wanted this Georgie dog for a long time.

Family fun, right??

Opening the Tay Tay tickets…

They were both crazy about this horse blanket from Aunt Edie and Uncle Gene.

Amid all the chaos, I noticed Cressey sitting still watching Bubble Guppies. Girl is addicted.

Aaaaaand Blue is outta there!

Always trying to follow the big girls

Pre-Christmas 2017

We spent Christmas Eve Eve afternoon at Spiffer and Granddaddy’s, enjoying exchanging presents around their tree and, unfortunately, trashing their house in the meantime. That night, we met the Hasseltines for dinner to exchange gifts.

I brought Spiffer to tears over a kitchen towel with a handwritten recipe from my GG printed on it. I was pretty proud of that gift idea!

This was MY hat, but Cress all but took it away from me. She has worn it for days at a time over the holidays (although refused to wear it out in the snow, naturally).

Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday this year, so we started the day at church with Granddaddy and Spiffer. Then we came home for naps, changed into comfy clothes, and headed to Grandma’s for our fireplace Christmas Eve tradition.

Cressey wore a dress of Helen Grace’s

A candlelight service is one of my favorite Christmas traditions.

Um, honey, I don’t think this is going to end well…

Love this moment of our current phase of life captured by John- putting lipstick on our 8 year old (who is in a big rush to grow up) and holding our 1 year old in my lap (who must be in the middle of everything).

We needed a few last minute groceries. FYI- Target is open on Christmas Eve!

Reindeer food

Go to sleep!!! Too much excitement for Christmas day!