Christmas #2

We spent the day after Christmas relaxing, enjoying our gifts, packing, and totally de-Christmas-ing our house. On the 27th, we piled in the van and took our first road trip as a family of five! The boys were perfectly occupied watching their new movies. Sailor did remarkably well, sleeping the first 4 hours of the trip without a peep! We managed to make it to Grammy and Papa's house in just over 7 hours. Of course Sailor was a star, as Nanny, Uncle Jerry and the Workmans had not yet met her!

Meeting Aunt Lisa!

On Saturday night, we had our official Christmas dinner. We celebrated at Rob and Lisa's house, since Grammy and Papa are currently in a rental while they build their beautiful new house (ready by next Christmas, hopefully)! 

 

With Nanny and Cousin Laura

Douglas, Keaton, Laura, and Mark

Just girls!

Oldest and youngest cousin

Hard to tell from the pictures, but the Workmans had a gorgeous Christmas tree that was over 13ft tall! It was quite a sight!

My handsome boy!

Mark is in love with his cousin Laura!

The Workman family

My silly Santa!

Having fun with Cassie, the dog.

Hi Papa!

More presents! 

Keaton was very excited about his new scooter! Especially after I had convinced him that the big box with his name was a set of golf clubs! he he

Such a fun evening!

Christmas #1

It was such a treat to have my parents here to spend Christmas with us in Virginia. I love being surrounded by family at Christmastime, but I have to say that it is extra special to wake up in your own bed on Christmas morning. So thankful to get to do both this year!

Amazingly, all three of my kids slept until after 7am on Christmas morning. Truly the best gift they could ever give their parents - sleep!

Oh my, I love them!

Stockings!

"Santa" came through in a big way this year!

Keaton got his Star Wars Cantina Lego set

Mark got Boomer, a highly intelligent remote control dino.

Planes: Fire and Rescue!

Thanks Mom and Dad!

Finally some more food to play with in his kitchen!

Silly Brumbra (in her new North Face fleece)!

What did Papa get?

Looking through the new calendar!

Sailor had fun watching everyone else open gifts.

Oh, wait! I think there's one more gift in the garage!

WHAT?!!

No way!!

A new basketball hoop! Thanks Brumbra and Papa!

We spent most of the day in our PJs

Building forts

Playing LEGOS of course!

Mom and I hit the kitchen and cooked up a delicious Christmas dinner of ham, biscuits, grits, green beans, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, of course!

And Sailor was snuggled...

And spoiled...

Two of my best gifts EVER!!

Merry Christmas!

Mom and Dad flew out the next day. We had one day to hang out at home, pack up the van and hit the road for Christmas #2...

Two Months Old!

DPP#25: Merry Christmas!!

I wish I could bottle the excitement of Christmas morning and stir a teaspoon in my coffee every day for the rest of the year! Merry Christmas everyone!

DPP#24: Christmas Eve

3 generation shot - Sailor can't be bothered with it... oh well! 

Merry Christmas!

DPP#23: Jesse Tree

Our Jesse Tree is almost full! This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions that we have started with our family. It was introduced to me  by a friend in Nashville when Keaton was a baby. In fact, I started a whole set of adorable felt Jesse Tree ornaments, which I never finished. When Keaton was 2, I finally downloaded these printables online. We colored them together and laminated them to create ornaments. Each day in December leading to Christmas has an ornament. Each ornament represents a story or passage from the Bible that points to or reminds us of the birth of Jesus. Most of the stories are also found in our favorite Jesus Storybook Bible, which is awesome because it does a really great job of explaining the correlation of Old Testament stories to the promise of Christ. The boys love finding the ornament of  the day and hanging it on our "tree" after we read our story every morning. I love that it is such a simple way of reminding the boys of the reason we celebrate Christmas!

DPP#22: Brumbra Time

Enjoying some snuggle time with Brumbra! We have sure enjoyed having her here. As much as I love to snuggle Sailor 24/7, it's sure helpful having an extra set of hands around to help with baby girl.