Christmas in Review

I know I'm a little behind in my posts recently. We are still trying to get back to "normal" life after our very busy Christmas/New Years season. In fact, we still have our tree completely decorated [and turned on], all the Christmas cards we received are still on display, our indoor decorations are still all around the house, and our outdoor lights are still up and lit by the self-timers. We are having a hard time saying goodbye to Christmas this year. David, who never wants to watch tv, still wants to watch The Grinch everyday. Both kids are still mesmerized by the lights and ornaments on the tree. We still sing Christmas songs throughout the day. And when I broke it to David yesterday that we will soon need to throw the tree away, he responded with, "And then we get a new one?!"
In my hometown, there was a lady who kept her Christmas tree up all year round. As a kid, we all thought she was a bit crazy, now I'm starting to think I might be turning into her. 

Anyway, here's run down of our Christmas celebrations with extended family. 

We started off at Twinkle and Bing's house a few days before Christmas. We finally got a chance to sing Happy Birthday to Bing the first night. 

Bing and his 3 under 3. As you can see it's a bit crazy. David's the only one totally into the party. Parker was crying, I think, because he bumped his head on the table. And Rachael is focused on the small candle just out of her reach. 

The next morning we woke up and opened presents, but not before some precious cousin pictures. 

David and Rachael pulled up a chair and ripped into their gifts. 

David liked helping others with their gifts sometimes.

Parker was into the present opening too. 

Both kids absolutely loved riding on a horse that was their Daddy's [called 'Clip Clop']. 

We also took some time out of our visit to take some cute family pictures.

All of us.

Grandparents with their grand babies. 

The five of us. I LOVE this picture!

We had a wonderful few days with Twinkle, Bing, Uncle Michael, Aunt Nicole, Cousin Parker and all the pups! It was a great way to begin our Christmas season! 

We said goodbye to everyone there and left for Ma and Big Daddy's house for our annual Christmas brunch with Ma's family. Once again, it was a bittersweet family gathering without our Papaw. 

There was one moment of comic relief, brought to us by my son, during what could have been a very somber moment. As we were all gathering to say the blessing, David came running into the kitchen with a shower cap on his head. Everyone thought David's "hat" was hilarious, but for Ryan and I, it was not surprising. David does things like that everyday.

I also tried to take some cute pictures of the kids by the Christmas tree, but as it seems to go these days, they were too busy being silly and oh so sweet.

I didn't have much time to take pictures, so I am SO thankful my Uncle Tony was capturing the fun of the day with his camera, as he usually does. 

David playing with Hannah [a second cousin] and Cate.

Rachael sitting with Daddy and checking David's gift.

All the little cousins and second cousins on Ma's doorstep. 

Ma with her granddaughters. 

We had one day at home before Uncle Wayne hosted a Christmas Eve Eve party at his house, which is thankfully not too far from our house. My camera battery died right as the kids started open their gifts! But, I did get these two cute ones. 

After having Christmas Day and the day after all to ourselves at home, we went back to Ma and Big Daddy's house to have Christmas with my family.

Ma's main tree- one of SEVEN.



Cousins by the tree.



The girls were dressed alike!



Rachael wanted to show off her bloomers too. She wore them a lot during December because I think they are just too adorable.



It was finally time to open presents and David was a BIG help at passing them out.



When Rachael heard she got to open gifts yet again, she was very excited.



David was very serious about helping others open their presents.

Our evening at Ma and Big Daddy's brought our Christmas season to an end, well sort of. It's still Christmas here at our house! It was a wonderfully blessed few weeks as we celebrated the birth of Our Savior. Now that David's able to understand, Ryan and I got to see Christmas through a child's eye- probably why I don't want to say goodbye to anything Christmas related. It was so much fun and I hate that we have to wait so long to see it again.