Christmas 2014

Christmas morning was spent at my parent's house.  We started a tradition of staying in El Campo for Christmas morning when Emmarie was born.  The tradition began because Bradley was working nights at Haliburton, and I wanted him to be able to spend any time that he had during his waking hours with us during the holidays.  We really enjoyed the slow pace and simplicity of being at home for the holidays because we NEVER stayed home during Christmas.  We were always at my aunt or grandmother's house.  Not to take anything away from those memories because Christmas with all of my family is amazing, but there is something special about not having to go anywhere or be on anyone's schedule.

We showed up in our pajamas bright and early (LOL) around 11:00 am.  Mom was cooking breakfast, and we brought our best appetites.  After we were through eating, we moved on to the part Emmy (and secretly all of us) was waiting on--the presents.

She got to open a few presents for little brother first.  She was really excited.  She was even more excited about the Frozen Barbies that she opened next...those were for her of course.







The big kids got to open a few presents during Emmy's reign as well.





Once she was mostly finished with her own presents, she went to "help" Papa with his.



Nana loved her James Avery ring that we got her.





It's really not about the presents at all (even though they are awesome).  Christmas is about getting to spend time with the people that you love and getting to see the joy and love that surrounds everyone during this special time of the year.



Later that afternoon/evening we had Christmas dinner.  I have a "once per year" rule with holiday food, so we decided to make Christmas an Italian affair.  Mom made lasagne; I made spaghetti squash.  It was really good even though it looks like soupy goop in this photo.  Britt made a salad.







Mom even busted out her Christmas dinner set for the occasion.



Right as we were about to eat, we had some Christmas guests show up.  YAY!  Kari finally got to meet Wyatt, and of course he brought his Mommy, Daddy, and Jackson along for the ride.





We had a lot of fun eating, playing games, cuddling the sweet baby, and thinking about how it doesn't get much better than this.  I guess it will get better though because next year, I will have two little babies to rain the Christmas season down upon.  I. Can't. Wait.