It’s That Time of Year

Full speed ahead….we’re preparing for Christmas!

Christmas Festivities

We had a good experience with Santa this year. (We went to a family party at Gram's place and they had a creepy, wannabe Santa.) After I took this picture, Reagan showed it to him.


We celebrated Christmas early with the Bray's. Here some of us are baking.


Then we took a break to do some dancing.





Rea has been sporting a few of her favorite things. Dora sunglasses, big jewels, and a notebook.


Our RI friends were visiting family in St. Pete, so we met halfway at a park. As always, Rea had a blast with Mr. Andrew. Here they were playing golf with big sticks.

Tradition

Icing...


Sprinkles...


Pose...


Enjoy...


All of it...


Repeat!

Christmas Angel

...a sand angel...



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~Christmas Flashback~

~Rea & her daddy~

~Christmas Flashback~

Flashback of...glorious cookies!

I was organizing pictures the other day...such a necessary evil...and came across some good memories. I want to share the memory with you...

The week of Christmas, our sweet neighbor friends, invited us over for our inaugural cookie decorating party. Oh, it was so much fun...really! It was our type of party for two reasons. One, cookies were involved and two, it was a "private" party. Rea and I like small gatherings.

So, my friend, Jenny, had made homemade icing and had used her super cool cookie press and made 1 million little sugar cookies shaped like stars, wreaths, Christmas trees, and something else. Jenny iced them in a super speedy way. Her two boys, Sam (4) and Knox (2) and Rea dipped the cookies into a variety of sprinkle variations, and I supervised!

Rea did much better than I thought she would! She really did it!

We partnered most of the cookies from that day with other homemade treats and gave them to family and friends.

Enjoying herself...

Cool guy, Sam...


When they had had enough of the decorating, they headed outside to burn some calories.

Sweet Sam is pushing Rea...

So close!

I love Christmas Eve...even more than Christmas day!

Baking done and distributed! Presents purchased, wrapped, and under tree! House straightened! Chicken thawing for dinner! Rea's new kitchen from Mimi and Papa put together and covered with a sheet! Laundry put away! Guests on the way! Rea taking a great nap!

This is the calm before the storm...a great storm! Love the storm! It's the story of my life and I wouldn't want any other way!

Having us some tacos...then to service in the park...back to the house for 500 desserts made by Julie, the Christmas story and our year in review...and then presents!

I better keep going...straighten the play room and get dressed still to do.

Shout out to my favorite peep...A. Pinder! Her 26th birthday was yesterday!!! Hope it was fabulous and looking forward to celebrating Saturday. Hope you're home or at least on your way by now.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Stocking!

I almost forgot to mention the stocking we got Rea. Jon and I still don't have one, but we got one for Rea from Pottery Barn. I love it! We hung it from our stairs since we don't have a fireplace. It looked good there!

It's a big stocking and she's a little baby, but not little enough to get into the stocking!

Christmas Blessings

So now that you have heard all about our festivities, are you wondering what goods we walked away with? Another fabulous year!


Reagan received...

• several cute outfits
• jammies
• several great board books and big kid books
• couple DVDs (like a Praise Baby and a Baby Einstein) Wish we had all the Praise Babies...Reagan loves to watch them and I enjoy listening to the music.
• lots of big girl toys...my favorite was this one.
• "Gator Fan" bib and onesie
• Shower curtain and hooks for her bathroom. So cute! Now we need to get the rest of the collection.
• very soft pink fluffy blanket with brown flowers that says "Baby Girl"
• pink blanket with her name on it and a matching bunny
• many sweet little odds n' ends
• monogrammed burp cloth & bib

Jon received....

• Ralph Lauren cologne collection
• Leatherman
• UF sweatshirt and long sleeve shirt
• UF golf towel, balls, tees, etc.
• Croc flip flops (black/black)
• the Book Power of a Praying Husband
• camping griddle
• gift certificate for a massage

I received...

• a pink Zune
• Nike workout pants
• the Tobi steamer
• a digital scrap book of my niece and nephews
• Hand-made body scrub, soaps, and foot scrub... yummy! Wish I could make your screen a scratch n' sniff so you can smell them.
• cutting tools
• Deceptively Delicious cookbook
• 2 year subscription to Clean Eating
• underwear :)
• Luggable Loo for camping
• two cool vase things to decorate my house from Villeroy & Boch
• necklace & ornament from Hawaii
• bracelet from Chicos
• UF Tervis Tumbler with lid of course.
• UF divided platter

We also got many gift cards...Target, Bass Pro, Melting Pot, the movies, Chick-fil-a, Starbucks...MMMMmmm good!

The above are just some of the gifts we got...I know I'm missing some! A HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE!!! We are so blessed!

~CHRISTMAS DAY~

FINALLY...here's the scoop from our big day!

Here's the little face we woke up to. Her top says "My First Christmas". I didn't go to bed on Christmas Eve until 3:00 because I was cleaning the house up, cooking for the breakfast the next morning, gathering all our stuff we had to take the next day, etc. Even after me staying up that late, we still had to rush around to get everything ready because we had to be at the D & J Adams' by 8:30. Rea needed a bath because I wanted her fresh as can be for the special day...she didn't get a bath the night before because we were up so late doing family stuff and she passed out. Jon and I had to get ready of course. I had to make monkey bread and I ALWAYS have a hard time getting it cooked all the way. We finally got there, but we were late. :( It wasn't the ideal way to start Christmas day, but that's real life. (I am committed to blog about the good and the bad.)

After our breakfast, we gathered in the living room and the kid's started opening gifts. We have a fabulous basket system where each kid gets their own basket to keep their presents together. It works so well! I highly recommend it. In fact, I'm implementing it next year for the Bray family.

Carson is a Cars freak! He got several pieces of Cars clothing and wanted to put them all on and so he did...piece on top of piece.

See...here are Anna & Aleah in front of their baskets. Dreamy trying on a pair of jammies!
We were briefly flashed by her cute hiney.

Too much Christmas for Addie.

Kels & Al had to leave to spend some time with Al's family and Curt, Kara, & the boys had to leave to go pick up Curt's brother from the airport. This was the first year in some time that we didn't have to run off. It was so wonderful to hang around, munch on breakfast leftovers, visit, etc. Some kids watched a movie and others took naps.

Looks like she likes Christmas already.

Jon and Dreamy have always been buds!

We packed ourselves up and headed out. We went home to do our Christmas with Rea. We each got Rea a couple of things and the other parent was to be surprised. Jon got her several adorable outfits and I got a wall thing/plaque for her room that says "My prince already came his name is daddy."

First Christmas as a little fam!!

That's the little wall thing in the background.
Then the adult Bray family came back over and we watched a comedian. It was so relaxing and a nice way to end a great day. Here's the crew!

Christmas continued...

So, we started the Bray festivities on Christmas Eve with a scavenger hunt for baby Jesus. Once he was found in the gutter drain, he was returned to his proper place in the borrowed Nativity scene. (We don't own one yet.) Jonathon found him first, but I'm pretty sure a kid was suppose to.

We had a very yummy nontraditional meal of salad, ham, vegetable soup, and mac & cheese. It tasted wonderful and the prep and clean up was a breeze! We sang happy birthday to Jesus. (Notice the massive candle....the biggest and best for Jesus.)

We tried to do some really cute pictures by the tree of the kids and their adorable hats. This is the best we got. One (Abigail) wouldn't show her face, another (Jaden) wouldn't wear his hat, and Maddie was worried about the screaming Rea. This is a picture of reality right now!

Up close.....Reagan's 1st Christmas!!!

Gram was a great sport like usual! We didn't make it to the Christmas Eve service we were planning on...too much to do in one night. We played a creative game orchestrated by Aunt Julie...good times. We listened to a version of the Christmas story then it was time for the kids to open their presents.







Possibly the coolest gift this season!

Reagan was pooped before she even got to presents.

BUT that was short lived....there was too much fun going on.


Cute sisters in new pajamas from Aunt Becka & Uncle Jon Mike!


Once the kids were done with gifts, it was movie time for them. All of them, except Rea, got embroidered sleeping bags. So, they climbed in them or on them to watch the featured flick.



Reagan ready to help open my gifts.


Jaden would come back in every once in awhile to check on Rea.


CHRISTMAS DAY TO FOLLOW.....can't bombard you with too much at once!