Keeping Up with the Joneses: Christmas!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Christmas!

Be forewarned, this is a long post. Feel free to skip to the bottom for tons of pictures if you'd like!

Christmas was amazing! A bit of a whirlwind due to travelling, but I am so thankful we had family to visit!!! We started off with presents at our house Christmas Eve morning. The slide was a HUGE hit. AW took right to it and has been sliding ever since :) We cooked pancakes and had a fun breakfast then headed to Montgomery. We went to my parent's house for presents which included a new kitchen set with food and a grocery cart plus a new tricycle (along with other goodies). Ally loved her toys! She was so funny about the tricycle though. She kept pointing to her head and didn't want to ride until we put a "helmet" on. I think she saw the girl in the picture on the instructions with a helmet and she wanted one. Since we didn't have a helmet we put her hat on and that seemed to suffice. She has also enjoyed cooking in her kitchen, and I love that she enjoys pretending!!

Then we went to the Candlelight Communion Service at Trinity Church with Steve's whole family. It was a beautiful service! Next on the agenda was Christmas Eve dinner. Since Steve and I got married our families have had Christmas Eve dinner together. It is such a blessing to be able to be with everyone at once and always such a fun time. AW had all she could take that day and went to bed, and my parents and Steve and I all exchanged gifts. My Dad and I (and Steve sort of) stayed up until Christmas morning (a little after midnight) watching White Christmas! That is definitely my new favorite Christmas movie. I had never stayed up until Christmas morning but thought it was really fun (although I was pretty zonked Christmas morning).

Christmas morning we headed to the Jones' house. As always we had an amazing time! All our parents are beyond generous! AW got a new Power Wheels which she jumped right in. Her feet don't quite reach the pedals but she has still figured out how to ride and really likes it! We had a wonderful breakfast and then loaded up to go to Opp.

We did had lunch at Mimi's and opened gifts and spent time with family and then had dinner at Nana's. 36 people got to come to Nana's this year and it was awesome getting to spend time with family that I haven't seen in awhile. As you may guess, Ally did not make it through all of the festivities that night; she was pretty wiped out and a little fussy I might add from all the activity. My Mom did a Happy Birthday Jesus party for the kids which was really cute, and AW got a kick out of following her cousins up and down the stairs at my grandmother's house.

The next morning my aunt hosted a breakfast for everyone then Steve and I headed to New Orleans for a 2 night getaway (post to follow). Steve took the whole week after Christmas off so we got to spend lots of time with everyone plus get in a night at the farm. With all the leaves and the nice weather it was amazing out there. I think Ally may be happiest at the farm. She loves to dig in the dirt, play in the rocks, run around, and this time ride her new Jeep. That is definitely where Steve is happiest too, so once again, like father like daughter!

This was Steve's present from his parents-a new recliner! It was really a present for me too; I was so happy to get rid of the old one.