Christmas 2010: Fourth & Final Stop: Home for Christmas Dinner!

{Eli snuggling with Grandad}

For the second year in a row, we had Christmas dinner at our house instead of at my in-laws house. Randy doesn't prefer it at our house because it doesn't feel like the traditional Christmas dinner that he grew up having, but it is a lot on his mom & I like being able to do it here & help take some of the stress of preparing it from her. Plus, we get to have a day at home with nowhere to go after all the crazy travels. Although, it isn't less stressful for me. I still have a turkey & appetizers to prepare, house to clean, & get all the chaos cleaned up from what Santa left in the living room! I took a picture of my turkey before it went into the oven (but totally forgot once it came out! Oh well!) I used an oven bag & added some fresh rosemary, fresh garlic, salt & pepper & I got many compliments on how yummy it was. That was exciting since it is only the 2nd turkey i have ever cooked...
While the turkey was cooking, the boys started off the day putting together the Police Command Center lego kit with Daddy...
Then Daddy left Jackson on his own since he needed to vacuum the house for me :)
Eli finished up his little kit from Grandma Evans & played with it for a LONG time while we worked in the kitchen & downstairs getting ready for company...
A couple of hours before dinner was to start, Cousin Becca came over early to watch "How to Train Your Dragon" with the boys. She says it's the best movie ever & since Jackson got it for Christmas, it was the perfect way to spend the afternoon.
This was also the point where i took a little break too, because I got suckered into the movie too. It was a GREAT movie & i would highly recommend it if you haven't seen it yet!

About the time the movie went off, everyone else started to arrive & the grazing on appetizers like sausage balls & bacon wrapped water chestnuts began before dinner! I just made the turkey & a few appetizers, but everyone else brought part of the meal too. We had stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn, field peas, yams, and yeast rolls too. It was delicious! For dessert: peach cobbler, pecan pie, tuxedo brownies, & cookies.

After dinner was all cleaned up, we started in on the gifts one last time! Randy got a travel gun case which he was super excited about & I got Friends Season 1 on DVD! (Already watched every episode too!) I also got a gift card to Archivers and some yummy hot cocoa & some Bath & Body Works goodies...
The boys got more toys of course! Jackson got a package of Bakugans as well as a carry case to keep them all in. And Eli got a Nerf type Buzz blaster gun. He LOVES it & uses it nonstop! Mema took the teacher route as usual & got them books! They love books! Eli got some Max & Ruby books ...

And Jackson got a box set of The Boxcar Children....
The boys were grateful for all their gifts & Eli even gave out hugs! It was a great Christmas of 2010! Thanks to everyone for making it special & may the new year bring lots of new memories with each other! We love you all!

Christmas Morning! Santa was Here!

Santa was here! And he left the boys just what they asked for- MORE Legos!! Jackson got the Police Commander Center that he had been wanting & Eli got a firetruck & the fire helicopter.We were out pretty late at Grandma's house the night before & so the kids were zonked. We actually had to wake them up around 9:00am to get things moving for the day! Can you believe that? Here is proof:

But once they woke up, it didn't take them much time to get into the swing of things! Coming down the stairs to see what santa left:

Ripping into their gifts from me & randy:
Pillow Pets!!
Eli's first big boy tie!
Jackson already loves a tie!
What my living room looked like after everything had been opened!
The kids were pretty awake at this point, but Randy? Yeah, not so much! It takes him awhile!He did eventually wake up enough to go through his stocking & open his gifts though!And don't worry- we didn't leave Zack out either!A Kong Wobbler! And he loves it!Lola didn't care too much about Christmas. She just likes an excuse to nap some more...We hope you all had a very Merry day!!

Christmas 2010: Third Stop: Grandma Evans!

Here's the heart of the matter: I look forward to Randy's Grandma's house at Christmas because of the food. Seriously. Love it. She makes the worlds best fried cornbread. And yams. And somehow she makes corn & butter beans taste better than everyone else's too. How? I don't know. She just does. I don't even like corn. But i like Grandma's corn...And did i mention pecan pie? YUM :)
Hi Grandma!This Christmas was a little sad because it was the first Christmas without Papa. But Grandma seemed to handle it well & we all made the best of it.
After dinner, Marie & I washed dishes while the men did this:

Randy & his Uncle Wayne

Now Grandma doesn't waste time. As soon as the dishes are done & put away, she always immediately says: "Well, let's get in there & get started on the presents." So we do! This was Jackson's first year playing "santa" & passing out the gifts...While Jackson passed out gifts, I took an opportunity to grab a shot of the other three of us while waiting...
Now the one thing I don't like about Christmas at Grandma's is that everyone tears into the gifts all at once. I like to see who gets what & that's hard to see when everyone goes at one time! And it's hard for a Mama to take pictures of both her kids at the same time too!

Wayne & Debbie got both the boys a big kit of Fuzzoodles!
Grandma Evans got them both a Lego kit & an outfit!

Of course, both Lego kits are already put together & being played with. My kids waste no time with Legos!! Thanks Grandma Evans for a yummy meal & the gifts! And thanks for all the Fuzzoodles Debbie- they have already been hard at work on those too!

Christmas 2010: Second Stop: Grandaddy & Grandma Tee's

On Christmas Eve Eve, we headed back to Wilmington to celebrate with my dad, stepmom, brother & his family. Usually, Randy has to work on this day, but since Christmas fell on a Saturday, he got his two days off on Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve. So we were able to get to my dad's house a lot earlier than usual & we were able to open gifts & have dinner together that night rather than get up at the literal crack of dawn like we did last year to make it work with everyone's schedule! Zack knew exactly where we were headed when it was time to pack the car back up again... so he was very willing to get back in the car!He gets to play with Pete when we go to my dad's so he is always thrilled (& wore out when we get home!)
As soon as we arrived, Jackson stuck to Kayla like glue as usual. We don't get to spend nearly enough time with Kayla & Jonathon as any of us would like. And Jackson makes sure to make his time count!

And Randy shot some hoops with Jonathon for awhile....Since Daddy & Tee (aka Grandaddy & Grandma Tee) had already cooked loads of food for Christmas Eve lunch with Tee's family, we opted for Pizza takeout this night! Easy & Yum... After pizza was gobbled up, we exchanged gifts, letting the kids go first which is about the only way to contain them! The boys both got a movie: Eli got Toy Story 3.... (and after he opened it, he looked at the case for about an hour, looking over every detail!)

And Jackson got How to Train your Dragon. We had never seen it before, but I had heard good things about it... (More on that later....) He also got the Optimist Prime transformer which was a hit!Eli also got some arts & crafts stuff which he was (hate to admit it, but out of character) willing to share the next morning when he woke up. It was a Crayola Color Explosion kit & was really cool. He shared with Leah & Jackson without any encouragement from us! Go, Eli! :)Kenneth got a funny gag gift of old ladies underwear! He is so gullible & easy to embarrass, so this happens about every year! My brother, Jeffery, made both of his kids their gifts this year & did a fantastic job! Jonathon got a really cool shelf for his room that holds hats, and baseball bats.
And Kayla had been wanting a hope chest so, yep, he built her one! Isn't it beautiful?
Of course when she said, "Daddy! It's beautiful!" we all went to doing this: (getting teary eyed!)My dad opened his gift from me as well this night... which was the tee shirt that I blogged about in a previous post...
That night, sleeping arrangements got really interesting. And it boiled down to this:
Three kids on the floor next to me & so packed in the room that we couldn't even close the door! It was so funny. Emma was so sweet & offered to sleep with Eli because he really didn't want to sleep in our room because Jackson got to sleep with Kenneth & Jonathon. Emma's offer did the trick & convinced Eli to sleep in our room. Then.... Leah wanted to sleep with Eli too. So, we had to figure out how & where they were all going to go because no one wanted to sleep solo at the foot of the bed rather than next to the others. We made it work- but it looked like this:The next morning we all just hung out until lunch time with Tee's family. (which again, I have no photos of that lunch! :( I had my stuff all packed up already!) But here's some more of all of us hanging together beforehand....

Me & Kayla: I can't believe she is 14. Really- Where does the time go??

Sara Beth hanging tight with Grandaddy....

The kids all playing Mouse Trap- which Leah got as a gift the night before...

Eli's Preschool Party

Eli had a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party at school & was so excited for weeks building up to this party. From years past, when Jackson was in this age group- i knew they would be singing. So i made sure i had my video ready! Here the class is singing Jingle Bells & We wish you a Merry Christmas... Eli is on the far right, singing, but in a very shy manner!



And here are the photos of him with is class eating lunch...

and eating his sugary treats...

and this is the "reindeer" he decorated with a brownie, pretzels, & m&ms... Cute!