Merry Christmas

We packed EVERYTHING up and headed to Baton Rouge the Friday before Christmas. I LOVE going home for the holidays but was sad this year because only ONE of my THREE sisters was coming home. I had bribed and pulled every trick out of the book to try to get the others to come but NOPE, nothing could convince them to come. Oh well. We would have to do our best to make it a great Christmas without them, sadly.

 

Christmas Eve we had the kids open their ONE present (which is always Christmas jammies) that evening.

Hudson didn't seem to mind one bit.

Boston on the other hand was extremely disappointed that it was JUST jammies and NOT a cool new toy.

Thankfully, he quickly got over it.

We then headed over to Kent's mom's house to spend Christmas Eve with his family. All but one of Kent's siblings live in Louisiana so having 5 out of 6 kids makes for a packed Christmas every year. Kent talked about the meaning of Christmas to all the kids.

Then Grandma had a cute little craft for all the grand kids to make.

It was baby Jesus in the manger. They were adorable.

Then after reading the story of Christmas, we opened our gifts to each other.

Boston scored with a new leapster game.

We all went in for Carol's gift this year and got her a GPS, duvet, shams, and down comforter for her bed.

Hillary was very practically and asked for a new toaster oven, so we granted her wish.

After a late evening, we headed back to my parents house. When we walked in, the BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER had COMPLETELY surprised me! KRISTIN AND HER WHOLE FAMILY CAME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!! They decided last minute Thursday night that they would come and it COMPLETELY made my Christmas! It would have been even GRANDER had Kari shown up too but she didn't.....no worries, Kari, I understand you don't love us as much.

The next morning was Christmas day and we woke up super early (set alarms and all) to wake up to see what Santa had brought before we had to hurry off to church. Boston DEFINITELY scored this Christmas and let EVERYONE know how excited he was. The video is priceless. He is COMPLETELY obsessed with Bowser from Mario Kart and let me tell you, this sucker was NOT easy to find. But Santa is amazing and made a little boy's dream come true!

Hudson was pretty zoned all morning and just sort of banged around his new toys.

Charlie loves anything and everything Cars so he was in heaven with his new Cars toys.

Boston also got a new ORANGE BIKE from Santa.

You always gotta take a break from looking at all your new stuff to pick your nose!

Dad surprised (kinda) mom and had their old bikes from YEARS ago and had someone fix and clean them up so they could go riding together again.

All the kids in their jammies. I love that Kristin and I matched our kids even though we didn't know we were going to be together for Christmas. Guess we must be sisters with the same taste!

Then we took a break from gifts and got ourselves fixed up to go to church. Did you know Christmas has fallen on a Sunday THREE times in the last 7 years since we've been married??? I swear I remember it only happening maybe twice in my life before that!

My sweet boys in their Christmas outfits. Yes, I am one of "those" mom's who LOVES to match her boys. It is seriously addicting.

Withers Family

Bluth family MINUS Kari

Then after church we headed back to open all the presents under the tree. Kent's favorite gift was the radar detector I gave him....I dunno if this is going to be a good or bad thing.

I've been waiting for us to unveil this gift for MONTHS. The BIG gift my parents gave the grand kids this Christmas is a trip to DISNEY WORLD in February!

We are SO excited about this and I want the next two months to FLY by so we can all by together again in Florida at Disney!!! Pretty sure I'm more excited than the kids!

 

Like I said, Boston gave the BEST reactions this year to Christmas and all his gifts. He was waiting and WAITING and HOPING to find this last present under the tree....wait for it.....

This kid jumped for joy and screamed when he unwrapped his "Bowser crushing guys" addition to his mario race tracks!

Kari and I gave my dad and oil-less, infrared turkey fryer he wanted for Christmas. It actually makes a killer turkey and you don't have to buy ANY oil! By the way, can you tell he's a big Romney supporter??

I FINALLY pulled it together after trying for the last THREE years to put together a calender for my mom of all the grand kids. It was my most favorite gift to give this year!!! I get SO excited when I give someone the perfect gift!!

As SOON as presents were done we headed to Kent's mom's house for a bit only to hurry back to my parents for Christmas dinner (no rest for the weary). It was a GREAT Christmas this year and I'm pretty sure I'll remember it forever!!! I'm SO thankful for all our family and LOVE spending this special time of year with them.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

By the way, next year my goal is to get stuff done EARLY so every thing isn't so rushed and go, go, GO during the holidays. I just want to sit back, relax and truly enjoy this time of year more! This year was WAY too busy for me!