Our day started at 6am when we woke up, showered, got all "ready" and then put our PJs back on, packed the car with gifts for both our families, packed our clothes for the day, and off we went to stop #1! By 7:20am we were at Jack's parents house opening gifts and by 9:30 we were at my parent's house opening gifts with them. We then have a traditional big breakfast and then scurry to help my mom finish up getting the house and table ready for everyone to arrive for the day. Then after dinner, the traditional BINGO games we have, and a few more drinks, off to Jack's parents we went again to say hello and goodbye to everyone again. Reason for this is because Maggie & Joe & Kailey leave the next morning for Boston and Jack's Aunt and her family leave to return home to Texas. Yes, it's crazy, yes it's tiring, but it is Christmas and it happens only ONCE a year...so we do it and really do enjoy it all. I will say that when we do have kids one day this will NOT happen hahaa....so enjoy it now everyone!! :)
This year we all got PJ's for Christmas - even Sadie!! Loved hers, too funny & cute!!
Sadie also got a leather couch/love-seat from Jack's parents. It is perfect size for Sadie, but it is also a perfect size for Kailey...who certainly took the opportunity to get ahead on all her books while on the cozy couch!
We love our time with Kailey!!
And our morning moves onto my parent's house:
If you don't know, I LOVE Ellen! She's just so fun and does amazing things to help out people who are going through hard times...and she dances at the start of each of her shows...how fun!! I record her show every day and watch it when I get home from work to "un-wind". To get her book, something I totally was not expecting, was so exciting!!
Now my mom is very sneaky, clever and sentimental...just a few of her great qualities I love about her! Every day in Hawaii our resort had this AMAZING coconut lotion that worked wonders and of course smelled amazing. Each day I hid the new one they'd put in our room...so I have quite a few! But I told her how sad I'll be when they run out because they're actually made IN Hawaii. Soo....she looked on the back of the small sample bottle, got the number and ordered large containers for me of lotion and shower gel. You want to talk about best Christmas gift!!!! Thanks Mom - best gift!!! ....Still waiting for the plane ticket back though, haha!!
I got a little sentimental myself this Christmas for my gifts. I created a 80+ page book for my parents of our Hawaii trip. I worked my little bum off for 2 weeks before Thanksgiving to get it finished. It was SOO much fun to make, worth every minute and it turned out beautifully - yes, I proud, but what makes it all worth it was the reaction I got from my parents = Tears, tears, smiles, and some more tears! SUCCESS!! haha!! The day after Christmas my mom called and told me she's looked at it at least 5 times already that day and just loves it. It was such a special trip, one Jack and I will never forget (and hope to share with our own kids) and are so grateful for my parents taking us to Hawaii for their 40th wedding anniversary!!
Sadie's our little kid so it was just as exciting to watch her open her stocking gifts!
I made Cindy a book also (not quite 80+ pages, haha) of memories from her 1st Marathon that she did in Chicago this fall. It was fun to put it together, I'm so proud of her for this!
Every year my mom buys "poppers" and they're on our plates for dinner. Before anyone starts in on the food we open our poppers which always have a paper crown in them. Everyone puts on the crown, we take a picture and then we begin. Yes, it's silly but hey...it's fun, a tradition, and we aren't too proud to have fun, which is what I love about my family!!
I don't have a big family, there aren't a lot of cousins, but it's my family and I love them all dearly!! We are all different and unique and special in our own ways and it's our differences that make us all great in our own ways - which I love! And I'd like to believe we all appreciate and love each other because small families, especially, need to stick together!!
A picture of the girl cousins - we're missing Sean, sadly he'd left before we thought of taking this picture.
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