Christmas in Carolina Part 5

Christmas Day! Santa came!!

We had such a nice relaxing Christmas! We had weather in the high 60's-low 70's. It was unbelievable. It felt like we were all back in Florida. I was getting a bit annoyed because we wanted cooler weather and we didn't really have ANY cooler weather! The Carolina's are making up for it now (burrrr). 

I hit a HUGE home run with Ryan's Christmas gift this year. I surprised him with a new guitar. He has been talking about getting a new guitar for probably 4 years and I knew this was the Christmas for him. It had been a long year for this guy and he has been so patient. I filled his stocking with guitar accessories so while he was digging through, he kept looking at me with a very confused face. Finally when he said, No way babe. I said, oh yes babe! and ran upstairs and carried down a huge wrapped box with his name on it.

The guy was in heaven! He got a few other presents too, but he always came back to the guitar. Even a month later, he still reminds me that "I got him" and that it was his best Christmas gift ever. Go me! haha It is always so challenging for me to gift him, so when I got this idea months ago, I knew it was going to be a Christmas we would all remember. Yay!

The girls got some fun things too. One of their favorites were these Japanese fans my dad got for them while he was on a business trip in Japan. We plan to put them on a shelf in their room someday so they can look at them anytime they want to, but just not touch them anytime they want to. 

I love scenes of Christmas morning. It is one of my favorite things to do. I just sit and watch everyone open their presents and watch their reactions and interactions with each other. Auntie Jilly was such a huge help with the kids and their presents. She always gets them way too much (like they would complain!). She gives the most thoughtful gifts. I need to take a few lessons on her because I'm always coming up short with presents!

new "American Doll" girl for Ellie. She named her Sarah

Head lamp and sewing kit!

It was such a beautiful day so after we opened presents, we went for a family walk down to the lake.

Another wonderful Christmas with my favorite little people! Having a new baby at Christmas was easily the best part :-) Owen just lights up our life and we all just love his spirit in our family. We have been so blessed and I'm so thankful for all that we have been given by our Heavenly Father.

Christmas in Carolina Part 4

Christmas Eve.

We woke up to Jack taped to a window and surrounded by highly armed Lego men!

Our plan for the day was to go ice skating, but instead we found a new trampoline center not too far away. We had SO much fun. I had been seeing so many friends all over the country go to these trampoline places and I wanted to go to one so badly! There is one in West Palm, but that's a far distance to travel for us when we were unsure how the girls would even react to it. Ryan was jumping all over the place. It was fun to watch him do big flips into the foam pits. Ellie wasn't too sure about the trampolines and sat with me or Auntie Jilly the entire time. But Brinley had so much fun. She was getting more and more confident jumping into the pits by herself. She is a fearless little girl!

For dinner, we made fun appetizers. YUM! We had 6 or 7 different plates of goodies and we were all raving about all the fun things we had made. We had bacon wrapped bleu cheese stuffed dates, a ham dip, shrimp with cocktail sauce, cheese spreads with assorted crackers, veggie plate, summer sausage, and a goat cheese roll that had blueberries on the outside. We were all so happy after eating dinner. haha

After dinner, we gathered our costumes to act out the Nativity. Ryan and I were Joseph and Mary. Owen was Jesus. Brinley, Ellie, and Auntie Jill were angels. Grandma was a shepherd and Sophie was her sheep. Grandpa was a wise man. My mom has a great script that only takes about 10 minutes to read through. It is the perfect one to use with kids (and adults!) that have a short attention span.

Jammie time!

Christmas in Carolina Part 3

December 23rd is Ryan's birthday and every year I try and make it extra special for him. He is always saying "honey, I don't need anything!" but we all know that isn't true :-) I had something up my sleeve for his Christmas present (it cost $$$) so I kept his birthday presents simple; new workout top and a protein shaker water bottle thingy + seeing Star Wars 3D the night before :-)

We went out for lunch together as a family. It was at this new place close to my parents house.

My mom had to go to the Temple that night so we kept dinner low key and I made the Trader Joe's orange chicken, rice and green beans. 

Let me just preface this first, the whole day, we had been texting with my sister Jill and my brother David that she was going up to Seattle for Christmas. Then David texted that she wasn't, and with my mom gone at the Temple, it left my Dad and I very concerned and confused. People's phones weren't on and we were getting frustrated that Jill didn't call and let anyone know what was going on.

--ok. so then by 6pm, we were all extremely confused--

I was holding Owen and about to round up the troops to have pumpkin pie with Ryan, when someone opened the door from the garage and I couldn't see who it was right away. IN WALKS JILL. I just was completely surprised. I start crying and screaming. My Dad walks over and we just laugh and hug and we really had no idea what was going on haha 

Apparently, EVERYONE except us were in on her flying out here. It was literally one of the best surprises of my life. The entire rest of the day, and even the rest of the week, I just would say "I can't believe you're here. I can't believe you tricked us!!" We had the best time with Auntie Jill. She is a favorite amongst everyone!

sneaky Jack sleeping in the sled!

cutest morning picture of these two

Christmas in Carolina Part 2

We got to the Steele's house in the afternoon on Sunday and settled into having a fun week with them. We were sad to not have any of my siblings join us, but we were just happy to be IN Charlotte.

gramps and Owie

we realized this is our 9th Christmas together!!

I love seeing all my mom's German decorations out

my request...IKEA!

Our first Christmas activity was to go to McAdenville aka Christmas Town! It was a perfect night to walk through and see all the houses and Christmas lights.

I love playing in my parents playroom because all the toys and costumes are from my childhood! I have the exact picture of Brinley in this cat costume from a few years ago. I love that they love these toys just as much as I did as a child!

trader joes date with mom!

And for Ryan's birthday, we were able to see STAR WARS in 3D! We had the entire theater to ourselves (#smoochysmooch). We were happy to finally have a kid-less date!