What a wonderful Christmas it was... We spent it with each of our families and got to see pretty much every single member, all of which we love so dearly.
The Saturday before Christmas was spent with my dad's side, the Cooks, at Uncle Rich (my dad's brother) & Aunt Bonnie's house, where we'd just spent Thanksgiving, for another cozy sweet time together. I had made Nana's (dad, Rich, and their other brother Doug's mom) famous dinner rolls recipe from scratch (for the first time, nervously hoping they were just right!) a couple days beforehand with my mother-in-law, Karen, during our annual Christmas baking day we had. Each of us took turns accidently turning the mixer on too high too fast getting flour everywhere, hehe!
The table was decorated so beautifully as Aunt Bonnie always does, with the name tags handmade with love... Bonnie & Rich's grand-daughters put together the cute little gumdrop tree.
After dinner, we exchanged gifts under the theme of "oldie but a goodie" - meaning we had to buy our person something from the Thrift Store this year! It was fun to see what everyone got, and we all made out VERY well!
The day after, on Christmas Eve, Tyler and I took the day for some much-needed rest and enjoyed a candlelight service at our local church in town. I love going there on Christmas Eve because it's such a beautiful sanctuary with the red carpet, candlesticks, poinsettias, and beautiful old Christmas hymns.
Each Christmas morning, we spend with Tyler's mom Karen for brunch the three of us then heading to spend the early afternoon with Nanny and Opa, her parents. We usually go to her house but this year, she came to us! It was so nice. Remember that breakfast I told you that dad made for us? We headed that up and enjoyed every single bite - it was delicious and took me right back to my childhood, as I knew it would... We toasted with Mimosas and opened gifts! And Jesse joined us too! The egg bake with a gorgeous wreath made of parsley and peppers, french toast, spiced apples, and sausage... Can't forget the topping of "snow"!
We also had our stockings ready to open... Baxter finally had one of his own this year. I crocheted the other two for Tyler and I (and one for our beloved Myah of course) back in 2009 or so, and had yet to make Bax one but I found time to stitch him one this year so now he's official!
Karen gifted me that wreath you see Baxie laying next to right up here to the right, and Tyler received a new toaster oven! We got rid of our microwave this year (look it up - they're so bad for our bodies!) and so we're excited to use that! And my wreath will be perfect in time for next October! Bax was excited about his new toys and cookies too... So then it was time to leave for Nanny and Opa's!
We surprised Nanny and Opa with an "all-in-one" record/CD/tape player this year so they could play their old records, and it was absolutely precious to watch them pick out their favorites and sing along to the ones they chose to listen to. We also surprised Opa with a DNA kit from My Heritage and are excited to see what those results are so we can pass that down to our own kiddos one day. We had a small little lunch around the pop-up table in the "dining room" of seven layer salad, quiche, ham, and Nanny's famous Chocolate Cake, all of which Karen made and brought. Tyler and I ate light because we were about to go to another feast at Aunt Nina's! But we exchanged our gifts with them and spent a nice calm and relaxing afternoon with Nanny and Opa. We love them so much.
Afterwards, it was time to venture over to my mom's sister, my Aunt Nina and Uncle Denny's house for Christmas like we also do every year! It's so warm and cozy there - like a Christmas dream! I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked but that's because I was visiting with everyone which was so nice... :)
Each year, all of us get a fun little musical instrument and this year it was spoons! We all goof off with them and them move onto our Yankee Swap (where you have a pile of wrapped gifts everyone has brought that you can trade among each other once they've been opened) before Santa comes! ;) Holly's (Nina's daughter) birthday is on Christmas and this year, she turned the big 5-0 so Aunt Nina had the fun idea of buying gifts for Holly instead of the Yankee Swap, but of course not having Holly know until it was time to start the game. I went first, and opened the gift saying, "wait - this says it's for Holly!" so she opened it, and #2 went. They also opened the next gift and said "wait - this is for Holly too!" so she got it and began to open the rest of the gifts after being given the adorable birthday hat to wear while she opened! So that was fun! And on a fun note: apparently her birthday cake took a little tumble this year during preparations... hehe. Still tasted delicious, I'm sure!
Then Santa came, and everyone got a little something special (thank you Uncle Denny and Aunt Nina!!) and we then sat and visited and enjoyed each other's company...
And after a week of working/not working, resting, sort-of working, eating leftover cookies, and wondering what day it really was... we topped of Christmas week off with Tyler's dad's side of the family - The Smiths, at his dad's sister Tracy & her hubby Mark's house in Virginia - you know, where we spend the weekend for the kayaking trip every summer! I hardly photographed but did capture a couple fun little moments... We had our cocktails, smoked trout, steamed shrimp, salad, rice, and gumbo! We did do a Secret Santa and exchanged our gifts with whoever we had one-on-one at different times through the day whenever we felt like it was right, which was kinda fun. We hadn't done it like that before but I loved it. It made the gift-giving feel more special in some sort of way because usually, this side of the family just all opens the gifts at once and it gets insane!
Luke (Tracy & Mark's son) was in town from California, and it was so great to see and catch up with him! We all just took it easy and hung out together for the day which was nice...
We are so unbelievably blessed to have the family we do - on both sides. And as tired as I am, currently under the weather at best, I wish I had more energy to go into just how grateful we are, but I know they know - and we know they know we know - and we know they feel the same because we are all so blessed to have each other. At any time - but especially at Christmas.
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Merry Christmas once again - and a very Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for sharing in our memories with us!