Merry Christmas!
Well, let me catch up with myself...we've been having some fun times around here!
Here are a few bits and pieces of what has been going on...
A willing but slightly hesitant visit to see Santa...
A couple of days ago, our family spent a little bit of time Christmas shopping together on a very cold day (which makes it feel like Christmas to me!), and then settled in at Cracker Barrel for lunch. We love eating there when we have a little time on our hands...Corey and Christian play checkers in front of the fire, Caylie and I look around in the store, and Carson just enjoys playing with the little wooden peg game at the tables! :)
That evening, we all headed out (in the rain) to Garvin Gardens in Hot Springs to see the Christmas lights. Corey had heard that is was worth going to see, but that you had to get there early to avoid the big crowd, so despite the rain, and a car full of doubters...Corey was sure it would stop before we got there...we loaded up, and set out on the road.
Wouldn't ya know...he was right! By the time we got there, the rain had stopped, and as he had guessed, the rain had scared off the crowd!
It was a hit!!!
We had all gotten bundled up because we knew that it would be cold...Carson was so layered that he could hardly move! :) After we paid to get in, we headed over to get some of the complimentary hot chocolate and hot apple cider to carry along with us...YUM! We set out walking along the beautifully lit paths, and were all just AMAZED at much preparation and effort had gone into making it just MAGICAL! It was just the icing on the cake that we felt like we were almost the only people there! As we came to the end of the walking path, there was a great fire for warming up, roasting marshmallows and making s'mores! So nice and cozy! Oh, and can't forget round two of the hot chocolate and apple cider after we got back to the building!
We had a great time...and took lots of fun pictures! Take a look... Caylie is sporting her new fancy schmancy jacket that was her main Christmas gift...given a couple of days early just for this occasion! Christian got his a little early too...a new guitar!!! Can't wait to have my guy playing some great music for us around the house! He's been holding out for it for a year or two now! :)
We all decided that we need to make it a yearly tradition!
On Christmas Eve, we gave Carson his main Christmas gift...it wouldn't fit in the car! Here he is taking a test drive in his new ride...
After a little bit of a cram session trying to get last minute things taken care of, we loaded up, and headed to Corey's parents house for Christmas. We enjoyed a nice night together, as his sister and her family also arrived, and then we were blessed with little Carson sleeping through the night!!! (The last time we spent the night at Nana and Papaw's house, we had a VERY long night!) We didn't take it for granted!
Today we all got to start the morning with our traditional Christmas breakfast...Monkey Bread...can't beat that! Leaves the whole house smelling just like Christmas!
We all enjoyed opening some nice gifts and then watching the kids have fun playing with their new toys! Carson, however, didn't like that cousin Jackson got a plasma blaster, and he didn't....that didn't go over well at all, actually. Oh well, the little guy always gets the short end of the stick!
Here are a few pics from the morning...
After a YUMMY feast with way too much food, some took naps, while others played, chilled out, or went on walks...I was a napper! LOVED IT!Finally, we wound up lots of good playing and visiting, and packed up again to head home.
While we always feel like Nana and Papaw are happy to see the whole crew come, after having such a full house...11 in all, with 4 loud and rowdy boys, I imagine that they must also sigh just a little sigh of relief when they wave goodbye to those two cars backing down the driveway!
Thankfully we all get to see each other very often!
Thanks Nana and Papaw for another special Christmas! As always, we enjoyed it! :)
1 comments:
A great year and blessings for a great new one as well!
Happy New Year,
kari & kijsa
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