The Adams' Adventures: Christmas Day 2010

Christmas Day is always VERY busy for me and Ben. People say "It must be so much easier since yall are both from the same city." I will say it is nice to be able to see both sides of the family, and its nice not to have to alternate holidays with each family. However, I would definitely not say it is "easier." To us, it seems harder because we feel like we have to be at everything, and that means a lot of driving back and forth throughout the day. By the end of the day, we are exhausted, but I wouldn't want it any other way!

Ever since my neice Kayli was born, I have always got up super early and gone over to my sister's house to watch them open Santa presents. I love being able to see/hear their excitement at all the the things they receive. This year was no exception. Me, Ben, my mom and my dad all woke up at 6:15 AM and headed on over to their house. (They are always up before daylight because they are so excited, so we have to go early!)

Santa sure was good to them! Here is Kayli and Chase in front of all their presents!

One of Chase's favorite gifts was his Cam Newton jersey... War Eagle!

Kayli got a Justin Bieber doll that sings some of his songs.

She also got a new guitar because she recently started taking lessons. We took a quick break to let her play Jingle Bells for us as we all sang along.

After they finished opening their presents, Ben and I headed over to his house around 8:30 to open Santa presents. Here is Meg and Sally with their stockings!

I took a couple of other pictures of us opening gifts, but they are all blurry.... I'm not sure what happened?!

But, after we finished opening presents we all headed out to play in this...

Yes, we woke up to a white Christmas! It was beautiful! Ben even let Emma out to experience her first time in snow...She loved it! I took several pictures of her, but this one just makes me laugh so hard! It captures her personality so perfectly! Ben was throwing snow up in the air, and she was jumping up trying to catch it with her mouth!

Ellie ventured out for a little while, but headed back in to the warmth.... and of course I had her dressed in her Santa outfit!

At 10:30, we headed over to my parents house to open Santa presents there. Yes, somehow Santa knows to deliver presents at all of these places! haha

One tradition that my sister has done every year is to take Kayli and Chase to the Dollar Store and let them pick our a present for everybody in the family. Ben always ends up with something really funny from Chase... this year, this was it!

They really do put a lot of thought in to a lot of the gifts, and are usually so excited to watch each person open their gift!

Ben and I gave Abby a Justin Bieber doll like the one Kayli got from Santa. (Yes, our almost 3 year old neice LOVES Justin Bieber... she pretends to call him on the phone all the time!) Look at the excitement on her face when she opened it! My brother better watch out.. apparently Abby is already "boy crazy!" haha

After we finished opening presents there, Ben and I headed back to his house around 4:00 to eat a Christmas dinner with his family. His mom always cooks a delicious meal and pulls out the fine china.

After dinner, we then headed over to my grandmothers house. This year we did things a little different. Instead of buying each person an individual gift, we decided to play Dirty Santa. It was actually a lot of fun!!

I did have to buy my grandmother one present though. I saw this stuffed maltese in a store at the beach and it looks just like her dog, Opie. (Ellie's baby, remember them?) I thought it was hilarious that they looked so much alike so I had to buy it...See for yourself... Here she is holding the stuffed animal when she opened it...

And here she is with Opie, the REAL dog. They look exactly alike don't they!

After presents, we all played Bingo for door prizes that my grandparents had picked up. It was an intense game of Bingo..everybody was concentrating so hard!