Christmas Morning

So as I've mentioned before on the blog, I have made it a tradition since my oldest niece was born (almost 15 years ago!) to go over to my sister's house to watch my niece and nephew open their Santa presents.   This year was no exception.  We got a phone call from my sister at 6 AM saying they were already up and we needed to get there quickly because she had two anxious children waiting to see what Santa had brought! I woke Mary Hyatt up and we all, including my mom and dad, headed to their house. 

As soon as we got there, the present opening began and smiles were seen around the room!

After they were finished, we all loaded up and headed back to my parent's house to watch Mary Hyatt open her Santa presents.  Our tradition is to wrap all of our Santa presents unless it's something big.  This year Mary Hyatt got a kitchen for Christmas so it of course wasn't wrapped.  This is us walking in to the room and letting her see it for the first time..

And her reaction did not disappoint!! She LOOOVED her kitchen.  She loved it so much that I could not pull her away to open any of her other presents.

Eventually we forced her away and she opened the rest.  She enjoyed opening the presents but still required a little help from her daddy.

It was lots of fun watching her reactions and excitement this year.  

After we finished with Mary Hyatt's "Santa" presents, we started opening "Santa" presents from my parents to all of us and exchanged gifts with my immediate family.  Somehow, I did a terrible job of taking pictures and only got a few that really aren't worth posting on the blog.  I did get this one of Mary Hyatt with her new shopping cart though which was and still is a big hit around our house.  She pushes that thing everywhere these days!

And after a morning full of fun, we were all totally pooped and definitely took a nap! Love cuddling with my girl!

My grandparents, aunt, and cousin came over to hang out  later that day, and we also went to visit Ben's family later in the day but I didn't take pictures of either.

We had such a great Christmas this year and loved getting to spend so much time with our family!

Christmas with Mimi and Chuck

On Christmas Eve we headed over to Huntsville to visit with Ben's grandparents and extended family.  Here is MH enjoying some lovin' from her Great grandmother Mimi!

We all enjoyed a delicious meal.  After Mary Hyatt finished eating at our table, she made her way into the big adult table to find her Lovie and Granddaddy.  My child is not shy at all.  Of course she put on a show to steal all the attention!

 

And then she grabbed a little lovin' from great grandfather Chuck.

After dinner we exchanged gifts.  All the grandchildren played dirty santa with "As Seen on TV" gag gifts.  I went home with some wonderful grout cleaner. haha Fun times.

Here is Mary Hyatt and Sally waiting on everyone to come in the room.  Apparently it has been a standing joke in the family that they are sitting on "the most comfortable couch ever." 

We enjoyed having Chelsea in the family this year.  She and Ben's cousin, Luke, got married recently so this was her first official Christmas with us.  Mary Hyatt was a big fan of her.  Every time I turned around she was sitting in her lap or Chelsea was holding her. 

We especially loved getting to spend some time with our new cousin Ellie.  She is 6 months old, so they can't quite "play" together yet, but I bet next year will be a different story!

After we finished with gifts and finished visiting, everyone left to go to the Christmas Eve service at Mimi and Chuck's church.  We opted not to go since it had been a long day for Mary Hyatt and we knew there was no way she could sit quiet and confined in a pew in the sanctuary.  When we got back to Decatur, we did make a quick stop over at our friends, Whitney and Brian's, house to exchange gifts.  This was Mary Hyatt's first time to meet Baby O. I'm not sure she knew what to think .

She definitely didn't like it when I tried to hold the baby.  She whined and squeezed her way up in to my arms until I was eventually forced to give her to someone else.  That's not a good sign for one day (in the distant future :)) when a sibling hopefully comes along.

We can't wait for these two girls to grow up playing together.  We hope they will be the best of friends, just like their parents!

Gingerbread House

I couldn't resist buying a gingerbread house kit this year.  When we got home from my grandmothers, we tried to put it together.  I thought it would be really simple.

but I was wrong. haha  Icing got everywhere and we had the toughest time getting the walls to stand up on their own.

Mary Hyatt didn't mind thought because that just meant the more we tried, the more icing we used, and the more she ate!

Ben and I were determined to make it work.

And Mary Hyatt was determined to eat as much sugar as she possibly could.

We did finally get it done.  Mary Hyatt was far from amused this year.  She did help put a few pieces of candy on the house, but for the most part she just enjoyed eating it.  Not sure that I'll ever buy one of these kits again, but if I do, maybe I'll wait a few years!

Christmas at Mama Frankie and Granddaddy Harlon's

On Sunday we headed over to my grandmothers house after church to celebrate.  Mary Hyatt went right down for a nap so she missed out on eating with the family--but I have to admit it was kind of nice to be able to eat at a normal speed without having to watch a busy toddler.

 

The adult table

 

The kiddo table

 



 

Me and my parents

 

Almost time for presents!

 

My Aunt Tamyra found some mistletoe during her walk on the Point Mallard trails earlier that morning.  Of course we had a little fun hanging it over people's heads.  My 14 year old niece was not amused when her daddy tried to give her a kiss!

 

Mary Hyatt woke up just in time for presents!

 

We loved having my Aunt Tamyra and cousin Owen in town for the holidays!

 

After eating such a good meal and opening presents we were exhausted.  Nothin' like a little afternoon nap!

Christmas with the Adams'

 

This year we did things a little different than years past.  Because our family is getting so big and we have so many different schedules to try to coordinate around, we decided to do Christmas with Ben's family a little earlier than usual.  We did it the Friday before Christmas and we did it in Birmingham at our house since it was kind of a central location for us all.  Ben and I really liked it this year because we were able to space everything out and really enjoy it instead of feeling rushed to get to the next place. We all ate dinner, opened presents and then just hung out for a little while.  It was great to all be together.  I'll mostly let the pictures do the talking!

 

Mary Hyatt got a new wagon from her Lovie and Granddaddy.  She was a big fan of it! (and so are we!)  We left it in our living room for a while and she would put all of her toys in it and just sit and play.  We've already taken a family walk with it and she sat in it the whole ride without wanting to get out...which was not the case with her other ride on toys. I can tell we will be spending lots of time with this thing in the coming years!

Our family has really grown this year.   This was the first year that Courtney (Jack's wife) and Kris (Meg's husband) were officially part of the family and part of our Christmas celebration.  Sally's boyfriend (below) also joined in on the fun! It's great being a part of a big family!

This basketball goal was also a huge hit with Mary Hyatt.  She knew exactly what to do (how do they learn these things?!).  Oh, and just for the record, she is wearing an Alabama onesie below because I put it on her in honor of her Uncle Jack.  Jack had bought this onesie for us for Christmas back when I was pregnant and didn't even know if I was having a boy or girl.  We all gave him a hard time because it was so big and she wouldn't be able to wear it for a while.  Can't believe we are already at the point where she can officiall wear it! My baby is growing up!

The next morning we got up early and headed to Decatur to meet up with Ben's grandmother.  We exchanged a few more gifts and had fun catching up with her as well. 

By the time I finally tried to get a picture of MH with Granny, Mary Hyatt had had enough.  It was definitely time for a nap!

Christmas Photo Shoot

Ben and I booked a session with a professional photographer here in Birmingham in hopes that we could get a few good family pictures to use for our Christmas card this year.  Unfortunately, the day of our session didn't go as planned and Mary Hyatt was totally NOT in the mood for pictures.  She cried and whined and pouted the entire time.  In her defense, she had been up late the night before and got up a little earlier than normal that morning so I think she was just really tired.  I mean it was so bad that she pitched an all out fit on the ground, kicking and screaming.  Needless to say, I had very little hope for any good pictures out of that shoot, so the next day after church, Ben and I decided to head back to the botanical gardens for our own photo shoot.  This time around, she was a perfect angel.  She laughed, grinned, ran and played.  I managed to get a few really cute pictures and ended up using some of these for our Christmas card.  Here are a few of my favorites...