As you can read about in my post here, we celebrated our small family Christmas on Saturday, December 22nd. Sunday, December 23rd, was a pretty standard day for us, but on Monday, December 24th, we headed to my parents' house in Missouri.
We got there around 10:30am. My brother, Jeremy, and his family had gotten there the night before, but my sister and her family weren't able to be with us this time. We spent some time visiting, had an easy lunch, then I had the little girls take naps. After they woke up, Uncle Jeremy gave everyone some Christmas "bling" to wear. Of course, I had to get a photo of all of us in our bling!
You may notice there is an extra in these photos. My nephew, JT, brought his girlfriend, Mallory, to meet us and spend Christmas with us.
I brought stuff to do manicures and facials with the girls, so that was next on the agenda. We actually only did manicures and saved the facials for later after the little girls went to bed. Everyone's nails looked so pretty!
Jeremy had to jump in our photo (always!)!
That evening, JT asked Grampy and G-Jo to go on a double date to the local Mexican restaurant with him and Mallory. I thought this was so cute . . . not many college kids want to double date with their grandparents :-).
The rest of us stayed in and had finger foods for dinner. We enjoyed visiting and eating!
Dad recently resigned from his job as an instructor at the Bible Institute of Missouri. Because of this, he has moved his entire office home . . . including a huge desk and several sets of bookshelves. They are planning to move to Oklahoma sometimes within the next year, but for now all of the office stuff is in their house (you can see a bookshelf in the photo below). To make room for the bookshelves and desk, they got rid of the futon that was in their home office. This posed a sleeping problem for their house full of guests, so Jeremy decided to reserve a hotel room. He and JT slept at the hotel, while Shawna, Kaylee, and Mallory stayed at Mom and Dad's. After we got there, Shawna, Kaylee, and Mallory all shared Mom's sewing room and gave us the guest bedroom. However, Jeremy purposefully got a hotel room with an indoor pool so he could take the kids swimming. Brianna and Brenson both went with Jeremy and JT to swim and stay the night at the hotel on Christmas Eve.
Before they left, however, we had family bible time. This is always a special time with family, and I'm so grateful my children get to have this experience.
Singing Hip-Hip-Hip-Hippopotomus
After Jeremy, JT, Brianna, and Brenson left to go swim, I put the little girls to bed for the night. Then, Mom, Shawna, Mallory, Kaylee, and I all did facials!
Jeremy sent me this pic of Bren making himself at home in the hotel room after swimming.
The next morning (Christmas Day), Jeremy and Bren went running before coming back over to Mom and Dad's with Brianna and JT. Mom, Shawna, and I got busy cooking Christmas Dinner while the kids played and enjoyed their cousins and Uncle.
The N family on Christmas Day: Jeremy, Shawna, Kaylee, Mallory, and JT
Our family on Christmas Day 💓
Mom and Dad on Christmas Day
We had a little break from the kitchen while a few of our dishes were cooking, so Mom and Dad decided to go ahead and open gifts. Of course, my kids loved this!
Kaylee with her loot!
Bren's favorite gift from Grampy and G-Jo was this Nerf gun. He's been wanting one for a long time, but we didn't feel like he was old enough until now. He was a very happy boy!
Brianna loved her gifts, too!
Jeremy was explaining the gift his family gave Brenson. Of course, Bren was listening intently!
This year, my kids were the only ones really opening much. JT, Kaylee, and Mallory got mostly gift cards, and the adults received stuffed envelopes.
My kids received rain boots from Grampy and G-Jo, and of course they had to put them on right then!
The photo below is probably my favorite one from the day. Grampy and G-Jo got Brooke and Brecklyn each a My Life Doll. The look on Brecklyn's face says it all!
Brooke
After we finished opening gifts, we did a "wrapping paper" pic with our cousins. Grampy joined us this time. The result was this cute photo:
At around 12:30pm, we sat down for a delicious meal. Once again, I thought about taking a photo of our food before we sat down, but once we began eating I forgot all about it! Christmas dinner at my Mom's house is epic, and easily my very favorite meal of the year. It's a ton of work, but worth it!
Once we finished lunch and clean-up, we all had some rest/quiet time. Chris and I put some of the kids' new toys together for them, we did some reading, and just visited. The little girls and some of guys were really the only ones who slept, and after everyone was up G-Jo had a craft for anyone that wanted to participate.
While G-Jo did her craft, Shawna and I took a walk. It was a beautiful day, and it was so nice to get out in the fresh air!
That evening, we had told the little girls that they could go with Jeremy to the hotel to swim. To say they were excited is an understatement! They put on their swim suits and rain boots to go, and they just looked so stinkin' cute!
On Christmas evening, we always have leftovers for dinner. I love turkey, and one of my favorite things about Christmas is the turkey sandwich I eat the evening after our big meal. Shawna always eats one too, so we enjoy it together. It's kind of our thing! The delicious turkey sandwich did not disappoint this year!
All of those who went to the hotel finally got back to Mom and Dad's around 7:00pm and ate leftovers, too. Brianna didn't want to spend the night at the hotel again, but Brenson did! He, Jeremy, and JT headed back to the hotel after dinner, and Bren fell asleep in the car on the way there! He'd had a big day with all the running, playing, eating, and swimming!
On Wednesday, December 26th, Jeremy, Shawna, and their crew left for home around 9:00am. Before they left, JT requested a photo with the twins. 💓
My washing machine hadn't been working before we left home, so before we headed back home I wanted to do several loads of laundry. After my laundry was finished and we got everything packed, we left at around 11:00am. We weren't too far down the road before I looked back and saw four sleeping children!
Something about traveling and family and holidays just wears my kids OUT. We had a smooth trip home, and got home in time to have a few hours of downtime before Bible study that evening. It was really a great trip, and I'm so thankful we were able to have such a good time with family!
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