Wonderful Christmas!

Last year is hard to top (since my sister got engaged Christmas Eve)
but I would definitely say this year comes in 2nd. I did Christmas with some of my high school girlfriends Thursday night, Meeks Christmas Friday night, Christmas Mass & Dinner at the Kemps (cousins) Saturday night followed by a LONG, yet wonderful Christmas Day with literally everyone!

Christmas Morning...
7am-pictures at the Derivaux's while all the kids dug through their Santa gifts
9am-Christmas at my parents-we had a special visitor this year, my sister's 2 yr old nephew from Oklahoma-Santa treated him VERY well.
11am-Back to the Derivaux house to see all my aunts, uncles and cousins on my moms side of the family
Lunch-@ my grandparents (The Hadens)
Then we hit the road to Jackson to unload and reload for our Parker (Nic's grandparents) Christmas in Morton.

We FINALLY got home @ 10pm Christmas night...completely exhausted but wouldn't change it for anything. Its nice to see both families all on Christmas day!

I've realized more and more how Christmas is really for the Children  so I try and make an extra effort to make it special for my younger cousins. We go to Christmas mass on Christmas Eve and then go back to my moms to open 1 gift and toast with wine. Mattie & Molly like to tag along to my moms too so we let them open 1 gift each and drink "little girl wine" (sparkling grape juice).

For the 2nd year in a row, I did the Santa shopping for my uncle. This is win/win. I love to shop, especially with someone else's money and he gets a huge delivery on Christmas Eve -all he has to do is display it pretty for Christmas morning. Its hard shopping for 5 kids ( 2 girls, 3 boys) because they literally change their Christmas list weekly during December. I try my best to stay in "the loop" on what toys/games/clothes are in style and what the hot items are. Whether I succeed on all of that or not, they have said for the past 2 years that they LOVE Christmas and its "the best Christmas ever"=) That is all I need to hear. Regardless of the stress and worrying I do over the toys, etc...when I see them happy on Christmas morning-I immediately decide I'll do it again for the next year!

 My girlfriends @ The Whitaker's House

 Mom w/ Mattie & Molly walking into Christmas Eve Mass

 Stratton, Hampton, Mattie & Molly all sang at Christmas Mass

Christmas Morning @ The Derivaux's

 Mattie checking out her stuff..

 Stratton checking out his stuff..

 Molly looking through her stocking

Hampton & his daddy (Allen) opening his toys

 Townsend & Stratton playing with their new battleship game

 Sponge Bob hangman.. (pretty fun!)

 Paper Jamz

 Allen & Hampton

 Mattie w/ her daddy

 Hampton got a music set and as you see...Allen, Hampton and Stratton marched around the house playing different instruments

The Derivaux Clan

Hampton, Molly, Mattie, Allen, Townsend and Stratton

Christmas @ my parents

 Aideyn checking out his gifts..

 Such a happy little boy!

 Nic gave me a beautiful new David Yurman ring=)

 Molly watching Aideyn open all his gifts

 My mom got the Annieglass cake plate & petit four stand she has been wanting =)

I got a snow vest for our Ski trip! Thanks Heidi!

I found this gold antique mirror a few months ago with my mom but she said she couldn't fit it in her car and would have to come back to get it....when I sent Nic after it-he said "it sold"...little did I know-my mom had gone back and gotten it=) To say I was excited to get this would be an understatement...I can't believe she got this past me! I am SUPER excited to hang this...now just have to figure out where =)

 Nic helping Aideyn with his gun (fake gun!)

Our little elf, Mattie, was so helpful handing out gifts!

This year I decided to make a Pinterest "Christmas List" board. I pinned pictures of things I wanted and then printed it out for my mom and Nic. I thought this would be easier to keep up with since my mom continually asks me what I want and Nic always looses my list...Definitely think I'll continue doing this. I asked for practical things as well as a few nicer things and completely lucked up!

Some of my FAVORITE gifts...

Peter's Pottery Bulldog

 

Wolfe Birds

 My mom gave me a set of these for my 1 year anniversary so I gave her a set of the Gold Leaf Love birds for her 30 year...I LOVED them so much, I asked for the exact pair!

 I got 4 beautiful Mackenzie Childs ornaments (now I'm ready for next Christmas to display them!!)

 This is the mirror I "pinned" on pinterest...looks fairly similar the one I got..vertical/gold/antique. LOVE IT!

 Love my new ring!!

 I have a pair similar to these (same color) that I've completely worn out so I figured, why not ask for a new "nicer" pair...my mom surprised me with these but they wont be in until the end of this week.

I didn't put these on a list or even talk about wanting them but I LOVE gold earrings so these were a wonderful surprise!

Hope everyone had a wonderful wonderful Christmas. I spent the day yesterday taking down Christmas decorations-6 hours later, my house is back to normal=)

Looking forward to a weekend in Natchez with friends celebrating the New Year with a wedding!

Waiting on Christmas....

I absolutely CAN NOT WAIT for Christmas this year (like most, I guess). I used to get so excited about all the presents that I got but it seems like I'm now more excited about seeing everyone else (like the 5 Derivaux's) open their gifts....strange how "growing up" does this, ha!  I kinda know everything I"m getting (I think) so there really shouldn't be any surprises... BOO!

Anyways...a few weeks ago (the night after my Family dinner), I hosted our Christmas bunco. We dressed up in tacky attire and/or Christmas PJ's and played dirty santa. It was fun. The wonderful husband cooked for us.

The only thing I cooked/baked-THEY FELL APART. I wont attempt again.

We forgot to get a group picture of everyone but here are most of our bunco girls.

Then a few nights later, I was invited to another bunco party (different group)..after the dinner-a group of us road around looking at Christmas lights. WOW...some people go all out. The pictures tell all...

The entire street was lit up! You put your radio on a certain station and the lights blink to the music...I must say...it was pretty impressive! These were houses off St Augustine in Ridgeland.

Then to top off the week-a few of my old high school friends and I took a quick "girls trip" to New Orleans. We got to New Orleans around 7 Friday night, had dinner at Rock-N-Sake followed by several drinks at Lucy's (a local bar). Saturday we got up, had lunch at Camellia's (our server, Peanut, LOVED u-he hooked us up with some extra cheese fries and chocolate milkshakes---MUCH NEEDED!!) After lunch, we shopped and then hit the road. It was a quick trip but well worth it. I dont believe I could have handled 2 nights in Nola.

 Lucy's

 Shopping

 Our server, Peanut.

The wondeful, Lucy's.

Notice all the dressed up Santa's eating outside here.

After I got home Saturday,  Nic and I headed to Vicksburg. I helped Heidi with a "Handworks Holiday Open House" at my moms Sunday....think she sold between 60-70 pair of earrings...very successful day=)

 Look who I got to play with while their mommy shopped=)

Baby Jackson in a cute little Christmas onesie!

 Lots of good sweets

After we got home Sunday night... my two boys were a bit tired.

Love them=)

Mondays are always dreadful, especially after a LONG weekend on the road (literally) BUT... I had a special lunch date Monday...this topped my day off=)

 Baby Bailess and his mommy came to see me!

Look at that precious grin!

Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL Christmas holiday.

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself...
~Norman Wesley Brooks