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...
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!
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