Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

On Christmas Eve night we get together at DeDe and Mike's house with the family to have dinner and open presents.  Lilly is a professional gift un-wrapper this year.  She loved to open all of hers and then help others open theirs.  What is Christmas without a helpful spirit, right?  She got a Melissa & Doug magnetic princess doll from Melissa and Danny and the cousins.  She got the ballerina one from Aunt Shelly.  She had them both out playing yesterday and asked which one was from who so I was telling her and when I said that the princess one was from Melissa and Danny, she said, "Danny!  I Looove that Danny!"  Ha! 

She also got this princess pillow that she loves to sleep on.  I have been transforming her room into a big room this week...but more on that later. 

Reid opened his Cars shirt and had to put it on immediately!  That boy is loving anything Cars right now.  It is a good thing since he now has a lot of it. 

Aunt Kay gave Lilly 3 dresses to play dress-up with.  MamMa made all 3 of them for Melissa when she was little and was a flower girl in several weddings. I LOVE them.  I love that MamMa made them and that Melissa wore them when she was little and I love that Lilly is wearing them now.  It is just special to me!  And, so does Lilly.  She wore all 3 of them that night! 

Ray asked for cash money...and he wanted it all in one dollar bills.  Hysterical.  No--he didn't want them for "the club"--he just wanted "a big wad of money".  Ha!  We asked him if he was going to spread it on his bed and roll in it.  (:

Reid had so much fun playing with his cousins!

And, of course his Uncle Bert (and Aunt Becca).  We talk about Bert and Becca daily.  When we were at lunch one day Lilly asked Reid, "Bubby what do you want for Christmas?" and he said, "Bert and Becca".  How stinking sweet is that? 

Later Christmas Eve the kids opened their gifts from Bert and Becca.  Lilly was super excited about Ariel.  The Little Mermaid was in her stocking for Christmas this year.  Luckily I had bought it when she was a baby and it was still out because she asked for it and it isn't being sold in stores right now! 

Reid LOVES his Cars tent.  We wouldn't open it for him so he carried it around like a briefcase ALL weekend long.  Christmas morning he opened gifts one-handed because he wouldn't let go of it. 

Oh, and I am pretty sure I spotted a reindeer Christmas Eve, too!  (:

On Christmas morning MamMa got to come over!  This really was the best Christmas present ever!  She is in a rehabilitation home and while we know that she needs to be there--it just wouldn't have been Christmas without her celebrating with us!

We LOVE our sweet MamMa! 

Christmas day Reid played some more with his cousins!

Lilly and Melissa put a puzzle together.  And then took it apart.  And then put it back together. 

Grandma Betty was there Christmas day, too, and we enjoyed seeing her as well!  Later that evening we went to see Granddaddy and MeeMaw but I was just too tired to get the camera out there.  We had such a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with lots of family! 

25 Days of Christmas Activities

We were so busy making memories that I haven't had a chance to blog it...so here it goes.

We made a fort (out of our dining room table and a sheet) and read Christmas books in it.

 Lilly read a book.

 Then Reid read a book.  It is all about "sharing is caring" in this house.  Ha!  That is Lilly's favorite saying these days.  I haven't figured out where she picked it up at. 

 Then I made cookies from a bag my secret recipe cookies for us to decorate! 

This was the setup. 

 At the store Reid wanted blue icing.  I didn't realize it didn't have a tip so it came out kind of thick.  Oops.

 Decorating!  At first Lilly was focused on decorating. 

 Then she got distracted by eating the icing...

 and then it took a turn for the worst and she started sucking the icing right out of the bag. 

 This was Lilly's cookie. 

 And this was Reid's cookie.  Matt put on the face. 

Matt shocked me with his gingerbread cookie skills!  This is his cookie. 

One of the things we had planned to do was to make dinner and a treat and take it to my Aunt Jan but when I talked to her it worked out best for us to just go to lunch.  So we met her for some pizza and brought her some of my homemade-from-a-bag cookies. 

 We had such a good time visiting with Aunt Jan.  Both of the kids wanted to sit next to Jan and talked her ear off. 

We made ornaments.  I had actually planned on having an ornament party and making several ornaments but it just didn't fit in the schedule. 

 We put paint in a clear plastic ornament and shook it up.

 Shake, shake, shake.  Once the paint covered it all, they put their handprint on it.  I have rubbed off on my children because they LOVE to do their handprints. 

 Then I sprayed them with a sealer. 

This wasn't on our calendar but we went to lunch with Grandma Odie.  Or as the kids call her, "Grammy Odie". 

 We went to the Golden Coral.  We love our Grammy Odie!  Reid had chocolate covered strawberries for the first time. 

 They were a hit! 

 Before we left for Benton we had a dance party to get out all of that energy before the car ride.  We danced to Jingle Bell Rock at least five times because that is Lilly's FAVORITE Christmas song.  Every time it would come on the radio she would say, "I love that song!" and when it was over she would say, "Play it again!"  Luckily I had a CD with it on there. 

 We had so much fun dancing our wiggles out! 

 Then we watched Polar Express and ate popcorn on our way to Benton. 

I loved doing the 25 days of Christmas.  We didn't get to everything and we definitely didn't get to it every single day but we had so much fun doing what we could when we could and I loved that it was in our schedule to have some family fun. 

Merry Christmas!!

Well I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!  I am, of course, way behind on posting our 25 days of Christmas activities and our Christmas celebrations.  I will catch up on all of that this week but I wanted to post our "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake. 

We have talked about Christmas being Jesus' birthday. And Lilly has been singing "Happy Birthday Jesus" for a couple of weeks and talking about his birthday party.  We have been talking about making him a cake on his birthday because Lilly really associates cake and cupcakes with birthdays.  Ha!  And when it comes to cake, she totally gets that you should share. 

 She was so excited to help make the cake!  She dumped all of the ingredients into the bowl and helped stir. 

 Reid helped stir some too! 

After we baked it, we spread on some chocolate fudge icing (daddy's choice!).

 Again Reid got to help too! 

 We put a red heart (for God's love) and then put LOTS of sprinkles on top. 

 Said "cheese" with it.

Then Reid kept sneaking icing while we were waiting on Daddy. 

 I read the Happy Birthday Jesus book.  Then we sang (that is what Lilly is doing in both the above and below picture) "Happy Birthday Jesus".

 We put a candle on the cake for each of the kids to blow out but Reid said, "I don't want the fire".  Ha!

 Lilly was happy to blow his out for him too.  In fact she said, "It's okay bubby!  I got it for you."

Then we dug in!  Reid ate his entire piece of cake! 

 Lilly ate just a couple of bites. 

This is a picture of the inside of the cake.  Just because I thought it was cute and festive.  (:  I loved doing this with the kids and I think it is just an easy and simple way to help the kids understand the real meaning of Christmas. 

 These are just a couple of the things I wanted to remember about this year.  One-everything above the kids made at church at some point.  There are the "one-foot" Christmas trees, the angels, the wisemen, and their letters to Santa that they made on "Polar Express" Friday night out. 

 We laughed out loud when we read Lilly's.  It says, "I would like a barbie house and pain.  Also, I would like a baby boy and girl named Becka and Burt."  Over Thanksgiving we were at DeDe's house and Eli asked Lilly what she wanted from Santa and Lilly said, "I don't know."  So he took her to the computer to show her things she could ask for and one of them was a barbie house.  For whatever reason it stuck with her.  She doesn't even really know what a barbie house is yet!  But that is what she told Santa every time we saw him.  Then, of course, Uncle Bert and Aunt Becca are having a baby.  I guess she would like us to have a baby boy and girl and name them Bert and Becca. 

Reid's says, "I would really like some toys for Christmas.  Also, I would like to be with Mommy and Daddy for Christmas."  When I read this I had to ask if he said it and she said she asked him if he wanted to toys for Christmas and he said, "yes!"  Then she asked him if he wanted anything else and he said, "I want Mommy and Daddy."  Melt my heart! 

I have just enjoyed this Christmas season so much.  We have made so many fun memories with our little cuties and have loved getting to see so many family and friends!