Christmas 2012

We had a quiet Christmas this year that seemed to fly by! I had to work Christmas Eve morning and the day after Christmas, so it just seemed too short. The night before Christmas Eve we had a wedding to attend, so the girls spent the night at JaJa and Papaw's house. It was Olivia's first sleepover and she did great! I went to work Christmas Eve morning while daddy cooked the apple pie and sweet potatoes for Christmas dinner. We spent the afternoon cooking and visiting and opening presents with JaJa and Papaw. We ate an early dinner before going to Christmas Eve service. Our family was asked to light a candle, and Jeanne Ann and I each read part of the reading. At the end of my part, Olivia grabbed the paper out of my hand. When I took it back, she started screaming in the microphone just as I said that the angels rejoiced. The whole congregation laughed. It was a great memory.

Santa came to our house Christmas morning, what fun now that Charlotte understands and gets so excited. The girls were spoiled rotten, I guess they have been good!! We went back to JaJa's house to celebrate with Aunt Kay's family in the afternoon. Charlotte enjoyed playing with her cousins, and we all stuffed ourselves again and sat around playing bingo.


Charlotte LOVES helping in the kitchen!

There is nothing sweeter than a baby napping on your chest, and we don't do it often enough! Merry Christmas to me!

Olivia plays with this nativity for hours. It is March and we still have it out because she loves it so much!

Charlotte was shy opening presents because she just woke up from her nap. She stayed close to her daddy for a while, but it didn't take too long to start playing! She got lots of bible stories, and a new baby and bike for JaJa's house.



Checking out the pretty tree at church

Putting out the reindeer food, thank you Nana! This was a big hit!

Roller skates! Charlotte told us for months before Christmas that she wanted roller skates, a soccer ball and a jump rope. I'm not sure how she came up with those but she never changed her mind! And she loves all 3!!!

This came for Olivia but you can see who likes it too!


The kids table

A Christmas Tea

This is one of my sweetest mommy and daughter memories to date. We hosted a Christmas tea party for some of Charlotte's friends. What a sweet group of girls and mamas. Thank goodness for my mama who came to help! I could have never pulled it off without her! We had tea and wassail and apple juice for the little ones, with some fruit and cheese snacks and "tea biscuits" (Christmas sugar cookies!). Then the girls had a Christmas book exchange and decorated gingerbread houses. Lastly, we ate Nana's homemade lasagna and JaJa's homemade rolls. Yum!! The girls were so sweet and played so well together. And I know all of the mamas enjoyed the time to talk and a delicious homemade dinner. Poor Nana and JaJa worked the whole time, including keeping Olivia and Finley company. Thank you, thank you!!! I hope to make this one a tradition too :)

Getting ready for the big party! Charlotte loves icing (eating) cookies!!

Pau and Olivia (and baby Noah!)

Making Christmas trees while waiting for all of their guests to arrive :)

Sweet girls!

Christmas card pics

Lauren gave me this great idea for Christmas card pics! We just put on Christmas jammies, dragged out an air mattress and some Christmas books outside and wha-la!! Charlotte is impossible these days, you have to really think of something funny to get her to smile! I was happy with several of them, these beautiful girls make it easy!





And afterwards, Brooke and Rachel came over to make cinnamon applesauce Christmas ornaments. Fun! Charlotte of course had to change into the same thing that Brooke had on, thank goodness for Target!!