Christmas Day

Christmas Day we packed it up and headed to Kansas City to celebrate with my family.  We showed up just in time to decorate some Christmas cookies, enjoy a huge Christmas feast and end with unwrapping some presents.  We had to wake up the next morning to deal with the "Santa Bags" as they were overflowing with endless amounts of treasures and they needed a few hours of attention just themselves.  We got things ranging from lipgloss to Dinosaur Poop and everything in between.  And OF COURSE we also got our fair share of scratcher tickets, but no big winners to speak of.

We checked off all of our Christmas Traditions and then some this year.  We were definitely on the move this Christmas, but it still felt like we got to spend great quality time with both families and for that I fell so incredibly blessed.    

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning is always so fun and so...fast! I'm sure Santa takes MONTHS to prepare for this magical morning at every little girl and boy's house and then boom, ten minutes of opening presents and it's over!  Magical indeed...for 10 minutes!  But don't fret we jumped right into opening the packages of everything and making a gigantic mess.  It's Christmas, it's hard to form the word "no".  I also knew we were going to spend the next 3 hours in the car driving to Kansas City so I was feeling generous with the carefree lifestyle and messy house.  We all had a great Christmas morning full of surprises for everyone, Santa even remembered Cooper this year (thank you Petsmart commercial for the reminder).  
   

Christmas Eve

Lots of traditions surround our Christmas Eve celebration.  We spend it with Chad's family, we all bring appetizers and stuff our faces, there are too many presents surrounding the tree, I torture the children for a picture before any present is opened, we open any toy the kids ask us to,  we make homemade pizzas and stuff our faces...again and then we attempt to play a game or two before we all poop out and head home.  This year was no different, every tradition...check.    Always so much fun, and even better now that the kids are getting older and their games/toys are getting more tempting to play!  

I think this might be my favorite picture of the day.  Reid is looking like "Pie Face" is the best gift ever (well besides that WWE Belt pictured above) and Wyatt is looking at "Pie Face" thinking who the hell would buy THAT game for THAT kid!  Your Grandma Wyatt, that's who.  I mean what Christmas celebration would be complete this year without "Pie Face"?

Santa Visit(s)

I've debated whether to tell this WHOLE story or not because in the end neither Bennett nor I look very sane (him more crazy than me of course).  But you know what?  You get the good with the bad here at Skipping Rocks!  So here goes nothing...

Let me set the scene.  We waited until the week of Christmas to go see Santa Claus (Fail #1).  We decided to meet at Bass Pro right after work/school one day (Fail #2).  I brought no snacks or other forms of bribery (Fail #3).  So as you can see this was asking for trouble.  It turned out though that the line was not near as long as I had expected.  I stood in line while the boys wrote letters to Santa and did a few other activities.  I thought all was going way too perfectly, and turns out I was right.  So I am approaching the big man himself and I signal to Chad to bring the boys over.  They come over and Bennett starts in on his all too typical behavior of being a super duper jerk.  He takes one look at Santa and says "No".  Excuse me?  I just waited in line and you are straight up refusing to have this magical moment with the Jolly Old Man himself?  He again says "No, I'm NOT talking to Santa", but this time also throws his list on the floor.  At this point all of the elves and all of the store it seems are taking in the Bennett show and I try to still reason with him that he doesn't have to talk to him just give him his list and take a picture (duh this is the whole reason we come to see Santa).  He stomps his feet again, and insists he will not being sitting on anyone's lap for a picture.  You can imagine my frustration at this point, I tell Chad to pick him up and I thought I'd just get a screaming picture (which would have been totally acceptable to me FYI) but Chad just marches along with Bennett tucked under his arm like a football.  So I quickly snap a picture of my ANGEL child on Santa's lap and am on my way.  Not without tears in my eyes mind you, not without tears.  And we were out of there.  I'm pretty sure Bennett got the silent treatment for the night...or two.  Because I'm a big baby, and because it felt good.  Bennett was not scared of Santa, if he were scared it would have been one thing but he was just being a jerk.   So here is our 2015 Santa picture... 

Did you think that was where the story ended?  Silly Silly people.  We let a day go by and then we somehow convinced Bennett that he needed to go see Santa again.   Chad must have REALLY felt bad for me too because he even joined me for the craziness a SECOND time.  This time we were not as lucky with the line, we had to wait an hour and a half.  But I had high hopes, and Bennett was all hyped up on candy and in a good mood (stop judging, I feel you judging).  So when it was our turn both boys marched right up there like it was their job, told Santa a few things they would like and turned to me with big smiles on their faces for a picture.   Sweet Baby Jesus, it's a miracle.  And then we promptly went to "The Target" and I bought them Pokemon cards, just to solidify my craziness.    So finally, here are BOTH of my lovely children and their magical visit with Santa...

Gingerbread House Construction

You knew family pictures were not going to be completed without a bribe right?  I mean these are my children we are talking about.  So we kept telling the boys we had a "surprise" at home for them and it turned out to be a Gingerbread House to decorate (mind you we were going to decorate a Gingerbread House no matter what, but hey whatever works).  So we came home from pictures and decorated our little house.  The boys had fun for a while and then I had to step in and put some finishing touches on.  Next year I am hoping to get invited to my Sister-in-law's Gingerbread House decorating party (are you reading this Stephanie?), so I can really show off my skills.  

Family Pictures

Well, I did it again this year.  I spent time taking other people's Christmas pictures (you know people that are prepared) and I didn't take the time to even schedule a family session for my own family let alone get the pictures taken.  So one random morning when we didn't have much going on I wrestled the family up and decided to do my own session, Tripod and all.  I had never really used a tripod before but I was willing to try.  Not gonna lie, I was pretty impressed.  So here we are in all our glory for our 2015 Christmas Pictures.  You'll notice there are not very many "formal" pictures because I again made that ultimate promise.  "Just one of the family and one of you guys together", blah blah blah.  This time I did PRETTY GOOD.  Everyone was in surprisingly good moods and was excited about "exploring" the creek below after the pictures.  They even asked me to take their picture a few times of their "adventure", and who am I to disappoint?

I even had them done in time for the annual Christmas Card.  Here was the final copy.  

Front and Back.