holidays

After a very nice Christmas Eve, our Christmas Day was a perfect wrap-up to the long holiday weekend. Another Christmas has come and gone… It seems like I blink and it’s over. It was just Thanksgiving and now we are quickly approaching 2013. I was at Publix yesterday and they already had Valentine cards out. We all seriously need to slow down…. Like Blue! He knows how to relax….

But now, I want to share our fantastic Christmas Day! After a quiet morning at home with hubby and Blue and Ozzie, we headed over to Nick & Jenna’s for the afternoon and a FANTASTIC dinner. Of course much of the afternoon was all about Autumn, as it should be. I cannot get enough of her silliness and laughter. And the older she gets, the sillier she gets. Having a bad day? Listen to Autumn for a few minutes and you will forget every single problem you are facing. I wish she could follow me everywhere.

Anyhow, little miss Autumn got a pink BB gun for Christmas after showing interest in Nick’s which he recently bought to shoot in the backyard. And before you go all “you’ll shoot your eye out” on them, you have to know that it is safety first. Not to mention Autumn is an ace shot. Water bottles and soda cans were being shot with unbelievable precision – by Autumn. No need to worry about her and boys, that’s for sure.

Nick, Jenna, and Jenni also had fun with the BB guns. Not sure why I didn’t shoot it… Oh I know, I was too busy taking pictures! You can’t really tell in this picture, but hubby is holding Autumn’s pink gun.

There was also swinging and backyard fun. Thank goodness she tolerates all my picture taking and is quite the little poser, both with me and hubby.

Then it was time to open presents! Autumn very much loved the My Little Pony set we got her. A girl can never have too many ponies, just ask Autumn.

And then there were gifts from Grandmommy and Jenni too. Silly girl asked why everyone likes to give her so many presents and we told her because we love you!!!

Scarlett had to get in on the action too… After presents, it was time for Scrabble. If it’s a holiday and we have time, there is a Scrabble game. It’s genetic in this family. Unfortunately this game did not go my way and I kept trying to sell my vowels…

For dinner, Nick made a deep fried turkey. If you haven’t had one, you should definitely try one. It is so juicy and tender. So yummy!!

While we waited for dinner to be ready, Jenni and I went outside with Autumn so she could ride her new bike and wear her fabulous helmet and cute gloves.

I couldn’t let the day pass without a picture of me and my honey… The weather was nice, so we sat out on the patio while the turkey cooked and Autumn played on her swing. And because you can never watch it too much, A Christmas Story was on all day. That movie never gets old.

Time to eat! Along with the fried turkey, there were also mashed potatoes, rolls, pasta salad, corn, macaroni and cheese, and broccoli casserole. I’m full again just thinking about it. Thank you for the delicious dinner Nick and Jenna!

After dinner and dessert and we were all stuffed (and discussing how awesome stretchy pants are), we went outside to watch Nick and his new interest, slacklining. Every heard of it? I wanted to try it but I imagined myself throwing out my back and that just would not have been cool.

It was such a wonderful day. Good company, good food, and lots of laughter. My kind of day…. On the way home, we saw a beautiful sunset. I thought of Daddy all day long, wishing he was with us, having a hard time believing that this was our third Christmas without him, and seeing this sunset reminded me that he is with us, always.

How did you spend your Christmas? Do you celebrate any special traditions?