We had a white Christmas! It started snowing during lunch in Grand Prairie. It kept snowing all afternoon, with accumulation on the grass, roofs, etc. What a beautiful sight. Wyatt enjoyed going out in the snow when it first started to take some pictures. Once he woke up from his nap late in the afternoon it had stopped snowing - so we didn't go back out to play in the snow until the next morning. Wyatt and I were home alone while Justin was at work, but we got all bundled up and I let him check out the accumulated snow in the back yard. I took a couple of pictures of him, we ran around a minute, then went back inside to warm up. Below I have listed the various Christmas gatherings we had this year.
McGilvray Christmas - One Saturday before Christmas - I think it was December 15 this year, we had the McGilvray Christmas. We met at Jan and Billy's house, ate a yummy lunch, and had a Chinese gift exchange. It was good to see the family. We got to take Pemberly and Cordie with us this year, and they seemed to have a good time as well.
Parker family: The Saturday before Christmas (December 22) we went to Sulphur Springs to see Grandmother and Grandaddy (the "Greats"). Wyatt enjoyed playing with Grandmother and cousin Mandy. We had a good time and were sad that we were only able to stay for the day. Staci and Will went Friday night and Mom and Dad stayed Saturday night - but we just went for the day. Wyatt still asks about Great-Grandmother every so often. I know he enjoyed playing with her. For Christmas Wyatt got a fun musical instrument set from Grandmother and Grandaddy (which has been a big hit) and a cowboy hat and stick horse from Aunt Julie and cousin Mandy. He loves the cowboy gear! I have tried so many times to get a good picture or video of him riding it around the house, but haven't had much luck. The only one I could find is below - sorry he is just in his undies. We didn't get to see Uncle Phil and his family, but they sent Wyatt a "w" book and some bath toys. He likes his book a lot, and went through one week where we read it multiple times a day every day.
Christmas Eve: We spent Christmas eve with my family. We opened lots of presents and had a yummy lasagna lunch. The most exciting part was when Staci and Will announced their pregnancy. After all the other presents had been opened they handed each of us a gift to open simultaneously. When I read the note about my shirt (One cool aunt) that had not yet arrived I was thrilled! It was funny to see everyone realize why they were getting shirts for being Granny, Grandaddy, aunt, and uncles. We are so excited for Staci and Will, and very much looking forward to August.
Christmas Eve Night: I saw an idea on pinterest to get everyone new pajamas and a family Christmas movie each year to open and watch on Christmas Eve. I decided to get Wyatt the pajamas (to wear for pics in the morning) and a Christmas book for his bedtime story. Then I got Justin a Christmas movie that he really likes that we watched after putting Bubba to bed for the evening.
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| His Christmas book - The Night Before Christmas |
Christmas morning: Wyatt has been very interested in Santa Clause this year (once he stopped calling him Noah). He is, however, too scared of him to sit in his lap. He had two different opportunities, and was very interested, but when we tried to get closer he just clung to Mama or Daddy. I explained to him that Santa would come to his house on Christmas Eve to bring presents. I didn't think he understood at all. To my surprise on Christmas morning, (a week or two after that explanation) when he woke up and I said, "Merry Christmas" Wyatt said, "He came to my house?!?" He was so excited to open his Christmas presents. He had fun pulling all the things out of his stocking, and unwrapping his presents and helping everyone else unwrap their presents too.
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| New pajamas from our wonderful neighbors Mr. Ron and Mrs. Geri. |
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| His own camera so he would stop wanting to use Mama's (he still wants to use Mama's - but at least I can redirect him to his own) |
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| Stocking presents - I think he is holding little finger puppets. |
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| Daddy and Wyatt coming in to find what Santa brought. |
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| His first "sword" little toys from his stocking. |
New Year's Day: We always celebrate Christmas with the Naylor family on New Year's Day due to Josh and Marla traveling to Mexico for Christmas every year. This year we didn't play a sport like has been tradition, but we had a lovely lunch and visit with everyone. We did play a game as an alternative to a sporting event. If you have ever heard of telestrations we played that, but just using pencils and paper. If you aren't familiar, what you do is everyone writes down a sentence. Then you pass your paper to the next person, read the sentence you are given, and illustrate it. Then you cover up the sentence, and pass your illustration. You then look at the picture you are given and write what you think the sentence was, based only on the picture. Cover up the picture pass the sentence, and continue until it has been all the way around the circle. When you get your paper back it is so funny to see how things changed. It is like "telephone" but with pictures. We adults had fun playing that game and the kiddos enjoyed opening their presents. We did a different kind of gift exchange with the adults this year. We had the word, NOEL, and each family had one of the letters. Justin and I had the letter E. All the presents for everyone had to begin with your letter. Justin and I made "earth friendly" presents for everyone. I made homemade cleaning products and bath products and Justin made planter boxes out of old pallets. We really enjoyed making everything and it was nice to be so "green." It was pretty funny to see how some people really stretched their letter to try and fit the gifts they bought. All in all was a great Christmas season.
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