Christmas Rewind 2010

Well the Christmas weekend has come and gone & I can't believe that 2011 is so close! Hubby & I had a fabulous Christmas with tons of celebrations with family & friends. We truly could not be more blessed and I am always so humbled at this time of year as I reflect on the incredible blessings that God pours out on us each & everyday. Thank you God for sending your precious baby boy to die for the sins of this world--we truly are so unworthy of your love.

Our Christmas gatherings started out on Christmas Eve morning and before the presents started being handed out, I snagged a photo of our tree with presents piled underneath.

I just love the twinkle of the lights and all the colorful wrapping paper!

I also grabbed a quick photo of the completed advent calendar. Unconventional...yes! My mom bought Hubby this Lego advent calendar. Each day there was a small item to build & it was fun to see what the Lego engineers came up with. There were certainly a few items we didn't understand but in the end it was really cute.

Christmas Eve morning has always been reserved for my mom's side of the family. Thankfully this has been able to continue after my brother & I both got married. We gather together as a small group, open presents, & have pizza for lunch...every single Christmas Eve morning. I'm so thankful that both sets of my grandparents are still with us and are all in fairly good health. I'll treasure these family photos for many, many years to come.

Nick & I, Grandma & Grandpa Herndon, Mille & Nick, Mom & Dad...and Romo posing on the couch!

After some time relaxing and chatting, Hubby & I headed to the next destination---Hubby's sisters' house. It was time for Christmas with Nick's immediate family and we had such a fun time with our nephews.

Hubby has passed on his love for Legos to our oldest nephew Hunter---he absolutely LOVED his airplane. In the words of Hunter..."It's just what I've always wanted!"

Hunter also got an "Army Man" costume from Toy Story. He's really in to dressing up and it's so cute!

Jackson, our youngest nephew, also enjoys dressing up...and mixed with a costume from YoGabbaGabba, he seriously could not be any cuter! He loved being DJ Lance!

I was also thrilled with a new Santa for my collection! He has sequins on his coat and some other beautiful accents. Can't wait to display him next year!

Hubby asked for a sheep headcover for his driver, this was quite the hilarious gift but he was really excited about it! I guess now he can golf in style!

We headed home for a new Christmas Eve tradition at our house. When I was growing up my grandparents always bought us new Christmas pajamas. I miss getting new pajamas each year so we decided to start this between ourselves and then we'll continue it when we have children. I love an excuse for comfy pj's!

I'm definitely still a child at heart and I think the first time I woke up on Christmas morning was before 5:00am! I forced myself back to sleep and laid in bed until 7:00am--Hubby was excited as well & we had a wonderful Christmas morning with just the two of us. This is a perfect schedule for us to enjoy our gifts.

I got Hubby several things, but I was most exciting about this putter headcover. It was Halloween based, but couldn't be more perfect for our household....The Bogey Monster!

I was pretty excited about my new shoes, Uggs & brown BCBG riding boots! Notice I'm also still wearing my Christmas pj's---love them. And don't even mention how horrible I look...it's a Christmas morning photo so I get a pass right?!?

We made a quick trip to visit Hubby's parents for a bit and then headed down to my parents' for our Christmas celebration with my brother. We had probably too many gifts, but tons of fun and some fabulous pepperoni & Italian sausage lasagna. Thanks mom & dad for all of your hardwork! We all got tons of things we asked for and a lot of things we didn't, but regardless we loved every moment. I received a nookColor and I can't wait to get the hang of it, plus some new clothes, jewelry, & other fun stuff. I still can't believe it, but I failed to take any very good shots on Christmas day!

The day after Christmas came church, and then another Christmas celebration...this time with my dad's family. Almost everyone was able to be there, but sickness kept away my cousin, his wife, & their two little girls...we definitely missed them!

My beautiful momma & I

Relaxing a bit before the rest of the family arrived...I'm seriously going to love my Nook!

Almost all of us--love my family!

We also took the time for some good family shots...

and also decided to get Bogey in on the fun! This was definitely the calmest of the shots!

We spent the afternoon exchanging gifts and just enjoying each other's company. The night was finished off with our traditional meal: Ham, peel & eat shrimp, cornflake potatoes, caesar salad and crunchy French bread! Of course dessert was also involved with rum cake & a peanut butter chocolate cheesecake! Wow...we were all SO FULL! The night ended fairly early so Hubby & I headed home to our house, which happens to look like a tornado went through! We were able to just veg out and chat with his parents who are staying with us for the next few nights before heading back to Michigan.

This morning it's back to work, but Hubby is staying home to play housewife! With some help from his mom I'm hoping to come home to a partially de-Christmased house, laundry done, and lots of odds and ends taken care of. I just love Honey-Do Lists!

Tonight it's off to one last Christmas with my mother-in-law's family!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and were able to take some time to reflect on the awesome gift God sent us so many years ago!