Christmas with our Immediate Families

Sunday night after the family festivities...Hubby & I got to work playing the role of Santa's elves for the first official time.  Last year, the toys were small & handheld...this year, not so much!  Elyses's big Santa gift was a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe!  It was a pretty easy assembly, and with Elf on the television in the background & I have to admit I had a blast putting together toys for our baby girl!  I'm sure I'll get tired of it someday! 

Since our usual Christmas Eve morning plans were moved to the previous Saturday, we really had absolutely NO plans for Christmas Eve until the evening; this was actually the case for my parents & both sets of grandparents as well.  So...instead of sitting at home in anticipation of the next Christmas gathering, we organized a casual lunch with my parents, both sets of grandparents, and our family of 3 at the local Ruby Tuesday.  We had a wonderful lunch and everyone got to see Elyse practically eat her weight in food!  This girl can put it away!  It was so nice to not have to fix lunch at home & while...if there aren't other plans during the day on Christmas Eve in the future-I can definitely see this being a new tradition!  

Our tree before a single package was removed!  

My sweet family before Christmas Eve lunch

Christmas Eve night has been designated as time to spend with Hubby's immediate family.  So we loaded up our car with presents & headed out.  Elyse just loves spending time with her cousins Hunter & Jackson so she had a fabulous time; however, poor Jackson was fighting a sinus infection & spent most of the night curled up on his momma's lap.

This was the first time since we've been married, and actually for much longer than that, that my in-laws were able to host Christmas at their own house.  They've lived in Michigan for the past 11 Christmases and always traveled back here to celebrate with family.    It was pretty special to hang out with them and start some new traditions in their new home.

The first new tradition was to have the grandkids read Luke 2:1-20 before dinner.  Hunter is 7 and is the only grandchild able to read, but he did a great job!  This is a tradition that my FIL used to have with his grandma & I think it's so neat that we'll be continuing that tradition.

The second new tradition was a request from me.  Since Elyse & the other kiddos would be asleep before we got home & had time to read "Twas the Night Before Christmas", Mamaw read it to all the grandkids before we started opening presents.  It was so sweet to watch Elyse & Hunter as Mamaw read to them.

I think Elyse got some of her crinkly-nose tendencies from her Mamaw!  

The best we could do of all the kiddos with Jackson not feeling well!  

 We got home and pulled out Elyse's Santa present so it would be all ready for her in the morning!

Elyse was still fighting her post-shot fever & a little bit of a cold, so we all ended up sleeping in bed a little longer than I had planned....but thankfully once we got her up she was feeling much better!  

I think she really LOVES her car!  

...but when she wants out, she wants out!  

She was actually pretty interested in the packages; well maybe just the bows!

Eating cheerios & opening presents...what could be better!?!

 We had a wonderful Christmas morning with just the 3 of us!  Elyse got her Cozy Coupe, some new books, some new clothes, a Dog-in-the-Box (like a Jack-in-the-Box, but a puppy pops out), and a wooden activity cube.  Daddy mainly got some new clothes, both for running & for work, a new book, and some other random things that I had picked up.  And I got some new workout gear, a Boogie Board (which is an LCD notepad that hangs on the fridge), a gift certificate for a 16x20 photo canvas, and a few other things that are not coming to mind right now.

We started another new tradition for mid-Christmas morning this year.  I had whipped up a couple of different breakfast pastries the day before and we invited both sets of our parents over for a quick breakfast so they could see everything Elyse had received from Santa, and what Hubby & I bought each other as well. This worked out really well, and we definitely plan on doing this again in the future!

Elyse went home with Papa & Gigi after they stopped by so she could just nap at their house!  Talk about a  mis-matched baby girl!  ha!  

Christmas night up next on our celebration list & was time for me to spend with my immediate family.  Santa still visits my parents' house & we always have a big gift waiting for us with our stockings.  Santa brought Elyse a brown & white polka dot chair from Pottery Barn...she loves it!  It'll be such a perfect place for her to have her snack & play with her baby dolls.

Checking out her chair...

Giant pink puppy dog...check.  Snack catcher full of Cheerios...check. Sippy cup of milk..check.  This girl is set!  

Elyse was feeling the side effects of her MMR booster for most of the Christmas holiday, she had lots of moments when she just wanted to cuddle...

...but she also had lots of moments when she really wanted to play!  

Add another car to our living room...we've now got a Little People Musical Car!  She loves to dance to this thing!

We were so incredibly blessed, and honestly incredibly spoiled by our families this year.  We got lots of wonderful things for Elyse, and lots of fun things for ourselves.  But most importantly we got to spends some extremely quality time with our precious friends & family, which we honestly enjoy spending time with!  I can't believe it's all over for another year...but if I'm being honest I'm actually ready for the hustle & bustle to be gone and just hang out at home and play with all of Elyse's new toys!