I have a ton to catch you up on from our Christmas festivities. I’m going to start back at the Sunday before Christmas. BK was in a little play at church and she played the part of Mary while the choir sang and the Christmas story was read. She was pretty concerned about baby Jesus and she kept picking him up and putting him back down, rocking the cradle and fixing his blanket. I think she’s going to be a great big sister.
Sunday night we had Christmas with my dad’s side of the family. We’re so blessed by a large extended family, so we have to start early to fit all the Christmas parties into the busy time of year. BK is also blessed to have a large number of great-grandparents (both set of my grandparents, plus both of Allen’s grandmothers). She’s the only little one running around right now, so of course she gets all of the attention. And believe me, she loves every minute of the attention.
On Monday night, we had dinner with Debbie and Phillip and exchanged gifts. We’ve been having some type of Christmas gathering with them for as long as I can remember and it’s always a special time. Plus, we had steaks and baked potatoes, a quick break from the traditional Christmas food and this pregnant lady was so very happy.
On Christmas Eve morning, we tidied up the house before heading to Allen’s grandmother’s house around lunch to have Christmas with his dad’s side of the family. If you’re keeping up that’s the fourth stop between Sunday and Tuesday and we still have one more place to go.
Christmas Eve night has always been reserved for Christmas with my mom’s side of the family. Once again, Braylen is the only little one running around and she takes home enough gifts and gets enough attention to last all year.
We did manage to snap a quick family picture on Christmas Eve. I really wanted to get one at some point during the day because I had already called wearing my pajamas all day on Christmas.
Once we came back home the real fun began. BK and I baked cookies for Santa.
We put out a few (okay, maybe she dumped out the whole bag) of carrots and special reindeer food.
We said our good-bye’s to Lucy the Elf and BK tried her hardest to sneak a bite of Santa’s cookies.
My parents and my brother stayed the night with us to be with us on Christmas morning. Christmas Eve is so magical with a little one. As soon as she was in bed, the living room transformed into a toy workshop, Allen and my brother put together toys and added batteries while my mom and I prepped breakfast casseroles for the next morning.
This was by far the best Christmas morning ever. She was excited about every single thing and kept saying things like, “wow, just what I always wanted,” and “oh my goodness, can you believe this?” I laughed until I had tears in my eyes at how excited and grateful she was over her new things.
Around 9:00, the rest of the family joined us for breakfast and later on Allen’s parents stopped by too. We had the best time and I loved not having to leave our house at all on Christmas day.
My grandparents came too, >and apparently it coincided with their mid-day nap.
We left the mess in the living room all day long. Braylen played with toys all day long, it was such a special day.
Hey Jennifer. When you prep your casseroles the night before do you just cover the raw egg mixture and put in fridge and bake the next am?
For the breakfast casseroles with sausage (the two closest in the picture), I completely prep them so that they are ready to go into the oven the next morning. I made the cinnamon roll casserole two days before and froze it until Christmas morning. It had to cook a little longer, but I was left with zero prep work on Christmas morning. I just put them all in the oven to bake.
Sweet sweet girl!! Looks like y’all had a fabulous Christmas!!!!
Thank you!! We had a great time, I can’t believe it’s all over.
Merry Christmas Jennifer!
Looks like you all had a wonderful and blessed one!
I’m glad you had a great time with your family.
Happy New Year!
Thanks, Adrienne! I hope you and your family had a Merry Christmas, too!
Looks like the best Christmas for your sweet family! Next year, there will be a sweet little boy in the mix 🙂
I know, isn’t that crazy?! I would think about it at various times and it’s hard to even imagine at this point. I can’t wait for him to get here.
Looks like such a fun Christmas for sure! Its always fun to see BK because Morgan and her seem so much alike 🙂
I agree! I love looking at your posts for the exact reason, they would get along just fine 🙂
Merry (belated) Christmas! She is so darn cute with her presents =) One of the best days of the year to have kids, magical. The grandparents nodding off on the couch is too funny…nap time all around!