Tuesday 10- It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I'm finally doing a Tuesday 10 post! I think, at least. Here's a little phone dump and recap of the going on's of our little family!

1. A little Christmas crafting has been going on around here. I've kept it fairly light and easy this year to keep my stress levels down. I did make a fun set of four Christmas dishtowels for a friend to use at teacher's gifts. I also made my go-to gift for the kids' Sunday School teachers- Bath & Body Works soap with a tissue pocket. I also did a quick hostess gift for our Sunday School's progressive dinner - snowmen ornaments bagged up. A side-note, I found that Dollar Tree carries the paper shred I use in these bags. Total score as it goes a long way!

2. I love this little corner of our house. I have fallen back in love with the multi-colored large bulb Christmas lights! Dusty strung those on our holly bushes and they we set out my garage sale find sled with lights. Love!

3. I know I mentioned it but it is significant to mention again! We have a new nephew/cousin! Both mom and baby are now happily at home! Yay!

4. My dad (who has just recently started texting) sent me this picture. Ha ha. I don't let Cayson do this but when he's with Granddaddy, you never know what will happen!

 5. Dusty and I attended our Sunday School's progressive dinner Christmas party last weekend. We usually don't get to attend due to Dusty's work schedule. I was elated to get to attend this year! Socializing with adults is a treat for me. We had a blast but failed to take a single pic. I meant to snap one of us and forgot. Thanks to Dusty's dad for keeping the kids for us! They're still talking about their Papa time.

6. Coolness happening in our house!

7. I'm slowly working on Christmas cards. They "may" all get mailed before Christmas... we shall see. I hate going to the post office but finally made myself go buy Christmas stamps expecting them to be out. Luckily, they had all three. I went with one of each.

8. Cayson helped me make my grandma's butterscotch candy yesterday. It's pretty much a no-bake butterscotch cookie. Totally delicious and brought back memories of Christmas. They were one of her signature candies to  make every year.

9. We are hosting Christmas for my family on Christmas Day. I just realized I should put together a menu and shopping list! And figure out where everyone will sit! It's a small group of 11 but it will be tons of fun! There may even be SNOW in the forecast! This girl is overjoyed! Every year, the kids and I pray for a white Christmas.

10. Have a great week, ya'll! We'll be busy prepping for Christmas like everyone else. First up, today we are going to attempt to ice skate as a family. Wish us luck and no broken bones!

Christmas Day Lunch

Our Christmas involved 3 Christmases so I divided the posts accordingly. We had our morning as a family of four opening gifts and eating breakfast. Then, we ate lunch at my parents’ house with my grandparents, sister and brother in law.

Cayson and my grandpa have a really special bond – they were carrying on a full conversation at lunch. They crack me up. Cayson eats Saturday breakfast with my grandpa and dad. My dad says he’s always having to calm both Cayson & Grandpa down because they both get so wound up together.

My other grandpa was able to come even though he’s wheelchair bound.

We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and Cayson blew out the candles.

We are so blessed to have such a loving family nearby! I’m grateful we were able to spend time with my grandparents on Christmas Day.

Our Christmas Morning in Pictures

     

We had an amazing Christmas morning as a family of 4! The gifts were a hit and we finished it off with monkey bread for breakfast. Yum!

A Very Merry Christmas Eve

One of the highlights of our Christmas is the annual Christmas Eve party at my great aunt & uncle’s house. They have the house that is ideal for entertaining – 3 levels of entertaining space. The kitchen/dining room is on the 3rd floor and overlooks the the large open living room making it perfect for large gatherings. It’s so fun to see family, nosh on delicious food and play dirty santa!

Miss T with her cousin, Talon. They are 15 days apart and both so cute!

 

A few of the kids… it’s hard to get pictures of all the kiddos – they are too busy playing and running amuck.

A few pictures from the festivities:

Every year, we attempt a picture of these four ornery boys. They were all born within a year and by some strange chance, they happen to be sitting in birth order: Cayson, the youngest, Brayden, Deegan, and Ajay (the oldest).

 

After the shindig, Dusty & I got the kiddos to bed and went to work getting ready for Christmas morning! We brought in the gifts, set up the photo scavenger hunt (to find the kids’ new swing set), stuffed stockings and got the bubble bread ready for breakfast.

Afterwards, we rewarded ourselves and went ahead and opened our stockings to each other. It was nice to do it without the fuss of Christmas morning. We may be too old for stockings but it’s so much fun to fill them with all kinds of goodies!

Hope everyone had a joyous Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my blog readers! Have a wonderful Christmas!

Photos and Christmas card courtesy of RM Photography.

Christmas Bright

I am completely loving dressing Miss Priss in all kinds of frilly Christmas attire! I remember having fun dressing Cayson in cute Christmas outfits – he had a new outfit for every day of December it seemed.

 

I could only get a couple decent pictures of her because  most of them turned out like this.

Our Christmas Best

We were ready for church EARLY today so we took a few pictures. Note to self: Never take pictures without first applying lipstick. Ick!

 

My two little cuties showing some love.

This is my priceless picture of the season! The majority of my pictures include Taryn as a blur of constant motion. Don’t you love Cayson’s face? He wasn’t happy to be sitting for pictures, obviously.