Christmas 2013 (Part 4: Christmas Day)

Almost a month later and I am finally getting around to posting the last Christmas post of 2013.  We spent Christmas day at my parents' house.  There are so many pictures and I think they will tell the story of the day.  Austin was a little overwhelmed with all the gifts and didn't understand why he couldn't stop to play with every toy before a new present was passed his way!  He has now had plenty of time to play with everything and everything is still scattered all over our little house at the moment.  I love spending Christmas day with my family.  I like drinking coffee, my mom's amazing Christmas breakfast that we have had for so many years now that I have lost count, hanging out in cozy clothes, opening way too many presents and then just spending the whole day together!  So, without further ado, here are the pictures of Christmas day! 
(side note:  Tayt and I had planned to have Austin open presents from us and "Santa" at our house before heading over to my parents but the baby who always wakes up about 7:00am, slept until 8:30 on Christmas and so we had to load up those presents and take them to my parents!)





The day after Christmas we drove to see Tayt's mom in Killeen.  Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera out once while we were there.  We relaxed, talked, rode around on the Rhino and played with all the animals.  And, we ate at an excellent hole in the wall Mexican restaurant, because after all the holiday food I am always craving Mexican food.

I can sum Christmas 2013 up in one word, BLESSED!  Until, next year....

To be continued....

There is one more Christmas post coming but I need a blogging break.  Be back with more later this weekend.

Christmas 2013 (Part 3: Christmas Eve)

We LOVE our church Hope Fellowship.  It is literally thirty seconds from our driveway and we have called it our church home for almost three years now.  I've been volunteering with the Adventure Kids (early childhood program).  I have loved spending my mornings with the little ones at our church, including Austin.  Tayt has been playing with the band which was a huge blessing for us.  The music at Hope was one of the first things that drew us in.  The weekly worship time is unbelievable.  The musicians that play for our church are truly talented. 

On Christmas Eve, Tayt played all four services (1:00, 2:30, 4:00, 5:30).  I volunteered at 4pm and then my family met us for the 5:30 service.  I wish I had taken some pictures of the church because the lighting on Christmas Eve is always magical to me.  Pastor John gave the Christmas Eve sermon, which reminded us all to see Christmas as child does.  He is always so relatable and brings the word of the Lord to us in a way that we can easily understand and use in our lives.

After church we went to Macia's for dinner.  Her house was beautiful as always.  I loved that Sara's family joined us this year.  I am really enjoying getting to know her family as we blend our two families together.  (I will be blogging about Sara and Grant's wedding soon!) 

These are my favorite Christmas pictures!  I love these sweet moments with my boys!!

Christmas 2013 (Part 2: Dinner/Presents with Tommy and Dee)

Next stop on our Christmas tour was dinner with Tommy and Dee.  Tayt, Austin and I met them at Potstickers in Frisco.  Dinner was great and their new location was hoppin'!  After dinner we headed back to our house to open some presents.  This was Austin's first experience opening presents this year and he loved it.  His face was so cute when he finally figured out what was inside.  His favorite gift was the Rockin' Crock that he calls "all-gator".  Thanks for dinner and lots of cool presents Pee Paw and Dee Dee!

 

Christmas 2013 (Part 1: Our Dinner Party)

We started Christmas this year by hosting a family dinner party at our house in mid December.  We served homemade chicken/green chili enchiladas, rice, beans, queso, 7 layer dip, Grandma Todd's famous cherry cobbler, margaritas, beer and wine!  Tayt's Dad brought some eggnog and chocolate covered, Whiskey soaked cherries!  Everything was delicious.  We ate and drank and then played a big game of Catch Phrase, while Christmas Vacation and Christmas music played in the background.  Catch Phrase was hilarious...everyone was yelling out guesses and there was lots of laughing at and with each other. ;)  My mom thought she had to act everything out and Uncle Joe always had to have help from his sidekick Heidi!  It was so nice to have everyone at our house to celebrate this year.  I look forward to more of this in the future.