Christmas 2015

 

I don't know about you, but Christmas came and went faster than I've ever remembered it in previous years. I still can't believe it's over and I'm dreading taking down all our decorations. That being said, we did have a wonderful Christmas spent with our favorite people!

 

The weekend before Christmas we hosted our Annual Christmas Party with my best friends from high school. Since we live 1.5 hours from everyone, we were pleased with the turnout and almost everyone stayed the night. We played games, ate a lot of food, exchanged gifts, and laughed a lot. Here are a few pics from the night:

 

 

 Get it?

 

 

 

 

 Another win for Lance with the facial hair.

 

We left Wednesday after work to head to my parent's house. When we got there Wednesday night we went to dinner for my mom's birthday and then we came back home, watched her open presents, and had a Wahoo tournament (a family tradition). 

 

On Christmas Eve we loaded up the car with my family, minus my dad, he had to work :( and headed 3 hours north east to my cousin's house to spend time with my mom's side of the family. My cousin and his family were in town from Virginia so we were so excited to get to see them!

 We missed the rest of family that wasn't able to make it!

 The crazy camo clan.

 4 generations

 Aaron loves him some Tucker...and I'd say Tucker was happy about it.

 My aunt Jan and my mom.

 Four of the six siblings with their dad.

 Mr. & Mrs. Claus

 Love them!

 Like father, like son.

 My grandpa was reading us jokes.

 He carries around a joke book in his pocket all the time.

 Sibling love.

 Papa Pete and his granddaughter. This book had a recorder in it so we had my grandpa read the pages and then we sang "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" at the end. This was Isabel listening to the recording.

 So sweet.

 The boy cousins.

 The girls eating and having girl talk.

I love all my cousins!!

 

We headed back home Christmas Eve night. When we got home we opened one Christmas present from my parents and then we watched the movie Elf (I think we all fell asleep about 30 mins into it).

Our gift was a watercolor painting of our dogs. They are so perfect and look identical to our pups. We were so surprised and it is a gift we will cherish forever. Can't wait to get it framed and up on the gallery wall.

 

We woke up Christmas morning and opened up our presents, then we had a yummy breakfast. My mom made the cinnamon roll, French toast casserole that was all over Facebook last week and man, it was so good! After we opened gifts, my Cousin Steph and her family came over to hang out. We played ping pong, The Game of Things, went for a walk and played tennis. That evening we left and headed to Aaron's parent's house.

 

When we got to Aaron's parent's house we ate their yummy Christmas snacks and played Pictionary. On Saturday morning, we woke up, ate some delicious homemade quiches, and opened our presents. Aaron's mom and brother made a delicious lunch of Cornish hens, broccoli cheese casserole, cheesy scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, and rolls. It was so delicious!

 

Saturday night we went to dinner in Tulsa and went bowling with Aaron's brothers. Then, we hung out at our friend's house and celebrated another friend's birthday. We stayed up way too late and had so much fun!

 

We left early Sunday afternoon, due to the bad weather. I had Monday off, so I stayed at my parent's house an extra night so I could visit with my best friends on Monday. My friend Rachel was in town from Tennessee so we drove to see my best friend Alli so we could get some really good baby snuggles from precious Bradley! He slept and ate the entire time and we had lots of good girl talk. He couldn't be a more perfect baby!

 

I got home late last night and now I've got two more days of work before we get back on the road to celebrate the New Year with friends!

 

Hope you all have a Happy New Year. Stay tuned for my favorite post of the year: 2015- A Year in Review.

Our Christmas Card 2015

 

I'm linking up again this year for the 2nd Annual Christmas Card Linkup Party! I loved linking up last year and looking at everyone's cards. Christmas cards are so fun and I love getting them in the mail. It is so nice to get fun mail for an entire month and I run to the mailbox every day after work to see if we have any new Christmas cards. I love diplaying them in our house and then I love making little books out of them and looking back on them the next year. Thanks girls for hosting the linkup again, Lyndsey, Brettni, Amanda & Joy

 

 

Here is our Christmas card this year:

 The front. I didn't have it in jpg form so I had to take a picture of it so it's not the best quality.

This year we used Hen&Co. on Etsy for the design. They did an awesome job and we were very pleased with it! We used Office Depot for the printing, as always. They do a great job and are so reasonably priced.

The back.

The pictures were taken by the talented Mae Rachelle Photography. If you live in the Ft. Worth/Plano, TX area you should definitely give her a call. She was so good with Samson and made it super easy and quick. Here are a few of our favorites from the session:

 

 

And just in case you want to see our previous Christmas Cards....

2014

2013

 

For those of you that have sent us Christmas cards, thank you so much! We love keeping up with you and your family.

 

Thanks for reading! I'm off to wrap presents. I'm way behind this year! Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Throw Back Thursday: A Look Back on 9 Years of Christmas Parties!

 

In lieu of this weekend being our Annual Corny Christmas Sweater Party, I thought it would be fun to look back on years past. I enjoyed scrolling through some old pictures to get to these. The Annual Christmas Party is one of my favorite traditions and I hope it continues on for many, many more years. Enjoy the time hop/throw back!

 

2006

According to my picture documentation, 2006 was as far back as I could remember. I believe this was our first year to do it. We were seniors in high school and we had the party at my best friend's parent's house.

 

 

Not sure if this was 2007 or 2008...This was the only picture I could find. All I remember is that we had it at Beth's apartment and we got in trouble for being too loud while playing the game that electrocuted/shocked you. Somewhere in between 2007 and 2008, Alli hosted the party at her college house in Edmond. I don't have pictures documenting that one either. I just remember that Santa and his elf came :)

 

2009

The first and only year that the boys hosted the party at their college apartment. This is the only pic I have from this year.

 

2010

I hosted it at my brother's house when I moved back from college.

 

2011

Lance and Brandi (the newlyweds) hosted the party at their house.

 And this was the year of the mustaches. Not sure why, haha.

 

2012

Beth hosted again at her house. This wasn't a fun party at all, can't you tell?

 

2013

Alli & Matt hosted it at their home. I was living in Arkansas at the time, so you can imagine my sadness when I saw this picture. I hated missing out.

 

2014

We hosted it at my parent's house. We weren't about to have a party at the Love Shack so thankfully my parents let us use their house.

The year of the face coasters.

We don't ever have any fun together.

 

This year we are hosting it at our house and we are so excited to have everyone in town. SLUMBBBERRRR PARTYYYY!!!! Stay tuned for pictures...I'm sure we won't have any fun ;)