Christmas Celebrations 2019 part 1

Christmas break is coming to an end and I am honestly, so sad. We have had an incredible few weeks off as a family and every single aspect of our break has been, simply perfect. We’ve had a ton of time with family and I’m so thankful for each get-together and memories made with our families.

First up on my Christmas recap list is Christmas with Cory’s mom (Gammy) and his Granny!

Christmas with Gammy

So a little back story on our first Christmas get-together of the season (and technically before Christmas break)- Cory’s brother was scheduled to come in town from NJ the weekend before Christmas and this would be his first time being home around Christmas in years. We had planned on having Cory’s whole family stay with us for a weekend full of Christmas activities. On the day Caleb was scheduled to leave, he called to let us know he was really sick and couldn’t make it. We were all so bummed (no one more so than him though) but continued with our plans. Then the morning of, everyone backed out of staying except Cory’s mom. We were sad that our plans didn’t work out but Caleb was able to reschedule his trip and he’ll be here next weekend. Regardless, we had a great night with Gammy, Aunt Alee, Uncle Mikey, and Jensen.

We snapped a few pictures before we set out to look at Christmas lights!

Gammy and her grandbabies!

We loaded up and headed to downtown Seneca to see all Christmas lights. They did such a wonderful job with the display this year that we went multiple times!

Jensen was so sleepy, he didn’t seem amused with all the bright colors.

Baker and Jensen got to see Santa!

After getting back home, getting in our jammies, and warming up, we had potato soup for dinner before opening gifts!

Cory Facetimed Caleb so he could be a part of the celebration but it just wasn’t the same!

Jensen seemed to really catch on to opening his gifts!

Baker was so excited about her new bike from Gammy!

She also got her very own camera and couldn’t wait to snap pictures of everyone! Everyone else was passing the phone around saying hello to Uncle Caleb.

While Alee and Mikey packed up, I almost got this sweet, sleepy boy to sleep.

While it wasn’t the original plan, we had a fun, Christmas filled evening with Cory’s Mom and sister. We can’t wait to celebrate with Uncle Caleb soon.

Next up on our Christmas celebrations….

Christmas at Granny’s

My family does a mountain weekend a few days before Christmas each year and this year, we interrupted our mountain weekend to head back for Christmas with Cory’s Granny and cousins. This was the first time we’ve done Christmas with all of the grandkids and their children and it was such fun having the kids together.

We were in Hiawassee, GA so it was about an hour back to town. Baker was asleep before we even got going and had a nice nap on the way!

Jensen giving Granny kisses!

The best present ever! (But seriously, would he not be a gorgeous girl?!)

Cory’s cousin, Leevon, got Granny an air fryer (the most “her” gift anyone could have thought of) and she actually cried. I’m not sure if it were tears of joy or shock but it was sweet. Thanks for making the rest of us look bad, Leevon. Ha!

All jokes aside, Cory and I don’t do gifts for the adults in our lives. A few years ago, we started sponsoring children in Rwanda (we have three- one in boarding school and two in secondary school) as our gifts to each other and our families. We found out this year that most of our families didn’t realize we still did this. Most thought it was a one-time thing and while we have had to delegate some of the children we were able to sponsor the first year, we still have the three “Christmas kids” on top of the ones we sponsored prior to this idea. While I’ve done gifts from Baker the past couple years (typically a craft), it does make me feel awful that they just thought we didn’t buy gifts for them.

Since Gammy wouldn’t be here for Alee’s birthday on the 26th, we had cake and ice cream to celebrate! Yay for loading the children up with sugar late in the evening.

Adalynn’s sweet note!

When you creep in a photo, Leevon, it gets shared- no matter how crazy you look!

This is four out of the five grandkids and all the six great-grandkids on Cory’s mom’s side of the family (even Levi who was refusing to show his face again).

I hate Nikki and Ayla already left before we got a picture of all the great-grandchildren but Levi was cracking me up. He refused to turn around so we just took the picture like this. I told Erin (his mom) that we will laugh about this one day. #memories

Got his picture!

I seem to always get Jensen when everyone is packing up. I try to let everyone else have a chance then Aunt Paige can love on him last! This little head tilt will get him whatever he wants! Isn’t he just the cutest? I had about 15 of these photos because I just love his sweet little face.

After this celebration, we headed back up the mountain to continue our weekend with my family- recap coming soon!