Our Christmas Day

December 22nd came and Christmas was here! Thanks to the Alamo Bowl, we opted to celebrate Christmas early rather than having Christmas in a hotel. Our girls are notorious for waking up at 5 am on Christmas, and we told them they had to sleep until 8. DJ and I were both up by 6:30 thanks to our early sleep cycles, and eventually the girls got up around 7:30. They ran downstairs, and Adalyn was the first to find our Christmas pickle so she got to open the first present. 

She loves the Magic Treehouse books and had asked for them. Now, if we can just get her to read them. 

Gretchen got a few clothes from Abercrombie. 

Megan got clothes too. 

Seriously, clothes were the theme this year. I had told the girls they weren't getting a lot of toys- they can barely clean up what they have, so clothes it was, becuase they definitely needed them. 

Everytime they opened a present they said "I got a box!" 

New Texas sweatshirt for the bowl game. 

Megan and Adalyn asked for leggings "with pockets."

Adalyn was so excited over her gift from Gretchen which prompted spontaneous hugging. 

She got a game for DJ. 

Megan picked out a cat poster for Adalyn. 

Gretchen asked for a fountain pen, and my parents bought her one. She was thrilled! 

We surprised Megan with a dog house and little dog; she had no idea on what was to come. 

And Adalyn got a little dog with a carrying case. 

Adalyn begged for this hamburger squishmallow while we were at Costco a few weeks before Christmas so Santa brought it for her. She was so excited! 

New pj's for DJ. 

Adalyn and her gifts. 

All of the girls received new boots. 

Gretchen's new Texas shirt. 

My mom bought both of the girls cozy blanket hoodies. They were obsessed. 

I got a heated eye lash curler, new mascara, a heated hand warmer, and some other goodies. 

Megan had an umbrella in her stocking for those rainy mornings at the bus stop. 

And then we all sat down for our North Pole breakfast. 

While they were enjoying the Christmas crackers, Iw as making french toast. 

We had no time to see Santa earlier in the month, so Christmas afternon, we headed out for our yearly Santa pic! 

We had a fun Christmas morning! 

A Christmas Re-Cap

Happy New Year!!! Oh friends, we have had the best few weeks celebrating the holiday, being away for our bowl game, and I'm just feeling refreshed and rejuvenated for the new year. Maybe it's because I still have a few more days before I go back to work and the girls go back to school. 

One of my goals this year is to blog more, so we're starting off strong with re-caps of all that we've been up to over the last few weeks of December, and then we'll keep going with some coach's wives posts, some wellness things, and much, much more! 

So, sit back, grab your cup of coffee, and enjoy!

I hate to admit that attending church for us in the Fall was really really hard. We went at leat once a month, and sometimes twice, but there was a time from November through December that we just couldn't make it. I was determined that we would all go the week of Christmas, since we would be out of town for Christmas Eve and Christmas day services. 

It's rare that I can get them all in dresses, so we had to take a picture. 

The girls were off starting on the 20th, but I had two days of work. It was a lot of squeezing in time between work and getting everything done, and life was crazy. Gretchen and I snuck out one afternoon so she could spend her babysitting money to buy Christmas gifts for us. 

We celebrated Christmas on the 22nd, since we had to leave on the 23rd for the Alamo Bowl. So, our Christmas Eve was on the 21st. I feel like we squeezed in all of our favorite Christmas traditions in to one day. December was just so busy for us. 

Our elves brought the girls a gingerbread house. Gretchen was wanting everything to be precise. Megan was making piles of poop out of the icing, and Adalyn was trying to eat all of the candy. It was hilarious! 

Later that afternoon, we made our hand/foot print canvases. Gretchen opted for fingerprint lights. 

Megan made a snowman. 

Adalyn made a reindeer. 

DJ made his homemade chex-mix! 

And I had picked up cookies from a local bakery for our annual lights & pj's night! 

We fixed hot cocoa, put on our pj's, grabbed our cookies, and headed out to look at lights. 

But first, the girls needed a picture in their matching pj's 

And one with me! 

Ok, we were finally in the car and ready to go! 

We found the coolest light display! 

We came home and rushed to make reindeer food and get it sprinkled in the yard. 

Then the girls said good-bye to our elves. We let the hold them on Christmas Eve night since they fly back with Santa ;) 

And yes, somehow over the years, we've gotten 2 elves. Adalyn swears she needs her own, and Megan thinks they need elf babies. 

We read The Night Before Christmas, and put out cookies and milk for Santa. 

The girls finally went to bed, and I got to work on our North Pole Breakfasat. It's just a fun little breakfast that our "elves" put together for the girls. We usually have this breakfast on Christmas Eve morning, but since we were squeezing it all in, and DJ had practice on our Christmas Eve, we had our breakfast on our Christmas Day. 

Our North Pole breakfast, is really just a fun decorated table. I use wrapping paper to cover the table. I use the same plates each year. I usually pick up Christmas crackers, confetti, hot cocoa bombs, and grabbed little hats this year. We also had streamers hanging from the ceiling, and sometimes we'll have little crafts or games that keep us busy on Christmas Eve day. 

Then Santa came! 

I'll be back tomorrow and will share our early Christmas day!