Christmas 2011

We had a busy, but fun, December and Christmas season! We managed to do many of the things we'd hope to and then were smart enough to also skip some things so as to not completely make ourselves crazy. It is a time of year that I love so much because there is a magic that I enjoy. I hope that your holiday season was magical too.

On the 23rd we had our gift exchange with my parents...

 Mckayla with her Santa Bag...

 Logan with her Santa Bag...

 Tabitha with her Santa Bag...

 We enjoy our Wii fireplace! It makes all the sounds that a real fire would make...snaps and pops and crackles...and we simultaneously light our Crackling Campfire candle to add to the ambience.

My mom made this quilt for Casey. It is a memorial quilt for his grandparents. It consists of a few scraps that were leftover from his Granni's mumu's (and memorial quilts she'd made for Casey's mom and his aunts), a picture of me and Casey with his grandparents and the large fabric selection is cowboy hats since Casey always says his Grandpa was a Texas cowboy. It's a pretty great quilt and something we're happy to have.

Among other things, Mckayla got a couple beautiful scarves from MawMaw and PawPaw and she LOVES them!

 Here Logan is showing off one of her scarves too.

 Tabitha loved all the jewelry she got! She insisted that MawMaw help her put on every necklace and bracelet.

After we had dinner and exchanged gifts, we headed downtown to see the lights on the Riverwalk and enjoy that Christmas scene.

 My mom and dad! They're adorable.

 Casey and the girls with the Riverwalk Christmas Tree. I have a beautiful family!

 I LOOOVE, LOVE, LOVE this shot! The lit church steeple in the background, the lights and the Riverwalk boat coming along...this is ultimate San Antonio right here.

 Logan and Mckayla with the lights...have I mentioned yet that it was COOOLD!?!

 My family! My parents with Casey and my girls. This picture makes me smile. It was a fun night.

 I also very much love this picture and the lights reflecting off of the water.

 They even lit the bridges a bit this year. This was the first year that they had the LED lights on the Riverwalk...previously the lights were very different looking.

 Ok, how cool is this picture?! Logan is standing up on a light post...but look at Mckayla's flapping arms in the background. I LOOOOVE my new camera!!!

 Can't go to the Alamo Plaza without snapping a picture of the beautiful Alamo.

 My parents and my girls with the Alamo Plaza Christmas Tree and look who they ran into!?! The San Antonio Riverwalk is the #1 tourist attraction in Texas and I suppose he wanted to check it out too! My mom was so excited and Tabitha was too! She loved Santa!

 Here Tabitha is telling my dad all about Santa and the stars on the Christmas Tree and the lights. She has so many little words right now and she gets so excited about things.

 Aaaw, my Mckayla!

Casey had to work on Christmas Eve but my parents came down to share a lot of the day and the evening with us.

 For dinner we made blueberry pancakes...red and green pancakes!

 Logan showed off her new scrambled egg making skills and made some delicious eggs to go with our pancakes and bacon.

 The big girls decorated sugar cookies too! We did all our usual traditions while missing Casey, but I was so grateful to my parents for sharing the evening with us! It made it so much more fun and a lot easier for me too.

Christmas Day!

The girls in their Christmas Day Sunday outfits!
We had church at 9am and since Casey was getting home just after 7am, we went to church and then we came home to open gifts after we got back into our pajama's. We didn't want Casey to miss anything. The girls were great about not sneaking out so that their dad wouldn't miss their inital reactions.

 While they got back into pj's, I snapped a few quick pictures.

The traditional Candy Cane pastry. So good!

 Decorated sigar cookies!

 More cookies!

Pecan Pie too.

 Here comes Tabitha!

Here come Mckayla and Logan!

 Tabitha got a Winnie the Pooh card and she was pretty excited about it.

 After Casey started her...she finally figured out there were more things inside her stocking to dig in and find!

 Casey and I made 'monsters' for the girls. We wanted them to be strange and a combination of cute and ugly.
Here's Logan with hers...

 Mckayla with hers...

 And Tabitha with hers...

 Logan asked Santa for a Cheetah print Nintendo DS cover...she got one.

 Mckayla asked Santa for a Monster High DracuLaura doll...she got one.

 Tabitha got this little pull puppy from Logan and Mckayla...

 She loves it!

 We also made the girls these Elephant Feet stilts out of #10 cans...hehehe

 It is so fun watching them play with them and I am so thrilled they think they're as cool as I had hoped they would.

 The girls wanted to get Casey a hiking stick. He's wanted one and they love going hiking and geocaching with him. They also wanted it to say World's Greatest Dad on it so Logan wrote part of it and Mckayla wrote another part and I used my wood burning tool to burn the etching into the wood. If you click the picture it will enlarge it and you can see it better. I love that it's in their handwriting!

Tabitha received these sunglasses and this book that has a mini keyboard...she was content to play some tunes while we opened her gifts.

It was a wonderful Christmas of being together as a family, remembering our Savior and His birth and sharing a lot of laughs and smiles.