Christmas 2011 Festivities

I cannot believe Christmas has come and gone already. It went so fast....the past week has been a blur of family time, good food and drinks, and playing with lots of toys! Let's start with over a week ago when we decided that another visit downtown to the Famous 100-foot Christmas Tree in Delray was needed and we got some fun pictures at the Delray Chair. The following week was Tyndell's Christmas Party at school, so we got her a holiday Hello Kitty shirt to wear for it (she was very very excited about this shirt) and I took advantage of her excitement and made her pose in front of the tree before we left for school. Then Jeff's parents and my brother came into town for Christmas weekend. On Christmas Eve, we went over to my parent's house for a late lunch and hanging out before the candlelight service at church. My Mom always wants everyone, but kids especially, to open one present on Christmas Eve so that added to the afternoon fun...Tyndell got a dress up treasure chest (she immediately wore all three new princess outfits), Brandon and Jeff started racing their remote control boats in the pool also immediately, and Giles gave me a new remote control (this is a nod of compassion for Zen the Evil Puppy that Eats all things Electronic). I also gave my Mom a video montage of our Turkey trip so we watched that while we got some relaxing in which was nice after the coconut cake/chocolate pecan pie coma we were all in. After the candlelight service, it was time for bed and it took a while to get Tyndell to calm down so that Santa would still come. I needed to calm down too as I was a little bitter about not getting to see most of the candlight service due to some 3-year old drama...at least I got to hear my lovely Lauren sing and the kiddos play the balophones at distance. Oh wonderful Christmas music. I still think We Three Kings is the best one EVER.

Christmas Morning, I think we woke up about 7am, Tyndell had a little snack, and then she started opening her stocking. The first present was a plush Pascale lizard from Tangled, which then distracted her completely from the rest of the presents so she put her new purple princess dress on and wanted to watch it. I started prepping breakfast for everyone to come over, but within an hour, she realized there were more presents and we got started unwrapping them. Santa turned out to be a pretty good listener. Tyndell got the Buzz Lightyear robot she had been asking for as well as lots of Princess and the Frog gear...the Tiana dress, a playset, and the Prince Naveen frog. I'd say he covered it. Jeff's parents gave her a beautiful handmade quilt from Grandmom, some clothes, and a few other fun toys, including adding to her new Thomas and My Little Pony collections. Once everyone arrived at our house, we had lots of biscuits with the fixins' with cheese grits and a wonderful melon and coffee. MMM! Then there was more present opening! My parents gave her a new toy chest and some clothes, which were all much-needed. Jeff and I gave her the Cinderella castle playset so now we can princess and prince-pretend all we want. Her aunties and uncles gave her some wonderful new playfood to go with her tea set, some books, a frog princess bag, and a talking bunny reading plush. So much love for this kid...I think we are definitely going to be busy playing with all this stuff for a while and forgive me if I forgot anything here. We had a blast playing until it was time to nap (as indicated by the castle/chocolate mouth photo) and then get ready to go back over to Mom and Dad's for dinner. They made a yummy meal as usual and we enjoyed our gift drinks...prosecco, Lambic fruit beer, and Chimay...before turning in. Well - at least I did....the boys...ahem...Jeff and Brandon...had a nice adventure out on the town that night. It was definitely a Merry Christmas!

So good to have a nice big group together this year to celebrate. Thanks to Jerry and Alice for spending the month with us and Jeff's parents for making the trip down for the week. Brandon will be here another 10 days or so....so the fun will continue! Merry Christmas everyone! I hope and pray it was a blessed occasion and full of celebration of HIM!