Christmas in Tennessee : Part 3

Sorry for the plethora of Christmas posts. I just have so many pictures and different family celebrations to cover, it’s less overwhelming this way. But I promise this is the final one :)

After Christmas morning at Mom’s we headed out to my in-law’s. We exchanged gifts first…

Hadley got lots of babies and accessories this year.

She’s so sweet to give her baby kisses, right??? WRONG. She’s sneaking sucks off of baby’s pacie! She did this with every one she got. Makes me laugh so hard…

She was kind enough to share with baby too, though :)

The stroller was a huge hit with her!

This is actually the first she’s been really interested in babies. She was being such a good little momma… It made her seem like such a big girl to me!

Knox was not in the best of moods at MiMi and PaPaw’s…

Too much fun and not enough sleep, I guess.

But he got some cool stuff too…

He got this Star Wars Boba Fett robot helmet. Just like his big cousins! He felt like such a big boy. But please tell me…

HOW am I supposed to keep a straight face when he approaches me with serious conversation in this??? I haven’t mastered it yet. He looks hysterical!

And an Iron Man dude. (That’s what he calls all action figures.)

After gifts, we ate lunch and visited for a while…

This is James’ parents with their 5 grandchildren. Austin, Josh, Collin, Knox, and Hadley.

She found a candy cane and was in heaven!

That afternoon we drove back to my mom’s (aka: Base Camp) and let the kids nap while we got a head start on packing.

Sunday night we went back over to my Dad’s to do Christmas with him, my stepmom, and siblings. We had a delicious dinner (it involved the Buffalo Chicken/White Trash Dip and PW’s Best Ever Lasagna, if that tells you anything…), exchanged gifts, and visited…

Step-brothers John and Matt.

Step-brother Phillip and my sister Mandy.

He looks so tired here - but he’d had a good nap at Nana’s so he was actually in a much better mood!

H found some old pompoms and morphed in to a mad cheer woman…

It never got old ;)

Knox got the Melissa & Doug easel and art accessories from Poppy and MiMi. We left it in the box - which was blank - to get it home so I don’t even think he realizes it yet. I’m hoping to get it set up today. He’ll be so excited over it!

My Dad has recently gotten in to wood work. He’s done some awesome built-ins around the house. He decided he wanted to make H something she could have for a while, so whipped up this not-so-little doll house…

I think it turned out awesome, but he says he’s still not finished. Something about flooring in the upstairs living area and flowers in the window boxes… We weren’t going to be able to fit it in the Tahoe with all our luggage, so he’s going to put the final touches on it and bring it down in a few weeks.

I was actually surprised just how excited H got over it! This house is made for the classic furniture, but to start her out this young Dad and M got her the Fisher Price “My First Dollhouse” furniture and people to put in it… She knew exactly what to do with all of it and had the best time!

She even told Poppy Thank yoouuu! and gave him kisses.

{Trading hats with Uncle Nick.}

We headed back to Mom’s around 8. We had a sort of long night ahead trying to get all of our normal things packed and ready… And then trying to figure out the best way to get most of our Christmas goodies home. Not the funnest way to spend Christmas night, but we were able to get home Monday afternoon and it has been nice to be back in our own element. It’s almost been like Christmas all over again for the kids because they can now really open and play with their toys all they want. Plus all the stuff that Santa brought before we left…

Since we made it back I’ve spent my time recovering from being out of town for a week - unpacking, laundry, groceries, cleaning the car and carseats (Eww.) - and at the same time trying to organize all of the new toys. I need to pick up a few organization bins for their rooms, but I’m OCD about de-junking our toys fairly regularly, so it hasn’t been a total mess.

But to close out Christmas 2011…

No doubt - we are blessed with LOTS of family who love to shower our babies with gifts. But throughout all the hustle and bustle we still strive to teach our kids the true meaning of Christmas. We’ve tried to talk to Knox (and Hadley!) about Baby Jesus every chance we could this year. We read books and watched movies about the Christmas story, did our Advent calendar countdown, set up and played with the children’s nativity… We talk a lot about the joy of giving. Knox was good about helping me pick out, wrap, and deliver gifts. He’s also been giving us imaginary gifts since October. And heaven-forbid if you guess wrong on what it is ;)

But I really just tried to work Baby Jesus in to daily conversation this year, especially with Knox. We talk a lot about Santa, but I always try to end it with Santa comes because we are celebrating Jesus’ birthday… I really want my kids to enjoy the fun and magic of the season, but above all I want them to know WHY we have so much fun.

And on that note - I wrote the following in a short post I did in the car on the way home the other day. Sorry for the re-play, but it just seems more appropriate to close out my Christmas posts…

Crazy how it comes and goes every year. Although I will say, the older I get the more Christmas means to me. I am SO thankful for that little baby in the manger. One of my favorite Christmas songs is Joseph's Lullabye by Mercy Me. I love that it is written from such a human/parent perspective. It makes it so real and nearly moves me to tears every time. I blame motherhood...

Merry Christmas, dear blog readers!