Christmas 2013 Recap

Christmas kind of snuck up on us this year. I'm not sure if it's because Thanksgiving was so late or because I was sooo busy in November or what it was, but all of a sudden, it was Christmas. I just absolutely LOVE the Christmas season!
I came home from my grandma's funeral in Michigan to my husband putting up the outside lights. He knows it makes me soo happy to have lights on our house. It was an awesome surprise!
We had to first get ready for Pretty Girl's birthday on the 15th. I still can't believe she's TWO. Where has the time gone? We had everyone over for cake and ice cream that day.
The weekend before Christmas we went with my mom to a church in Sarasota that has a HUGE light display. When I say huge, I mean H-U-G-E! Like half a million lights huge! It was awesome and the kids loved it. It was awesome! Plus it was timed to music which was fun.

                                                               Video of the lights and music

Booger and Pretty Girl at the Holiday Lights

We also too the kids to see Santa. He was outside of a house on the island and had fake snow going as well. There was only one group ahead of us, so the kids didn't have to wait too long. Booger ran right up and got on his lap and told him everything he wanted. It was really cute. Pretty Girl however wanted nothing to do with him. Thankfully we had M there with us and he was able to get her to at least sit on his lap. She REFUSED to talk to him. She'll talk our ears off, but no one else.

Fake snow messed up the pictures

Looks like they are talking, but they aren't :)

M and I decided to get some home projects done before we hosted our first Christmas Eve open house. He built me an awesome pantry and finished the trim around the laminate flooring we put in last year. I have to say, I am so excited about our pantry and being able to open up some of our cupboards for other dishes.

Our first Christmas Eve Open House was a success. Not everyone showed up that said they would, but that's ok. We still had a great turn out and I believe everyone had fun. I will def do it again, just I won't do house projects right before we host. That was a little too much. Thank goodness for my mom. She came over two different days and helped with the kids and helped with the baking. It was awesome having her here. We also allowed the kids to open presents from Nana and Pop-pop on Christmas eve (those are Matt's parents). I think it helped, then they weren't overwhelmed with all of the new toys.

Clean house all ready for everyone to show up :): Kids opening presents from Nana and Pop-Pop

Christmas morning, I woke up to no voice :( and I woke up before everyone else did. Our kids haven't started the getting up early on Christmas morning yet. It wasn't until about 9 until everyone finally woke up. My mom came over to open presents with us. She has spent every Christmas morning with us since M and I got together. It's a tradition that I love and refuse to change.
The kids enjoyed opening their presents from Santa. Booger knew just what to do and blew through opening up his presents. He likes to open all of them first, then play with them. Pretty Girl wants to open one present and then play with it before moving on. It's quite funny to watch them.

The rest of the day was spent watching movies and taking naps. It was a great relaxing Christmas.

Don't forget to leave a comment on my Blog-versary post to be entered into winning a medium silver locket. This will be open until Sunday.