Friday, December 30, 2016

Christmas Day 2016

Riley came bounding into our room before 7am on Christmas morning, positively ecstatic about Santa’s visit and his resulting presents. We attempted to get him to lay down with us, but Rory came in shortly after so that was it. It was time for our Christmas!

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My sweet husband made the boys go back upstairs for their customary Christmas morning picture before they could dive into their gifts.

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They picked to do their stockings first. This was the first year we decided to wrap all of Santa’s presents, in order to prolong the excitement. Kenny wrapped everything in white tissue paper just like his parents did when he was a kid. Riley wondered why everything was wrapped this year but didn’t dwell on it.

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I gave Kenny a Ghostbusters Hot Wheels car and candy, but what he gave me was so wonderful. He replaced some of the ornaments that broke when our tree fell. I teared up; it was so very sweet of him.

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Then we moved over to the tree to do Santa’s big gifts. Riley got Legos (shocker) and two big mutant machines, and Rory got a big bulldozer, two Hot Wheels big rigs, and a new train set. They were both very happy.

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Riley immediately wanted to start building some of his Legos, and Rory asked to set up his new train set. They played for a little while and then it was time to get dressed and head over to Nola and Nopsi’s.

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We had breakfast casserole, sweet potato bread, and cinnamon swirl bread before moving into the den for presents. The boys were beside themselves with excitement. And as you might imagine, it was just a tad chaotic, so I didn’t take many pictures.

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We stayed at Nola and Nopsi’s until about 1pm and then we drove over to Grandma’s Melody house. We had a wonderful Christmas dinner and opened even more presents. Riley was so happy to get all of the Mixels he asked Grandma for, and Rory was thrilled with his new big yellow digger, the same one he got from Grandma for his birthday last year. He decided he wanted to have two and put one outside in his sandbox. Smart kid. Then we sang “Happy Birthday” to Jesus before having delicious bread pudding with both a rum sauce and a blueberry compote that Kenny made. Yum.

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We left Grandma’s just before 6pm and went back over to Nola and Nopsi’s to see Uncle Jeff, Aunt E, Kate, and Luke, who had been with Kel-Kel and Skeets in the morning. However, we missed them opening presents, they were all still finishing dinner when we got there, and Kate wasn’t feeling well. But we were able to hang with everyone for a little while before finally calling it a day and going home. Riley finished building ALL of the Mixels he got while we were there, and I got another cousins picture. Success all around.

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We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Have a safe and fun New Year’s Eve tomorrow; see y’all in 2017!!!

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Christmas Eve 2016

Since Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday this year, Kenny didn’t have to go to work. So we decided to take the boys to see a movie that morning. We went to Clearview and saw Sing, which was cute. Then it was back home for lunch and rest until we had to leave that afternoon.

We met Grandma and Grandpa at Munholland’s 4pm church service. The sanctuary looked so pretty with all of the Christmas greenery and poinsettias. I suddenly missed Grams very much.

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We had to leave church early to head down to the Quarter for our dinner reservations with my family, and we were still a bit late. Everyone was seated by the time we got there. The restaurant was festive and busy as usual; it’s always fun being at GW Fins on Christmas Eve.

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One of the best parts of the night was watching Luke drink his gumbo dinner out of a little cup. He loved it!

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Another fun moment was when Cub and Jeff took their sons on a field trip to Bourbon and came back with an epic selfie.

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Then Jeff and I gave Cub our little lagniappe Christmas gift. We made him a shirt with his silhouette on it (using a picture from our cousins cruise) that says “Impressive Specimen.” The shirt came out looking so great, and Cub absolutely loved it. He even wore it on Christmas Day!

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Dinner finally wrapped up and everyone headed their separate ways. Kenny and I took the boys by Grandma’s cousin’s party near our house and then we drove by a couple of impressive light displays before going back home.

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The boys spread reindeer food on the front lawn, got into their PJs, and we all opened our Christmas Eve gifts. I picked out 6 books for them and they both made ornaments for us at school.

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We got them into bed around 11pm and then came back downstairs to get to work. Kenny made me a chocolate martini, I turned A Christmas Story on, and we filled stockings and set out Santa’s presents.

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Christmas Day recap coming up next!

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