Christmas at Grammy and Pop's House-2014

Our school schedule was a little weird this year where we had to have our Christmas parties on Saturday, December 20th. It was definitely a little unconventional, but the kids who did come had lots of fun. Since we technically had "school" that morning we weren't able to leave for Christmas at Grammy and Pop's house until after lunch. Eli and I came home after our Christmas parties, changed clothes, helped Josh pack up all the gifts for our family, and then the three of us got on the road. I was so excited to see my sweet niece and nephew. It had been since Eli's birthday that I had seen them and I was needing some Tinsley and Jameson cuddles. Oh, it was good to see the rest of my family too ;)

We got to my mom and dad's house and I immediately scooped up these cutie pies :) They're both so sweet and cuddly.

I always love how my mom decorates her house for Christmas. She just has that special touch and everything looks like it came from the inside of a magazine. 

Case in point...she wrapped a couple of gifts with plain brown wrapping paper, but she couldn't stand that they looked so blasé so she painted decorations on the presents. They looked precious! 

She made her own miniature snow globes inside some old apothecary jars she had. 

After we ate our Christmas dinner and before we started opening gifts, I managed to get a picture of the grandkids. This was the best one out of about twenty that I took and even then James and Tinsley aren't looking at the camera. Oh well, you get the general idea :)

Mom let the kids start with their stocking and Eli was so happy to see that he got another guitar ornament for his tree. 

He was a little shocked about the Monkey Butt powder...my mom loves to find really random gifts that are funny. 

Tinsley's entire Christmas pretty much came from the Frozen catalog. She got Sven, Anna, and Elsa character dolls and loved them all so much!

Mom hated to see her beautiful hand painted wrapping get torn to shreds, so before we all opened our gifts she made sure we took pictures with them. 

My gift ended up being a huge ornate iron display. Andrea got one very similar to mine and we both loved them! I feel bad because I still haven't hung it up yet, but I'm working on it! I want to find the perfect spot in my house! 

Eli loved getting new Legos from Uncle Caleb. He's becoming quite the master builder when it comes to Legos and I'm realizing that I really need to start looking for Lego organization ideas. 

Jameson loved all his gifts he got for Christmas but his favorite gift was his stuffed Woody doll from Toy Story. 

Eli got an awesome new helmet from Uncle Josh and Aunt Andrea, but unfortunately it was too big and they didn't have a smaller size so we ended up having to exchange it for a different one

He loved getting the book "The Day the Crayons Quit." It was a book that he wanted at his school's book fair and they sold out of it. Pop remembered and had Grammy order it for Eli and that made a very happy little boy!

Pop gave himself the gift that keeps on giving and gave himself a Big Green Egg smoker before Christmas, so Josh and I gave him a wireless thermometer that he could use whenever he cooked on the egg. Josh says that next to me and Eli the Big Green Egg is the most important gift in his life (I think he's kidding, but who knows?) so I know my dad will love his as well. 

Caleb, my youngest brother, graduated with his MBA from the University of New Orleans the week before we got together and even scored a job at Cintas so we all gave him gift cards so he could get some work clothes and shoes. We are all so proud of him!

Josh got some new barbecue tools for his Green Egg and they have really come in handy. He loves the electrical starter that Josh and Andrea gave him. His exact words were, "This is a game changer when it comes to starting a fire."

I gave Mom her annual Shutterfly calendar full of family pictures and Tinsley loved checking it out with her. It's lots of fun making this every year and getting to relive all the memories we made together as a family. 

We had a great Christmas with my family and I loved getting to spend time with them. It was a perfect start to our Christmas break! 

Christmas at School

Christmas at school was lots of fun this year. The week before we got out for Christmas all the elementary classes had their Christmas programs. In Eli's Christmas program, he got to play the role of an elf. Luckily for us, the elf hat that Elfis brought Eli when he arrived worked out perfectly with his elf pajamas he already had. Eli's class' play was about mommy and daddy who were reading a Christmas story to their kids. The mommy and the daddy fall asleep in the middle of the story and the kids are left wondering what happens. Eli and a couple other kids play elves who come in and save the day by helping the kids finish the ABC's of Christmas. Eli's line he had to say was, "We heard there was a Christmas crisis!" It was really cute :) Then the kids proceeded to sing the ABC's of Christmas with each letter of the alphabet standing for something Christmas. Eli's friend Cooper had the letter B and he had to dress as a bell. Sarah wanted him to just wear a giant bell costume, but he wanted to actually jingle, so she sewed tiny bells all over his shirt. It was really cute! I snapped a quite picture of these two cuties before they left to go to their classroom that morning. 

Our school combines Grandparent's Day, Christmas programs, and the Book Fair all in one day. It's a very busy and hectic day, but it really helps the book fair sales for our school. My mom couldn't make it because of work, but my dad was able to so he drove in the night before so he could see Eli perform the next day. Zue-Zue also came, but she left with Eli before I could snap any pictures of her. Eli LOVED having his Pop and Zue-Zue there to spend the morning with him. They visited his classroom, toured the school, shopped at the book fair, ate yummy treats, and then Eli got to check out early and go with Zue-Zue to lunch at Johnny's pizza. Pop had to leave to go back to work, but Eli was so happy he got to spend the morning with him. 

My class sang several Christmas songs with the 3rd graders for their Christmas program. It was such a proud moment seeing some of my kids up there singing solos and performing. I was a proud teacher :) Celebrating Christmas with my 4th graders was lots of fun. We were able to make some really great ornament crafts, do a fun book exchange, and do a Christmas service project with our 4th grade kiddos. The families of our 4th graders went above and beyond to bless some sweet kiddos who weren't going to have a very good Christmas. I loved seeing the gifts and monetary donations just pour in from our 4th grade families who were so excited about blessing someone else. 

My 4th graders also loved making ornaments for their families. We reused some Mardi Gras beads for one Christmas ornament. 

I saw a Nativity scene on Pinterest painted on wooden pickets, so I adapted that idea and our kids painted the same scene on Popsicle sticks. I LOVE how this ornament turned out. 

Then my kids took some beads and craft wire and made some spiral Christmas trees. These turned out great too. 

On our last day at school before Christmas break, all the faculty and staff got to dress up for our Tacky Christmas party we were going to have after the kids left at noon. Sarah and I went the twinkie route again with matching tacky Christmas cardigans. I added some gold ornament earrings and topped my look off with a huge tacky bow. It was such a fun day!

We said good-bye to all our kids and then all the teachers and staff went to the cafeteria for some delicious food, fun games, a photo booth, and our Cajun Christmas gift exchange. We all had such a great time having fun together! It was a great way to start our Christmas break :)

Christmas Around Our House-2014

As Christmas season approached, we all looked forward to Elfis' annual arrival. Sure enough on December 1st he arrived and brought Eli a couple of "Welcome Back" gifts with him. Eli had a play at his school coming up where he needed an elf hat and we had not been able to find one at any of the stores in our area. I suggested he ask Santa to see if Elfis could bring him one and Elfis did! Eli was so happy when he read Elfis' letter and saw the elf hat and new pajamas. 

In fact, he donned the elf hat that night while doing his homework. It definitely made doing homework more fun for him :)

Every morning Elfis was in a new spot and sometimes he brought us fun activities to do each day. One morning he brought us a gingerbread house. We love making these every year and thankfully this one wasn't broken like last years! Whew! Last year's house was pretty rough. 

I love decorating our house for Christmas every year. This year we got a new tree for our living room, one that was a little slimmer than last years. I love how it fills the space better.

Our living room looked like a miniature Christmas tree farm with all the trees we had in there, but I loved it so much. 

I did change how I displayed our Christmas cards this year. In one of my magazines I saw how they made a Christmas card display out of a tomato cage wrapped with garland and Christmas lights, so that's what I did. I used mini clothespins to attach all the cards and all the extras that wouldn't fit I lined along the countertop. It was a fun, easy DIY project and I loved how it turned out :)