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!