The Last Christmas for the Year

After returning home on Wednesday we left town again on Friday evening after Cary got off work to celebrate Christmas with his side of the family. This picture is of his sister, Chiara and brother-in-law, Travis's children. The cousins, including our two girls, range in age from 6 years old to 21 months. They look a little wiped out in this picture due to playing hard, a little sleep deprivation, and having just taken professional photos a few hours earlier. I think they were a little tired of looking at the camera and smiling. Yes, you heard me right I said professional photos that morning. Somehow 7 adults and 5 children got up, ate breakfast, got dressed with the use of two bathrooms, and made it to the photographer's on time. I was pretty impressed with us. If only the photographer had not been running an hour late it would have been perfect. The pictures turned out good and all is well that ends well. I am so glad that all of the children smiled and were happy for the shoot.

After pictures we returned to Grandma's to eat lunch. This year we were joined by Cary's grandmother, her dog Whiskers, and Aunt Angie for all the Christmas fun. Since they live in the Panhandle this was a rare treat for us to be together with them. I was not sure what Campbell would think of Whiskers, but she adored him. When she was awake (which was a lot of the time) she was looking for Whiskers or giving us a moment by moment report on his where abouts. It was pretty funny. It was so nice to be able to visit with Grandma and Aunt Angie, I just wish we could have had a little more time to talk

Once we were done eating lunch we gathered around the tree to open presents. Campbell had the best time helping to deliver the gifts to everyone as Daddy handed them to her. Kaylee was happy to just sit back and watch all her gifts roll in. Campbell got the cutest dress up outfit which you will see in the next post, she had to immediately put it on over her clothes. She also loved her baby doll with crocheted blanket (from Great Grandma) and pajamas. I think her absolute favorite gift came from Aunt Landrea and it was a Barbie electronic purse, we have yet to leave home without it.

Kaylee loved everything that she received too. I think the two things she has played with the most are her Leapster Pet Pals game from Grandma and a poster size coloring sheet with crayons and markers from Aunt Angie. Since the Pet Pals game is a lot like Webkinz, she loves it! The girls had a great time playing with their cousins and their toys too.

After the children were all tucked into be Saturday night we played a fun game called Loaded Questions with Landrea, Chiara, Travis, Grandma, Whitney (a sweet friend of Landrea's from High School days), Cary, and me. The game gets really interesting when it is past you bedtime and you have half lost your mind. One warning though, this is a long game. We laughed until we almost cried. I do not know how anyone stayed asleep through it all but somehow they did. The next morning we went to church, enjoyed a quick lunch, and hit the road to make it back home for Cary's work party that night. If you made it this far then you survived all my Christmas posts:)

A future artist and a future make-up artist.