I know I re-explain this every year but I figure someone new may be reading and may think to themselves: “why in the heck are they all spending the night at Zach’s parents house?!?” The Parkers are hardcore about this tradition. Up until Mr. Rusty had his first grandchild everyone spent the night at Little Mama’s and Big Daddy’s on Christmas Eve then opened presents that morning all together. Now that there is another generation we all spend the night at Mr. Rusty’s house. Once Kye’s generation has our first grandchild then we’ll split up and Zach and I will (assuming our kids spouses are as on board as we’ve all been…) have our children and their children spend the night at our house. Kinda confusing huh?
The night before Christmas wasn’t easy this year. Brittlynn and I slept in Zach’s old room (now Trey’s room), Kye slept in Casey’s room, and Zach slept on the recliner in the living room because Brittlynn slept too loudly for him. I was up feeding her a good bit during the night and I myself couldn’t sleep. Hearing her little noises made me wake up afraid that she was dying. Hallie passing away that day mega affected me and I cried every time I held her that night while nursing her just thinking about Katie and what she went through that morning.
After Brittlynn’s 4 am feeding I heard people in the kitchen. Mr. Rusty and Mrs. Charlotte had slept out in their RV (there’s THAT many people staying there that they were simply out of house space!) and had come in to get coffee started so I just went ahead and stayed up with them. We ended up getting all the “big” kids up at 6:15ish to get this thing started!!!
SO excited to see what Santa brought him!
Another Parker tradition is to get a picture of all the grand kids waiting in the hallway before going out to see what Santa brought them. Brittlynn was sleeping so she didn’t get to take part in the annual photo!
Trying to get a good one of three toddlers is no easy task!
Here’s the video when the kids opened their Santa presents!
Santa brought Kye: a track for cars
A pirate ship
And a Lightning McQueen!
He was thrilled
Brittlynn got up at about quarter till 7 to eat so we held her off for a little bit so she could enjoy some of the Christmas fun. She was so excited that she didn’t even fuss or act hungry at all! Mom came over early that morning to spend Christmas with us all and she did the honors of showing Brittlynn what Santa brought for her 🙂 (Kye helped opening, of course) Here’s a video of Britt’s Santa gifts
Happy first Christmas sweet girl!
Little Mama also came over to enjoy the fun!
He quickly mastered the art of opening
Here’s a video of some the the random Christmas fun!
I enjoyed watching everyone while feeding Brittlynn her breakfast!
We let the kids tear through all their presents as they were being passed out and the adults waited to open until after all the gifts were handed to everyone
I’m thankful to the kids consignment sales…Kye got several used toys this year which helped out with the budget!
He was ALL about “sharing” Colt’s cars though
After Brittlynn ate we used her, brief, awake time to open some of her presents. With the free store credit we got when I posted a video on Steel’s website we bought Brittlynn her first jewelry!!! I’m pumped about having her wear it. I was ALL about jewelry when I was little and I think it’s precious to see a little girl wearing sweet little bracelets and rings (NO she will NOT have her ears pierced until she’s older!).
First Steel’s Box
Putting on her new bracelet!
Here’s a video of Brittlynn “opening” some of her gifts
Mermaid from Mrs. Charlotte to match her nursery
(it’s a Bla Bla Doll)
First baby doll
Since Britt missed out on the cousin picture pre-Santa presents, we wanted to try to get one of all the kids together before her nap. It was a HUGE failure…but the attempts are pretty hilarious 🙂
the best we could get
Once all the gifts were passed out, things got much more calm and relaxed
G-Mama got all the kids real cameras, great gift idea!!!
Zach and I each had a special gift for Kye this year. Zach made him a lego table (which we didn’t give him until after all the Christmas fun…so you’ll see it soon) and I made him a shutterfly book from our Disney vacation! Our first trip to Disney was SO special and I wanted to do something to help him remember it since I know he’s too young to always remember the fun we had, I hope the book will help. I was so excited about it that I kinda saved it to be his last present 😉
His reaction was better than I expected, he LOVED looking at each page!!!
studying the pictures
BIG kisses 😉
Afterwards Zach had me open my present from Kye…
(He got me a Target gift card so we can go get our favorite cookies together!)
Then he showed me this video as a bonus present (and yes, Zach STILL won’t realize that I can’t flip the videos when he makes them sideways like that!!!)
Zach and I have been to Disney practically once a year. He doesn’t like to admit this, but he LOVES it. I think he loves it because I love it so much and it’s one of the things that brings me pure joy. He made this HUGE stink about how we wouldn’t be going back to Disney until baby #2 is 2 1/2 years old like Kye was when we took him. I was soooo mad about it b/c I want to take Kye every year so he’ll always love it the way I do. I don’t want to do some BIG trip like we did for his first one (I only want to do a BIG trip once every few years, especially for each kid’s first Disney trip) but I just want to take him to Magic Kingdom for a day once a year. I don’t think that’s a lot to ask and it annoyed me that Zach didn’t want to go yet wouldn’t allow me to just take Kye on my own b/c he didn’t want to miss out on what should be a family trip. He kept pushing and pushing that we wouldn’t get to go again for a long time (like literally Kye talks about Disney at least once a day and Zach would mention how it’d be a looooong time until we went back like once a day too…buzz kill!) and it got to the point that I was seriously mad about it. Deep down I knew that Zach wouldn’t really hold to it, but it annoyed me all the same. I DO think it was super cute to make a little video like he did and surprise me that we get to go again in 2012 😉
Super excited can you tell?
While the kids enjoyed their toys the adults opened our gifts
I opened for Brittlynn too since she was sleeping 🙂
LOVE this towel!!!
Her mobile for her room
Trey got Mrs Charlotte this necklace, so sweet of him
Mom MADE this burp rag for Britt, too pretty to use! Def only using it for church!
We got this little wallet/clutch for Mrs. Charlotte
This CRACKS me up! All the kids were allll over Mom when she was trying to put together this pirate toy for Kye…
The last present – a double bagger for Zach’s lawn mower
What’s a double bagger???
Mom’s answer: “I thought it was a really ugly woman” hahahahaha
We opened stockings and Kye got LOTS of gummies in his. Poor kid…we kinda forgot about breakfast and it was almost 10. Oops. So yes, I let him eat like FIVE packs of gummies. Sleep deprivation makes me super cool.
Playing with Payton’s vanity, you can tell he knows he’s probably not supposed to be doing it
Our first Christmas as a family of four!
It was a VERY successful morning! We didn’t have to rush like crazy and it was much more calm than usual. All the kids had a BLAST too which made it even more special and fun! Next year we’ll be sure to get some type of breakfast going and a good picture of all the kids when they wait to see what Santa brought them 😉
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I was wondering if you would spend the night over there this year. I love family traditions though. I also is looking at the picture of Kye opening the Lincoln Logs. I was pretty sure you got them at the kids sale this year when we all went together. I love how Kye has cousins his age, looks like they have a lot of fun together!
so nice family christmas 🙂 wish it would be the same over here :-)maybe I can help with the "movie flip prob": do you have the Windows Live Movie Maker? it is a free program where you can flip every movie 🙂