Every year we spend Christmas Eve day and night at Mrs. Charlotte’s house and then on Christmas Morning we go over to Big Daddy’s when we leave her house before we head home. This year things were a little different because Christmas fell on a Sunday. Since we had worship services Christmas morning we wouldn’t have time to go to Big Daddy’s. The decision was made to move it to Christmas Eve morning and they didn’t get things rolling until 9ish so we had some time to just chill at home for a bit. Gave us time to get ready and loaded up!
Hermey and Snowflake headed back home after their visit with us!
Britt had fever pretty steady all afternoon of the 23rd and it continued all day the 24th and into the 25th. I am typically not a big fan of medicating my kids but it was CHRISTMAS. So we alternated Tylenol and Motrin every couple hours and it made a HUGE difference. Her temp went down and she was never feeling sick or acting differently (her hand, foot and mouth spots were less noticeable than Tess’s when they did arrive and were mostly IN her mouth). Tess still had her spots on her face but no temp. She was pretty clingy and just not feeling 100%. We decided to let everyone know upfront about our sickness situation and talked to Britt about avoiding hugs etc. We also advised everyone not to eat our cookies as the kids touched them a TON when making them and we didn’t want to spread anything.
Almost every single year we deal with some sort of sickness on Christmas. If not with our little crew, then with someone in the family! This year was no different but it was very, very mild and really didn’t take away from the day much at all (and I’d MUCH rather have this than have Tess puking all night like she did last Christmas Eve!).
Finishing out our advent calendar (Kye and Britt took these pics)
2016 was a tough year. And the holidays are hard for the family anyway after Austin passed. A couple days prior to Christmas Mr. Rusty had some tough news on his eye (Long story short…over a year ago now he was trying to get an armadillo out of a hole and used a piece of fencing and it shot up and went literally right into the center of his eyeball. It’s been a ROUGH recovery process with several surgeries etc) and Big Daddy was in and out of the hospital. We were all just very, very thankful to be together and to be blessed with the opportunity to spend the holidays surrounded by those we love! It was a special morning at Big Daddy’s and Little Mama’s and I’m so glad they moved it rather than just canceling it this year!
Little Mama’s sister passed away this year and Aunt Karen took on her tradition of passing out socks to everyone as a present!
Big Daddy went ALL OUT with his gift giving. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house! He got Little Mama very meaningful jewelry and got a special watch for each of his children.
Tess said “MY TURN!” I love that our children love their Big Daddy!
When we finished up at Little Mama’s we headed over to Mrs. Charlotte’s to get ready for some CAT CREEK CLASSIC FOOOOOTBALLLLLL!
A lot of the family assumed there wouldn’t be a football game this year. Jordan has pulled his hamstring both of the last two years. Zach had back surgery this year and has lingering issues with his foot/leg (as in he can’t run. at all). Plus his “MS” situation (which has NOTHING to do with his ability to play football but people just assume stuff). And then Mr. Rusty’s eye. But this game is SO important to Zach. He wouldn’t care if he had to literally crawl out there, he wouldn’t miss it. We recruited some players for our team and Jordan had to take over a lot of the quarterback situation bc Mr. Rusty had JUST had eye surgery and was told he wasn’t allowed to even play quarterback. Zach did a GREAT job even with his major limitations. He didn’t push himself with his back and never stumbled with his foot either. He’d just go slow and be mindful of his foot and when he’d catch a pass he wouldn’t even try to outrun anyone. Our recruited players were a HUGE help and Jordan balled out as quarterback. We beat a TON of odds and ended up WINNING Whoop Whoop!
Cutest cheating section!
Jake had this cool couch thing the kids LOVED
There was a good bit of kid drama throughout the game so I wasn’t able to watch a lot of it. #momprobs
Zach presented the MVP trophy to Jordan!
Big Daddy didn’t come out to the game but Uncle Frank (who is Little Mama’s brother AND is married to Big Daddy’s sister and is like one of the sweetest men alive) presented the trophy to the winners!
Aged to Perfection showed ’em how it’s done!
The little kids (plus Britt) all napped and after naps they put on a show and everyone sang Christmas carols
Kye was SO INTO IT! Little ham #miniZach
Of course as the grand finale the girls had to sing “Let it Go”
Cookie decorating time!
More interested in eating than decorating 😉
Ready for Santa
We all always watch a Christmas Movie together and this year was Frosty
Big Papa loves to track Santa on his iPad with the kids
BFF Cousins!
There is always that one kid….hahaha
Payton is seriously mean mugging in these right? She has that “mama glare” DOWN
Putting out our reindeer food!
Brad is SO GOOD with the kids! They all adore him!
This year was Britt’s first year getting to sleep with the big kids on Christmas Eve. Growing up Zach, his siblings, and their cousins (Austin, Cole and Jake) all slept together in a room at Little Mama’s house on Christmas Eve. So they were all excited for their children to carry on the tradition. Britt had her own mattress on the floor, Payton slept on the bed, and Kye and Colt shared a mattress. It worked out well! It was funny b/c Court was concerned her kids would’t be able to fall asleep at the earlier bedtime and I was worried about my kids staying up too late…of course her kids were OUT and my kids were laying there eyes wide open until almost 9 haha!
Letter and cookies for Santa!
This year it was decided to move the adult present opening to Christmas Eve night after the kids were asleep. It was a GREAT idea! With Church Sunday morning we didn’t want to feel rushed and opening the adult gifts the night prior allowed us to really focus on it (no kids to distract us) and to be able to have a lot more FUN together. I personally think this was THE BEST Christmas YET. And a lot of that was because of the adults opening that night. We were all cracking UP and it was just super fun! All the adults need to hang out kid free more often 🙂
Corduroy was Zach’s favorite book growing up and the stuffed animal was a great gift especially while wearing the onesie haha!
Matching Toms…drastically different sizes!
ALL Zach wanted for Christmas was a trip with his dad! Mr Rusty planned the whole thing and he was SO pumped about it!
Always his “little boy”
One of my favorite gifts were some duck boots! My dad has always been obsessed with LL Bean so I owned original, legit duck boots as a kid and when they became a trend I had to hop on board! Brings me back to my childhood and I LOVE THEM 🙂
It was SUCH a fun-filled special day from start to finish. I think everything we all have experienced this year just brought us even closer together and made us count our blessings even more and cherish the time we’re able to spend among family. Even during a rough time…we’re all just so blessed!
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