Every year on Christmas morning I’m one of the first ones to get up. I like to take my time getting ready for the day before all the craziness begins. I think I get that from my Dad. No matter what time it is he has to have his morning bathroom routine…mine is more of a hair and makeup routine while his is more of a potty and shower one though 😉
Anyways…I got up at like 5:50 and started getting ready. Slowly everyone else started waking up. I walked into the living room at 6:15 and there stood Mr Rusty HOLDING Brittlynn. I about died. Child shouldn’t be out of her bed until 6:45 at the earliest. He said she was awake in the crib (she slept in the crib in their bedroom) and that he does that often when she spends the night with them…he’ll get her up and cuddle and watch tv together. UM. I told him I was gonna try super hard to pretend I didn’t hear him say all of that!!! Hello…breaking several of our parenting rules with that…
Well since Britt was up I told them we had to get everyone up and get going. Britt would be EXHAUSTED and would need to go down early for her nap so it was going to cut into her fun Christmas morning time. Luckily everyone was fine with it so we got up and got the show rolling! I nursed Britt while everyone else was getting dressed, my plan was to nurse her then do Santa then let her eat breakfast. It couldn’t have gone better!
Cousins waiting to see if Santa came!
I love how Kye is hugging on Britt. He was SO sweet to her!
They have some Parker family tradition where the youngest cousin gets to go out first and they file out by backwards birth order. So Britt was first to come out and see what Santa had brought 😉
She cried the whole way out b/c she wanted to be with me…here’s a video of the initial Santa gift opening!
Kye was super excited about his big fire truck!
Britt understood much more than I thought she would about how the whole gift opening process works
Playing with the princesses right away 🙂
Typically Santa leaves each child three presents but this year they each only had two! He left a letter for them which Courtney read out loud…here’s a video of the letter. Love Kye’s face while he’s listening 🙂
The letter told us to head to the garage for another present for each child!
Here’s a video of Santa’s surprise (1. Love how Zach HACKS in the beginning of it..so gross. 2. Love how I am like RACING to get away from Britt who you can hear screaming behind me haha)
Patiently waiting for everyone to get lined up to open them!
Look at Britt’s face! Haha such a great look of surprise!
She LOVED it!
Super pumped!
Kye got a similar car for his first Christmas…he wasn’t too sure about it but Britt took to it right away!
We let them all go for a little ride before heading back inside…here’s a video. As you can tell, things got VERY crazy.
Back inside it was time to open stockings! Brittlynn would bust out CRYING if we attempted to take her out of the car. She was just so content to sit in it and watch everyone so we just left her 😉
We pulled in a high chair so she could eat breakfast while the guys passed out the gifts.
This reminded me SO much of Kye’s first Christmas and how he ate too, remember?
Zach playing Santa 😉
Growing up my family always ate Christmas Cookies throughout our Christmas morning. We’d spread out the gift opening as long as possible and take lots of breaks and nibble on treats throughout it all. I wanted to bring a little of my tradition to the Parker’s so I asked Courtney if it was ok to let her kids enjoy Christmas cookies with me for breakfast! They were all excited! (I am actually not sure WHAT the heck Colt is thinking!?!?)
Kye and I ate a TON of cookies that morning…see…I AM a cool mom 😉
The passing out the presents thing took FOREVER. All the men ended up helping out, the kids were SO patient in waiting and we ended up taking a passing out break to let them open some! Kye just kept his hand on his stack the entire time 😉
Mema and Jolee joined us this year!!!
She did not like the presents in her car 😉
Ariel
Taking Rapunzel to her car 😉
From Aunt Casey and Uncle Jordan
He doesn’t have Chick in his Lightning McQueen collection and I needed one more present to make it even so I thought it’d be a good little gift…um…they don’t MAKE it anymore! I had to buy this junk on EBAY!!!
Enjoying our morning together!
A taste of the craziness 😉
Kye giving out his ornaments 🙂
I know the pictures and videos may make it appear like a madhouse…but honestly it isn’t. We all kind of naturally group off into our own mini families and I felt very relaxed. When it was time to open we had our kids take turns and watch each other open presents. I think by the time we got done everyone else was already way past opening and were just watching us haha. But I wanted to take it slow and just enjoy the process. So we did! And it was wonderful!!!
Love Zach’s laugh 😉
Kye really wanted a big Lightning McQueen 🙂
Kye was precious and sweet and patient and very grateful. I enjoyed him so much! I love that our kids aren’t exposed to outside influences as he doesn’t want for anything…all the things he really “wanted” for Christmas were things that I had suggested to him 😉 He appreciated everything he opened and truly was such a joy.
While Kye was wonderful, he’s always pretty much wonderful haha! Brittlynn can be a little more iffy. Sometimes she’s super fussy, mega clingy, and a bit hard to please. Not this morning though! She was an ANGEL. Truly. She sat there so perfectly and enjoyed her presents. She was excited. She liked helping to open them. She played with each thing and was just ADORABLE. Like at her party, her little personality just blossomed and I was so thankful that I could enjoy her in her golden moment 😉
I was SO excited about this present! Kye LOVES his Jingle dog and Britt is always trying to play with him too and now they have Belle, a girl version! I KNEW she’d LOVE her!!!
And I was right! She immediately gave her a big kiss. This is my FAV picture from the morning for sure 🙂
In Heaven! Finally LOTS of toys to call her OWN 🙂
Our Family!
Britt had to take a phone call 😉
Jordan’s first Christmas with the Parkers…how appropriate that his first gift was from Belk 😉
Kye looks thrilled about giving me the present he bought for me haha
Sharing their new toys!
I couldn’t resist a “Bacon” present for our new almost neighbors!
It was ironic that I got all kinds of adorable new shoes yet couldn’t wear them due to my toe!
Got the guys the traditional matching ties!
Zach got Mr. Rusty a pocket knife engraved with “Big Papa”
I love this picture haha
Us girls HAD to rock some matching Christmas pjs!!! Love them!
It was the first year that none of us felt RUSHED. We took our time and enjoyed it all and it really went so well! Kye was itching to ride his new four wheeler, as were Colt and Payton, so we let the kids all drive over to Big Daddy’s and Little Mama’s for the big Parker breakfast!
I drove over there and pulled up in time to see them arrive 😉
Britt doesn’t look too pleased about riding in the golf cart!
Payton bringing up the rear 😉
Britt napped at Mrs. Charlotte’s and we put her down early for her nap since we had gotten up so early. She was so off-kilter and was not in the best of moods for Little Mama and Big Daddy’s house 🙁 It was kinda embarrassing and I was not feeling well myself so I was pretty out of it. I really don’t remember much of the event other than the bacon. Gah that was THE best bacon!!! Everyone tried to help with Britt but she really only wanted me…it’s a blessing and curse at times! Zach and I traded off the best we could with her while everyone opened gifts then we let our kids eat early and left pretty quickly so we could get them home and in the BED!
Haha Jordan got some supplies to help out his football injury 😉
Reading her new book from Little Mama and Big Daddy!
They were SO cute and excited about their hats and mittens 🙂
Zach also got Big Daddy and pocket knife and had his engraved with “The Bull”
This is so cute…Zach is SO happy and Big Daddy is inspecting that knife 😉
My children LOVE to grub. As soon as we let Britt start eating she was SO HAPPY and SWEET!!!
Playing with that step some more and enjoying toys that Zach played with as a child 🙂
Gotta get a pic with Big Papa and G-Mama!
It was SUCH a wonderful Christmas morning! I feel bad that I was pretty out of it. I wasn’t feeling that great and slept horribly but I soldiered through and I’m thankful I did 🙂 It’s great that both of our kids were old enough to TRULY enjoy the fun and Zach and I enjoyed every second of them for sure!
You can look back at all of our Christmas mornings here, I LOVE seeing how much everyone has changed!!! It’s amazing to me how much can change in just a years time!
My work has been featured on Love What Matters, Today Parenting and Babywise.Life. I'm also honored to be a member of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network.
You can read more about our family on my About Me page. Also be sure to follow along with me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest!
- What I’m Gifting My Family: 2024 - November 21, 2024
- Effective Parenting Tips to Discipline a 5 Year Old Child - September 24, 2024
- Happy 9th Birthday to My Daughter – Letter to Tess from Mom - August 26, 2024
