Christmas Day

After opening gifts at home and our traditional breakfast of baked french toast (which I prepared the night before) and bacon, we got dressed and left for Granny's on Christmas Day by 10:30am.  I had hoped by to leave by 11am at the latest, so we were right on track and didn't feel rushed at all even with the kids getting up later than usual.

Most everyone was already there, but they hadn't opened gifts yet. Chip and I sat down to eat (yes, a second breakfast- this one was brunch) and almost missed the kids opening their gifts! 

Granny got them both Wubbles, which they'd be wanting after seeing them advertise on TV. They also got watches- Dan's was Spiderman and Anabella's was Frozen.

Amid the chaos of opening gifts and trying to figure out who got what and making sure nothing got lost, I hardly got a single picture! I did get this one of Granny opening one of her gifts- I made her a set of personalized coasters that she really liked, along with our calendar and pictures, a sweater she picked out and a Peebles gift card. 

Anabella was happy to see her Hadley girl! 

We had some trouble getting the Wubbles blown up at first, but they had fun playing with them anyway.

It's always nice seeing everyone at Granny's on Christmas morning. Here's my cousin Leslie with her son Colton.

We left Granny's about 1:30pm and headed to Mom & Dad's where Dad had some gifts for the boys- pocket knives and play guns that he'd gotten from Granddaddy's estate sale this summer. So that Anabella's feelings wouldn't be hurt, Mom let Anabella pick one of my porcelain dolls for her to take home as well. Actually she couldn't decide on one, so she took two.

Does he look proud or what?

Then, it was time for more presents!

Ryan really liked his new boots.

Another Nerf for Haden- this time a bow.

Hayden got some Legos from Aunt Cindy.

Dan loved his Spiderman phone. Only we realized when we got it home that their rooms don't have phone jacks! Anabella got a pretty pink phone. They still like playing with them even though they can't plug them in their rooms. Our house was built in 1997- didn't we still use phones in 1997? I guess not. We have three jacks in the house that I know of- one in our room, one in kitchen and one in office. Crazy! 

Their big gifts from Maw & Dee were these LeapPads. Dan's is green and Belle's is purple. They love them! 

Hayden loved his True Heroes set.

They also got some puzzles and new outfits- Anabella got 2 Frozen dresses and Dan got his traditional Nike suit, which he always loves, and he also got a Spiderman one this year. 

Aunt Cindy got Anabella a Frozen tea set, and she got Daniel a Ninja backpack.

For the record, I was not the one taking these pictures of the back of heads....next year I will make sure I have the camera though. ha! 

Dan was super excited to put on this Batman blanket/cape!

Not many pictures of us opening our gifts, but I made Mom & Dad a photo book with pictures from the last year and a half, which they really liked. I made Aunt Cindy a set of personalized coasters, and of course, everyone got their calendars. I was happy to get a set of lamps for the living room, which I've been wanting ever since one of ours broke a few months ago. And Mom got me two Pandora charms (a boy and a girl) for the bracelet she got me last year.  This year Allie and I went together and got her one with charms for Mom and Grandma. I found some cool bar glasses for Dad that had "B" monogrammed on them. He seemed to like them. He's so hard to buy for.

After presents, Chip took my camera outside and got pictures of the kids running around playing. 

Belle loved her new Elsa blanket! She was wearing it like Dan was wearing his. ha!

I thought this picture was of Dan at first. He really resembles Hayden in pictures.

Dan loves Hayden!

Around 4pm or so, Dad's brother Donald and his family came over and we all ate dinner together. Anabella was so excited to show my cousin Jessica her pierced ears! 

 And, there you have it, our 2014 Merry Christmas!

I was so glad everyone stayed well for us to enjoy all the festivities this year. From before Thanksgiving (since early spring actually) all the way through Christmas, we didn't have a single illness to keep us from missing out on fun.  A first ever I'm pretty sure.  Unfortunately, our luck ran out a few days after Christmas when the kids and I all ran fevers and had a terrible upper respiratory virus, which lasted a good 4-5 days. Ugh. Never a good time, but at least we were home from school anyway.

By the time January 5th rolled around, we were all feeling better and ready to get back into routine and start a new year. One with some snow hopefully.....because you know January means one thing- Frosty Returns!