Christmas 2012

Christmas came and went, and then my birthday, the new year and family time...and I'm JUST now getting to the blog.  We had an amazing holiday season, and truly embraced all of the family time we were blessed to have.  It always goes by too quickly, but I think we did a good job of soaking it all in and enjoying the reason for the season.

Knox came down with croup the week before Christmas.  I haven't ever heard the croup cough, and hope I never have to again.  So sad.  Then he gave it to Stephen and I.  We were pretty under the weather the entire time we were in Austin, but we powered through and had an amazing trip.  

My mom catered to our travel plans, and we did Christmas the Sunday before the actual day.  All of the cousins had matching PJ's, and we opened all of our gifts while eating kolaches, donuts and breakfast casserole.  Then after I opened some moose mugs, we broke out the whiskey and egg nog.  Sheesh.

Things are always a bit hectic with 10 adults and 8 grandkids...but we manage!

Almost all of the cousins on the steps

The ladies

Knox and Aunt Hayley had a blast dancing before he had to go down for a nap.  Little did he know, he would wake up and be faced with this:

Yep.  We went to see Disney Live.  All of the cousins were in tow, and they loved it!

He had to go to the restroom halfway in, so Daddy took him.  Then he came back with a Woody toy.  He was really excited, then, when Woody actually came out!

He absolutely loved it.  His only complaint was that Pete didn't come.  Pretty cute!

On Monday morning we had breakfast and headed home.  We were excited to do Christmas morning at our house and start the traditions with him.  He gets it all this year, and it has been so fun experiencing it through his eyes. 

We started with a little cookie decorating.

His "snake" on the bottom turned out to be Santa's favorite.  He left a note letting him know!

And it was a good thing we put the mat down.  With all of the rain, Santa's boots were REALLY muddy!

Another tradition we decided to do was tie a string to his door running all the way to Santa's big gift.  "Santa" went a little overboard with the boy toys, but he specifically asked for a monster truck, so we tied it to that...

Pretty cute seeing his reaction the next morning!

He opened a few smaller gifts, and then found this box in the back.  Once he opened it and saw what it was, this was his reaction.  I think he was excited!

He's now figured out he came move it to other places in the house and jump off of things.  I thought it was an innocent trampoline, now I have a heart attack about 30 times a day.

After we had breakfast and had settled in to playing with our toys and watching the parade, it started snowing.

It started pretty light, but was steady.  By the time we went to bed, this was our backyard!

We had a great Christmas.  He loved all of his toys, loved learning about Jesus' birth, and loved getting to see all of his family!  We are so blessed, and in love with the life God has given us.

I pray each of you had a blessed holiday season as well.  We are so blessed by each of you...it was really hard to take all of these down!

But not all is sad...this is how Knox felt about his new tractor:

Have a Happy New Year!