Christmas Night- 2010

On Christmas Night, we always head to my parent's house for a Christmas celebration with my family. We arrived around 4:00 and spent some time just visiting with one another and then we let the children open their stockings. My mom loves to do stockings for her grandchildren and she always fills them with unique, fun things. I look forward to digging into them each year.

After watching the kids play for a while we headed to the kitchen for a delicious steak dinner...steak, baked potatoes, salad, and coffee and dessert. It was so good...thanks Dad for standing outside in the snow flurries to grill out for your family and thanks Mom for preparing everything else. It was yummy! After dinner, we started opening presents.

Here are a few shots from our night.

My sister Lindsay.... Gracen was stuck to her when we first got to the house.

Hayden and Gracen

Me, Gene, and Reagan....Gracen missed the family picture because she is just too busy.

Reagan opening one of her gifts. She loved this Glitterizer from the movie Barbie and a Fashion Fairy Tale. Basically, Barbie steps into this special wardrobe and she gets glitterized...which means a fan shoots glitter all over her clothes. You would think that all the glitter would stay inside the wardrobe....it doesn't. After two days of playing with it, all the glitter is finally gone and for the next two days, I will continue to sweep up glitter. It's everywhere. (Mom, if I ever suggest that you buy Reagan a gift with "glitter" in the name....DON'T.....Reagan did love it though. We will have to buy replacement glitter this summer when she can play with it outside.)

Here is Gracen opening one of her gifts. She is all up on it, checking it out.

And Gracen opening another gift. She was very slow, but thorough, when it came to opening her gifts. I am sure that she was the last one to finish.

Here is Gene opening one of our gifts from my Mom and Dad. It is a new foyer table and we just love it.

And here it is in our foyer. It is just beautiful in the space.

Reagan getting a hug from Gram.

Reagan and Gracen hanging out with Gram and Pap.

It was a great Christmas!

I really tried to slow down during the month of December and spend time with Gene and with the girls. We spent a lot of time reading Christmas books and watching Christmas movies, and doing Christmas crafts....but the month went by in a blink. I still didn't get to do all that I wanted to do with my family. In the middle of the month, I thought Christmas morning would never get here, and now that it is December 29th, I cannot believe that it has already come and gone. Time passes so quickly. I wish I could go back a few weeks and try to slow down a little bit more and be a little bit more intentional with the quality time.

In the new year, I need to do just that... try to slow down and enjoy the here and the now. I stress about things in the future and that robs me of just enjoying moment to moment.

More on resolutions in a few days.

Until next time...