Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas Eve 2011

To start off Christmas Eve morning, we decorated our Gingerbread house. Leighton had so much fun and snuck a little sugar for breakfast... okay... a lot of sugar! Nevertheless, we made a 'sturdy' little house of treats and enjoyed the morning playing at my Mom's and relaxing!
That afternoon, we had a little party with my Mom and everyone to open some gifts and eat some treats. My mom spoiled us this year like always, but at least she got to save on shipping costs. This is the first year we have all been together for Christmas and I know it was really special to her to get to see Leighton open gifts. We missed the Maxfield's a lot and my Mom really wanted Jack to enjoy Christmas here, we appreciate all the extra measures she took to make Christmas wonderful! We are so lucky to have two very wonderful families and feel blessed from both of them, no matter where we spend the holidays (we got lots of surprises from Idaho and Utah this year too!). I think one of the things we will enjoy after grad school is being able to travel! We have so many wonderful people, we want to be able to see them all! Here are some pictures from Mom's house Christmas Eve!
That night, we were able to go spend time with my Dad's family at Charley and Happy's beautiful home for the Chandler Christmas Party. We were a little worried that Leighton would be shy since she was usually heading to bed at this time of the night, but she blew us away! In fact, I don't think Jack and I saw much of her the whole night except to open all of her awesome gifts! We got so spoiled at the party and the food was even better than I remembered! My Dad has become quite the chef! Leighton played with her cousins and they were so sweet to include her in everything and fight over her attention a little! I love how much she loves to see them and play with them! As the night went on, Leighton would sneak off and play with the dancing Santa... she danced her bum off! It was hilarious... Charley said he is leaving her the Santa in his will! I got to enjoy some of Granny Pam's chex mix, it's her Christmas special and usually Addison is sneaky and says she'll bring me mine...then it doesn't make it on the plane ride out! I don't blame her, it's amazing! Everyone was so good to us and we had such a great time!


After the party, we drove the 4 hours back to Tennessee and made it into our beds before Santa visited. It was a pretty exhausting trip, but the drive back was fun with Leighton watching movies and snoozing, and Jack and I listening to Christmas tunes and enjoying spending a Christmas Eve together. We were so glad he had the holidays off, one of the many blessings this Christmas season!

No comments: