Christmas Gatherings Galore

I have NO pictures from our first Christmas. It was at Grandma Eileen's on Saturday Dec 19th. The kids had a good time playing with their cousins and opening gifts.

The next Christmas gathering was at my parent's house last Wednesday night (the 23rd). The kids went over early and made cookies and the table decorations. As always the kids had a blast! (the adults did too!)Reece and Blake are dancing, looks like Frosty is getting trampled!!

Aunt Kim and Uncle Trent got the boys games. We have been playing lots of games over break!!!!

AJ with his little cousin Blake.

My wonderful parents, aren't they just so cute?!?!?!?

Mom is passing out more presents! Lauren and Reece are checking out their goods.

This is the whole table of kids and food!!! We did have a little mis-hap with the turkey strips and the grill but it all worked out in the end!!! (funny funny story for years to come, my poor dad!)

Then on Christmas Eve day we went to Jake's parents house for Christmas.

AJ and Alex are opening up their stockings.

This is Christmas Eve, we made cookies for Santa. I have a picture of AJ when he was 7 months old with the same little plate and mug for Santa. EVERY year I have taken a picture of the boys next to the plate. They are SO much bigger than the plate and mug now, can barely see it on the fireplace.

Sleepy reece getting ready to open presents. AJ had to wake him up at 845, he was still snoozing. He is my little sleeper!!

This was the year of Jersies for AJ. He had about 10 jersies (sp?) on his Christmas list this year. He ended up getting 3, pretty good I thought.

This is him in his Adrian Petersen Jersey. He also got a Notre Dame #23 and Dallas Clark (colts).

Reece got a dry erase board for his room. He loves to draw and do spelling words on it. (love it!!).

The day after Christmas (the 26th) we headed up to Indy to spend the next couple days at my Grandma and Grandpa Hawkins'. We had our Christmas there at noon that day. My mom's brother and his family from Maryland, my mom's sister and husband from Arkansas, and my cousin Carey from Florida all flew in for Christmas. It was the first time we were all together in 5 years. It was great to visit with everyone. That night me and Jake took the boys to a Pacers game. They really enjoyed that! (will post pics later)

Well, we had a great Christmas. It seemed to fly by. We have another Christmas in Odon on Sunday afternoon and then they are all done.

Happy New Year!!!

making cookies......yummy

This afternoon me and the boys made homemade sugar cookies. They love to cut them out and then decorate them. Reece is trying his best to get the dough just right, he got it a little too thin so we had to start over! For some reason every year when we do this he is shirtless. I guess the shirt gets in his way! Thankfully these were just cookies to make and keep at home, Reece kept licking the icing.....

AJ only decorated 3 cookies this year. While we were doing our traditional cookie baking the doorbell rang and a friend of his stopped by to play. They rode bikes for a little bit then went to the basement to play XBox. So, I only got half the time with AJ. Oh well, guess I better start getting used to that!! Reece stayed with it the whole time! He and I decorated most of them.

This is the finished product! They look pretty good and taste very good!! Now I've got to clean up the kitchen and figure out what is for supper................maybe cookies?!?!?

Brrrrr

THIS is what my boys are looking forward to............................ playing in the snow and then coming in for hot chocolate!

Can't Wait!!