Christmas 2011

So now that it's January, I thought I'd finally get around to a Christmas post :)  We had the most amazing Christmas with my family here in Charlotte & then a late Christmas in Michigan with B's family!!  We are so, so blessed with such an amazing family & we had the best time celebrating and just being with everyone!  Are you ready for a picture overload!?

Friday night, all of my family had gotten in town so we gathered up at my brother & SIL's house and then went out for Mexican!  B got a great picture of the tree with all the loot!!

Merry Christmas Eve & Go Panthers!!!

Christmas Eve, Brandon and I went to cheer on the Panther's at their last home game of the season!

Sir Purr's red neck family

Next year, Cats!  Next Year!

Christmas Eve night, both of my brothers were at their in-laws having Christmas, my aunt and family were celebrating with their other side of the family, so it was just B & me, my parents & my grandmother.  We went to Outback for a delish dinner!!

Christmas morning, we woke up bright and early to head up to Rob & Gale's house for the day!

Santa Vinny!

Jude Leeland was SO proud of his new guitar!! 

Just before present chaos!

Hubs & I 

The kids drowning in their piles of gifts!!  Christmas is so much fun through the eyes of a child!  I love it :)

Jude would go give a hug each time he opened a gift!!  Hugging Gale - so precious!

My new pearl earrings!!

This was the first year my family did Secret Santa and drew names.  Our family is getting so big with spouses and grand babies these days so it was nice to pick a name and concentrate on finding a nice gift for that person!  My SIL Gale drew my name and got me the above gorgeous pearl earrings, some awesome Tart lip glosses & a new crockpot cook book!!  She really spoiled me!

Santa Vinny lounging with Rob!

Roen in her fun new dress up clothes!!

Jude wanted a nerf gun for Christmas!  He told my SIL he was going to ask everyone for a nerf gun and
that way he'd be sure to get one!!  Haha, smart kid!  He got 3 to be exact! :) 

The boys had LOTS of fun playing with the nerf guns all day!  We should've gotten each boy their own!

We were Roen's paparazzi :)  Her pom pom that came with her dress up clothes kind of exploded
so we just played in it instead! 

Wells had a blast playing, too!

Christmas night, my SIL's family came over for Christmas dinner and we had over 20 people in the house!!  Such a fun crowd!  We served a huge lasagna, made hot chocolate, and enjoyed being together!!  When Brandon and I got in the car that night to head home, we both had huge smiles on our faces and said, "That was just the best day!!"  And it really was!

The next morning, our alarms went off at 5 am for us to get up to make our flight to Michigan!!  Ughh, it was tough to get up, but we had a great week in Michigan celebrating with B's side of the fam!

My view out of the plane!

Sweet Jameson watching The Help

We stayed with Brandon's sister and BIL, Ashley & Casey.  They have lots of animals!  We enjoyed snuggling with their sweet pups!  Monday night Ashley and I made a big dinner and we did Christmas with Brandon's Mom, Ash & Casey.  We also watched The Help (finally!!!)  I was so excited to finally watch it!

Our gorgeous view when we woke up Tuesday morning!

Michigan is finally set to get some snow this week!  The little bit we saw was just a small dusting and was melted by that afternoon.  They've had pretty much no snow so far up there, which I know they're not complaining about!

Tuesday night, we went to see War Horse with B's family.  It was such a cool story, I really liked it!  Ashley and Brandon grew up with horses and Ashley still has 3 and gives riding lessons and what not.  Needless to say, Ashley and Joan shed a few tears while watching, but I only teared up a bit ;)

Wednesday night was Christmas with B's extended family on his Mom's side.  They were so sweet to wait for us to get to town...they put their normal Christmas Eve traditions on hold until Wednesday night.  We all went out to dinner and then over to Brandon's grandparent's house for dessert, Secret Santa, and the $10 gift exchange!

Me with sweet Biscuit

Grandpa opening his gift!

Ashley & Casey

Brandon & I with Grandma 

The traditional group picture!
Back row: Joan, Grandpa, Casey, Lucas, Uncle Bob, & Brandon
Front row: Ashley, Biscuit, Grandma, Aunt Marcia, Me

Thursday afternoon, Ashley, B and I went to visit their Grandma Shuck and see his Aunt Pat!  Aunt Pat was so sweet to drop off some molasses & sugar cookies as well as her famous noodles to Ashley's before we got there!  We were glad we got to see her to thank her in person!  That night, we all went out to dinner with Brandon's dad!  Sadly, no pics though, because the door that closes in our battery & memory card on our camera broke Wednesday night :(  Need to get that fixed asap!

We spent our last night in Michigan watching another movie and just hanging with Ashley & Casey!  Friday we grabbed brunch with B's mom and then began our trek back to Charlotte.  Going and coming, we actually had NO flying issues!!!  For once in our life!  It was a Christmas miracle!

Our second Christmas as a married couple was absolutely wonderful!!  We had the best time with our family and enjoyed so much time with each other.  I hope your Christmas was just a wonderful!