Tyler Christmas

We made a quick trip to Tyler to celebrate with Shawn's mom and my parents, on Christmas Day.  We stayed until Saturday.  I wish we could have stayed longer, but Shawn is a preacher so most of the time, Sunday is not an option for being off.  We still got to have time with each set and by Saturday, we had one child running fever so it was a good time to head home.

We spent the rest of Christmas day at my parents house.  Unfortunately only one cousin could make it.  My sister's younger son was VERY sick with viral and then bacterial pneumonia during Christmas!  He is finally starting to do better but we were worried.  My brother and his wife just had their second baby about 2 weeks ago, so they weren't going to travel yet and I don't blame them.  

This is where I get my love of decorating for Christmas from.  This is just one glimpse into my parent's house at Christmas.  I know it is a LOT of work for them, but I absolutely love how it looks at Christmas.  There is something to see everywhere you look....kind of like my house at Christmas.  :)

My stocking rocks!  This is the same stocking I've had since I was born.  

After we opened presents, it was time to prepare for dinner.  Elle wanted to help as much as possible so she ended up on potato duty with Poppy.

 Finally time to eat.  It was DELICIOUS!  So so so yummy.  I think it tastes even better simply because I didn't have to do all the work.

Levi got his own little table and we even lit a candle for him.  He wasn't a bit upset to not sit at the big table.  He loved sitting here by himself.

Cousins...Hayden keeps us laughing all the time!  The girls absolutely love to play with him!

We did Christmas with Barbara back at Thanksgiving so I don't have many pictures this time around.  We did have a marvelous time with her.  She took us out to eat on the 26th and we picked a place we'd never been; Panera Bread.  We really liked it.  It's the perfect place to eat when it's cold outside.  We REALLY owe her big time because she watched the kids while Shawn and I did day-after-Christmas shopping.  I got lots of things I needed and a few things I wanted....and no kids to drag along.  Here they are in Grandma's "section" of the house.