Christmas 2013

 

 Christmas this year was quite festive.

 The house was decked.

 Christmas pjs and a warm doggy friend

 Nativity scenes were displayed, crafty gifts were crafted and wrapped.

 Even though Santa was watching some things were just too hard to resist.

 Celebrations were had.

 The church was decorated.

 Christmas light looking took place and more crafts.

 A little parade, naughty and quickly nice

 Smiles and squeals

 Cool stickers found in the recycling bin from Christmas card envelopes.

 Home Alone in the back seat on our trip to Grapevine.

 Downtown was beautifully decorated.

A cold front blew in on our way.

We warmed up and had a queso snack.

 A visit to the Gaylord.

 Lots of neat sights.

 Lily's favorites were the teddy bears.

 Snow and digging in her purse at the hotel.

And the pizza that was delivered.

 A visit to Daddy's favorite, Bass Pro Shops.

 A stop on the way home for lunch and gifts!

 That evening our big family Christmas celebration took place.

 Games

 Fellowship

 And fun

 Granny and Grandpa may no longer be here but Freddie and Diana did an awesome job of hosting and keeping the holiday special for the family.

 After setting up the tripod, we snapped a family photo before going to mom's on Christmas Eve.

 After the Christmas Eve service with a not so Silent Night, we headed back to mom's for presents.

 

 I mentioned to Aunt Heather that Lily could use a few more long sleeve clothes. 

Lily loved the gift bag stuffed full of clothes.

She was not interested in her toys.

We could hardly get her to open anything else after that first bag of clothes.

Most kids throw the clothes right on the floor.

Not Lily, she kept going through them and looking at them.

 Oh, how she loved her clothes.

 We tried the paint/sharpie pen and bake method that is popular on Pinterest.

Mom handwashed hers and said it was still there.

The color of the sharpie pen did slightly change when baked.

 Lily loved Granny's gifts too.

 And was a good helper.

 After Lily's bath, we opened our stockings.

 It was a fun night.

 Christmas morning, a big surprise waited under the tree.

Daisy and milk were still most preferred.

 Ok, so the wagon ended up being cool too.

 More gifts and stockings.

 Jason was actually under the weather, so we opened stockings the next morning.

Lily gave Daisy Daddy's presents and packing materials.

 While Jason rested, the gals played with the new toys.

His family was sick too, so we plan to celebrate with them this coming weekend.

This Christmas season was different all around.

Several events that make it feel like Christmas were cancelled or missed.

The Ladies Advent Tea was rescheduled due to bad weather until after Christmas.

The Altar Guild Christmas party was cancelled because of the weather.

We missed our cousin's play because we read our mail too late.

So missing the family Christmas went along with the rest of our Christmas season.

On the bright side, we still have Christmas to look forward to!

 That afternoon, Lily and I loaded up and headed to Great Granny's house.

 Christmas carols

 Food

 And more gifts.

After games and a bath, we said Good night Christmas.

We hope yours was merry and bright.