I feel I say this every time I post - but I truly cannot believe another holiday is in the books; and this one is Christmas! Time truly does fly when you're having fun! My younger sister was home for the first time since 2020 and we crammed so much into the week she was here - it was all wonderful and I'd love to share some snapshots from our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (with a little Christmas Eve Eve thrown in too).
My younger sister and her boyfriend arrive on the 23rd - or Christmas Eve Eve, as we call it - and our family has a long-standing tradition of making Christmas cookies. The husband and boyfriend aren't the most enthused about the whole cookie making process, but we did convince them to decorate a few... including a holiday poop that James made. *face palm* Boys will be boys.
Christmas Eve was a pretty laid back day for us - Ryan and I were both off work, so we slept in and then just chilled at our house. We watched some Christmas movies and I got some things ready for the evening festivities at my parent's house - cookies and crock pot meatballs - and then shortly after 3:00, we headed to meet up with family at church.
We always attend a Christmas Eve service and since Ryan and I's church doesn't have a Christmas Eve service (or didn't this year) we joined my parents at their church for the 4 PM service. It's always a really lovely thing to experience - and of course, we were able to get some pretty cute pictures too!
After the church service - we headed to my parent's house for a little Christmas Eve get together. Some family friends stopped in and we snacked on lovely holiday foods like pigs in a blanket, meatballs, Christmas cookies, my Mom's amazing cheese dip, magic squares, white trash (so good) and more!
Since it's not truly Christmas Eve until we've watched White Christmas - once the party was done, we started the movie and it gave me all the same warm fuzzies it always does! My sister and I goofed around, singing along to the song "Sisters" because - of course we did. White Christmas is without a doubt my favorite Christmas movie and I will always want to watch it on Christmas Eve - it just doesn't feel like Christmas Eve without it.
Christmas morning dawned bright but thankfully not too early - at least not for me - apparently my sweet husband was creeping around doing secret things but I slept until almost eight AM and it was lovely! We had a delicious breakfast casserole and opened gifts from one another. I feel like my husband truly spoiled me this year - he says it was nothing - but goodness, he gave me all the things. He is too good to me and I am unbelievably blessed!
After exchanging our gifts, getting some dishes cooked to share with family and getting ourselves put together for the day - we headed to my parents' house to celebrate. We had intended to take both Maverick and Spook with us but Spook was having none of it, so we ended up only taking Maverick. He enjoyed seeing everyone and getting cuddles, and treats - but his favorite place to get was in betwixt all the presents under the tree, where he took an afternoon nap!
Of course we took no end of family pictures together - Ryan and I, my parents with all of us, my parents with us two girls, the list goes on and on. Maverick even made a picture or two and had quite the good time getting Lindsey and James to give him treats in exchange for cuddles.
After a delicious Christmas dinner of turkey, ham, sweet potatoe casserole, corn casserole, veggies and more - we were all completely stuffed! And so then, it was time to exchange presents with family! Santa Claus still brings Ryan and I a stocking at my parent's house - so we opened those and were spoiled by the goodies we found inside!
As always - opening presents was a wonderful time. There was laughter and plenty of surprises for everyone; it's always neat to see what everyone chooses for each other or what might have been chosen off someone's wish list. We were spoiled yet again and headed home loaded down with gifts and wonderful memories of a beautiful Christmas together!
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