Christmas morning I always like to get up nice and early. I like to be able to take my time getting ready and not have to worry about being rushed 🙂 Typically every year Mrs. Charlotte and I are the first two up! The kids started waking up around 6:45 ish. I felt SUPER bad for Tess b/c she hadn’t gotten to sleep until 11 the night before due to her throwing up so she was exhausted. But we couldn’t possibly expect everyone else to wait and let her sleep so we rolled with it. SO thankful for her “angel baby” personality!
The traditional “line up in birth order and wait to see if Santa came” moment was a little crazier than usual thanks to two toddlers haha!
Instead of busting out our mega out of date video camera to record the morning festivities, we just split it up into smaller shorter videos on our phone 🙂 Here are the 5 mini-videos of the gift opening from Santa: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!
It’s so fun that Tess is into it all this year!
Kye really wanted legos from Santa as well as surprises! He was for sure surprised at the Star Wars action figures and nerf gun!
Britt really, really wanted this specific “phone and keys” set she saw at the check out line at Toys R Us. Easy to please for Santa 🙂
Happy Boy!
Carter won for BIGGEST Santa gifts haha
Carter and Tess are so, so cute together. They both kept trading places to check out each other’s toys!
My personal favorite gift from Santa this year! I wonder if Santa got it on a deal for $30 instead of the full price $150?! I know when I saw that deal I was tempted to get it but thought I’d leave it for Santa instead!
The flow of the morning always goes: Santa gifts, stockings, break for breakfast for babies while guys pass out presents, kids open, kids go watch a movie while adults open, clean up and rush out door to go to Big Daddy’s for breakfast!
This year things were more organized…Mrs. Charlotte had a pile for each child set up around the tree to speed up the passing out process. The big kids also helped and it’s handy to have so many readers among us now!
We had an AWESOME system this year for opening. My little crew sat in a circle. I’m hardcore about my kids having an even number of gifts to open. Rather than having each kid take turns opening (which does take forever) we had each of our kids get one present then all three open that specific gift at the same time. By sitting in the circle we could all see what each kid opened and we took a min or two to check out the presents they each had opened before each getting the next one. It was PERFECT! It’s something we will def do from now on and it helped keep Tess entertained too.
I was SO thankful for our special family day on the 23rd. We got to really, really enjoy Tess that morning. She was PITIFUL on Christmas morning. She was so tired and just didn’t feel good from the night prior (she did eat fine that morning and never puked again or had any fever though, praise the Lord!). She was fussy and just not her normal self. She didn’t even care much for the opening and was over it all pretty quickly.
It did work out a bit to our advantage though…we put her down for a nap at 8:00 and Zach and I were able to straight up CHILL and enjoy the adult opening phase without having to worry about her since the big kids were all happily watching a movie 🙂 She had an AWESOME nap and was MUCH happier for Big Daddy’s house!
So pumped for her own lip gloss 😉
I bought this marble run a couple years ago…and I’m so glad we gave it to him this year! It was the perfect age for him to get it and it ended up being one of his FAVORITE gifts!
It was the year of the box for Britt! It was hilarious that every gift she opened she kept saying “it’s a box” bahaha
We delayed Legos until Kye fit the age category for them. I know a lot of people start them younger but I didn’t want him to get frustrated by it. We found a set that he chose that was ages 6+ and he was SO PUMPED!
Third kid is so tough to buy for…plushes and Little People for the win!
Christmas chaos!
Always trading toys 🙂
Our family!
Once the kids were settled in with a movie the adults got to open. Of course I had to get Mrs. Charlotte the #lifechanging Kohl’s blanket!
Bitter that she didn’t get a blanket too bahaha
The DEALS this year really allowed us to get some great gifts…when could we normally afford to get Mr. Rusty new golf shoes from us for Christmas?!?! Even he was pumped for the deals 😉
Fierce!
Time for breakfast at Big Daddy’s!
It worked out so great that Tess had the awesome nap. We were able to CHILL and ENJOY the time at Big Daddy’s without feeling rushed. Zach had already loaded the car up with everything so we didn’t have to worry about a thing! We just got to hang out with everyone which was so wonderful. It was my fav Christmas ever (have I said that yet? ha!) and that includes our favorite year at Big Daddy’s so far too!
Casey wins for best Secret Santa gift for someone…she got Barry a cat blanket, cat book and personalized coffee cup with a picture of his cat on it 😂
The big kids all got to go have fun with Uncle Barry and Aunt Karen and the little ones did so great playing and running around! Aunt Karen took some videos for us: kids feeding horses, Britt feeding horses, riding in the back of the truck (which I was later told they were “going 80”). It was SO sweet of Barry and Karen to spend that special time with them and the kids LOVED it!
We love our Big Daddy and our Little Mama!
While of course I wish I could see my family at Christmas time…it is SO great not having to go ANYWHERE. Casey and Jordan leave from Big Daddy’s to drive to Atlanta and Courtney and Brad leave the following day to drive to Mississippi. We used to leave day of and drive to Melbourne but now we straight CHILL. We all took a HARDCORE nap (like I slept for 3 straight hours and felt like a new woman ha!) and just made a huge mess in our dining and living room! We unload the car and open up ALL the toys and spend the next couple of days just putting things together and playing and slowly finding homes for all the new goodies 🙂
Zach did SO GOOD sitting back and letting Kye do the Legos on his own…it was TOUGH for my “control freak” husband though haha
On Christmas we got to FaceTime with my Dad and Audrey which was really fun! It was great to talk to them and it made my heart happy that they enjoyed all of their gifts from us. We ate Chinese food on Christmas Day (the only day of the year that I eat Chinese food!) and then on the 26th we chilled all day and ended the day with a BIG FEAST that Zach prepared for us 🙂 I love using my Christmas china and this year, being the year of making it the BEST Christmas ever and all, I splurged and completed the pieces I needed to have a “full set” (just 8 salad plates and 8 dinner ones). Thank you Ebay!
We had THE most fun-filled, happy, loving Christmas ever! Even a little puking didn’t stop us from fully enjoying the time together! I’m so, so thankful for the blessings of my amazing husband, precious children, and awesome extended family. We are abundantly blessed 🙂
