Caroline's First Christmas...

Since it has taken me this long to even get around to blogging, I am going to just write one big Christmas post instead of writing five separate Christmas celebration posts (my extended family, my immediate family, Greg's extended family, Greg's immediate family, and our little family of three). Please feel free to skim, as this is mainly just for me to remember things by. This holiday season has definitely been a whirlwind! We started out our Christmas celebration with a trip to North Carolina...Yes, two adults, two dogs, one one-month-old baby, and 7 hours of driving. And guess what? It was fantastic!! Caroline was a champ and only cried for about a total of 30 minutes each way and we still made it there in our usual 7ish hours! On Sunday we went to my aunt's house for an extended family get together. It was great getting to introduce Caroline to everyone! As usual, the food was fantastic and the company was even better! I had a great time catching up with the cousins and just hanging out with everyone. As is tradition, the adults participated in a Dirty Santa gift exchange and we ended up with a cake pop maker and a grilling set, both of which we were pumped about! After an few hours there, we headed over to my grandmother's house to meet Santa (which will be a separate post). After taking pictures with him, we packed back up and headed back to Raleigh to my parents' house. Monday we celebrated Christmas with my parents, brother and sister-in-law, our niece and nephew, and my grandmother. This year we decided to have the adults draw names and it was so nice!! It was fun getting to see who had who to buy for and what they picked out for us! My dad drew me and got me the drying rack I wanted and a new rotary cutter. My brother had Greg and got him extra caffeinated K-Cups for his new Keurig. Caroline got a some new toys, outfits, and cloth diapers. We loved watching the kids open their gifts, their ages are just SO fun this year! On Tuesday, we woke up bright and early and headed back home to Georgia. I was SO glad that we were able to make the trip and spend time with my family!

Our next celebration was the Friday before Christmas with Greg's extended family. Cindy and Thomas hosted this year and we had a great time! The food was so delicious and we had a BLAST playing all the Minute to Win It games Cindy had planned. The first game was to see how many cups you could stack with your dominate hand behind your back, the second game was seeing who could blow their cup across the table the fastest using a straw, the third was balancing pencils on the back of your hand and tossing them up and see how many you could catch, the last was a marshmallow tossing game, but I came in during the end of it so I'm not sure of the objective. It was so much fun seeing everyone's competitive side! After games, the kids all opened their gifts and then the adults played a fun Secret Santa game where each number has a little poem that went with it and told you what gift to get or who to steal from. We ended up with a decorative clock and a movie gift card. We had such a fun time!

Our next celebration was our own little family's! A couple of years ago we started the tradition of celebrating together on Christmas Eve, so we continued with that this year. This was such a special year for us because we've added our sweet baby girl to our family. We talked about how we couldn't get over how last year we were hoping and praying to get pregnant, and this year we were celebrating as a family of three! Caroline was pretty fussy all evening, so we waited to open our gifts to one another until after she was put to bed. Greg got me several new shirts, two pair of boots, pajamas, The Help dvd, and a night away at Lake Blackshear Lodge and Resort, which we will be going to in March! I got Greg a few shirts, wallet, 2 belts, k-cups, and 12 pre-planned/pre-paid dates- one for each month of the year! One Christmas morning, Greg got up with Caroline so I could sleep in a bit longer (so sweet) and then we took pictures of Caroline with her gifts from Santa! Santa got some great deals over the past several months so the gifts have been stored for a while =) She a got a musical table, tiny diner place mat, snack cups, sippy cups, shape sorts, stacking blocks/cups, and a few more goodies! We spent the day in our pajamas then got ready to go to Cindy and Thomas' for our last celebration.

Our last celebration at Cindy and Thomas' was a great way to end the Christmas season. We all enjoyed a delicious meal by Cindy before heading to the living room for our gift opening extravaganza! It was truly a sight to see the tons of gifts under the tree...blessed for sure!! SJ was SO cute this year opening his gifts! It made me excited for next year, since Caroline will be about 3 months younger than that. SJ and Caroline slept through most of the gift opening (although Caroline decided it would be a good idea to cry though a lot of it), but the adults ans KA had a great time going around one by one and opening our gifts. I always love seeing what everyone gets! We received SO many sweet gifts! Greg got several new accessories for his Big Green Egg, some new clothes, and more and I got some nice new sweaters, several gorgeous scarves, a new crockpot and dutch oven, and lots more! Caroline racked up as well with tons of new cloth diapers, outfits, a photo session, books, headbands and more! We had a fabulous time with everyone but had to hurry out after the gift opening to put a very tired girl to bed! She gave us her own Christmas present that night by sleeping 9 straight hours!!

As mentioned before, Christmas was a whirlwind this year, but despite all of the hustle and bustle, we always remember the reason for the season and thank the Lord for what this holiday truly means. We have been abundantly blessed and I hope to never take it for granted!

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