A Salinian Christmas

For Christmas this year, it was, for us, to be spent with my side of the family... little did we know, that the family would decide to come and spend Christmas in Salina! It was SOOO fun to be able to celebrate at our home and to host everyone (thankfully, with Stef's beautiful new home, she was able to house some people & had mother's birthday and Christmas dinner!) Phillip and I just kept saying how incredibly blessed and loved we are to have such an amazing family!

I'll just post the photos and let them speak for themselves!

So, I know I shouldn't have, but I bought the kids some toy trains that I saw for $10 on an online garage sale site... it was just TOO good of a deal to pass up! They love playing with them! Unfortunately, Mommy is a terribly train track maker... that's Daddy's area of expertise :)

One of the first toys we opened was the Hungry Hungry Hippos game from Auntie Emily... it'd been so long since I'd played this game... it was so fun for everyone! (Unfortunately, today... we're down to about 5 marbles... but I'm hopeful we'll find them eventually!)

One of the biggest gifts this Christmas was the passing on of Phillip's Kegorator to Uncle Andy... I'd say it was a pretty big hit!

His first pour from the tap... I think he's quite pleased with his Christmas gift!

The maiden toast! Yes, even father had a glass to celebrate!

Gremom & Poppa carefully supervising the making of the reindeer food (oatmeal oats & glitter) that is then sprinkled in the yard... to keep the reindeer occupied while Santa delivers his gifts to the babies!

And our traditional reading of "Twas the night before Christmas" read by Poppa... listening to his warm voice read the lines of this book takes me back to when I was little!

A view of our very full living room! I put together a Christmas slideshow that played throughout Christmas Eve and Day of Holiday photos dating back to 2006... it was really fun to relive some of those memories (...like dropping our 25 pound turkey on the floor one Christmas morning!)

And all of the girls (plus Willie) had matching Christmas Jammies! (Callie refused to wear hers... but her eyes lit up when I brought out a Christmas Princess Gown for her to wear!)

And HOORAY for Auntie Nano making it to Salina, Kansas all the way from San Diego, California!

...and after the children were "nestled all snug in their beds while visions of sugar plums danced through their heads"... "Santa" was assembling one of his "some assembly required" gifts :)

Meanwhile the rest of Santa's helpers were busy watching the classic Griswold's Christmas Vacation.

When there are 12 people celebrating Christmas together... plus gifts from other sides of families,,, it really adds up! This was our mountain range of gifts!

Santa's gift to Callie, Elsa's Frozen Ice Castle (with the wrong balloon)

Santa's gift to Willie (a car carrying semi-truck)

We called this the Trifecta: Callie waking up early (never a good thing... sister is NOT a morning person... not even on Christmas), Callie being an introvert (not liking to be the center of attention), and Santa giving her the "wrong" Elsa balloon that she had asked him for... Mother's face says it all :/

Willie was as happy as could be with his truck! If he didn't get another toy all day long, he would've been completely content!

Mommy & Daddy trying to sell Callie on her Santa gift...

My happy man baby! (who randomly kept finding snickers chocolates ALL morning long... I'm pretty sure he ate at least 15 of them...)

Uncle Andy, as happy as can be with his ice cold from the tap beer... at 8:15am Christmas morning...

The awesome tshirt we had designed for Gamps...

Auntie Boo got some new headphones "Beats by Dre"... apparently it was a pretty awesome song that was on :)

Willie's other favorite gift... a tool bench! It's probably one of my favorites, when he comes out of his room, with a drill & a hammer & says "Mama... I work" :):):)

Gremom & Poppa were not trusting this 25 pound turkey to Auntie Nano... they wanted to keep this one off the floor this year :)

Mother's Birthday Party at Auntie Pup's new house! Pup did a GREAT job decorating & making it extra special for mother!

Callie helping Auntie Pup frost Gee's birthday cake in her new Anna gown!

And a silly picture of the girls celebrating Gee!

We were so so very blessed this year (as we are every year!) Thank you to everyone who sent a holiday card or gift... we appreciate it all!

Love & kisses!

(sorry... I'm out of time & have to run to grab Bitty from school!)

A Southern Thanksgiving

Over the last couple of weeks most of Phillip's free time has been spent changing his "finished storage room" into his office (which is SUPER exciting!) We painted it a handsome Navy blue, rearranged the furniture and taped out the room for new furniture! We're planning to add a new love seat that will include a pull out bed (so it will be another functioning bedroom/guest room), a new desk for added storage, and a dry bar.  When you walk through the door to the room, it just looks like Phillip! We'll be anxious to show it off to our next visitors!

So while he's been busy reorganizing his books on the shelves & hanging some of our custom Steve Van Court artwork pieces... I've been busy going through paperwork.  Some of that paperwork included going through old cards where I read from a few family members "we love keeping up with you all on your blog!" And so... on this snow flurrying day, with the warmth of my fireplace on... I thought I'd do a blog update :)

For the holidays, we got to spend Thanksgiving with the Van Courts visiting Auntie Emily in beautiful Charlotte, North Carolina.  It was such a fun vacation, staying in a rental home with the Ovrebos (Callie & Mavy got to have sleepovers!), eating DELICIOUS southern food (seriously, y'all... the mac n cheese Emily created was to. die. for!), and enjoying the nice weather!

Here's a few photos from that trip!

Upon arriving to the Charlotte Rental House after a long day of traveling, we had bubbly glasses of wine waiting for us!

While Grammie had her "Grammie bag" full of goodies for the kiddos to play with!

And Auntie Emily had new books to read to the babies!

And instead of shopping with the crowds for Black Friday, we took the Light Rail to "Uptown" Charlotte to visit the Children's Museum!

Which obviously left the men completely exhausted :)

So the girls had to cook them some dinner so they could regain their energy to play again!

And we enjoyed the most AMAZING fried Turkey for Thanksgiving Dinner (prepared by Griffin {Auntie Emily's Boyfriend})

Awaiting our train at the light rail station!

Exploring some of the children's museum exhibits...

Including the aquarium that totally mesmerized the babies!

I can only imagine the amount of trouble these two sweet faces will get into in the coming years!

We really had a great time and were blessed with easy traveling companions (our littles are really getting the hang of flying!) We always love the time we get to spend with family and it was REALLY nice to see Emily's beautiful southern city.

And now I have to go get Willie all bundled up so we can go get Sis from school! Stay warm y'all! (I'm not worried about Gremom & Poppa or Grammie & Grandfather Faith staying warm.. since they're both in Arizona & Florida... soak up some sun for us Northerners!)

Love to all!