It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I apologize in advance, this is a very long post.  Three Christmas celebrations and one birthday party make for lots of pictures :)  Enjoy!

We just finished up a wonderful Christmas holiday.  We started at my parent's last Friday and ended with their Christmas on Christmas Eve.  Ben had a great time spending four days with all of his cousins.  We celebrated Tiffany's 4th birthday while we were there, which added even more fun to the weekend!

Here are a few pictures from our visit.

 Tiffany was pretty excited to get her Barbie Mermaid :)

 

 Princess Sophia even made it to the party, thanks to Tiffany's Mom.

 

 All of the grandkids (all of them were even healthy this year...we had one down for the count on the 23rd, but she bounced back)!!!

 

 Grandma and Grandpa with the kiddos :)

 

 The whole family...next year we'll be 18 members strong!

 

Grandpa Jim reading the real Christmas story before dinner and presents.

 

 

We headed home after Midnight Mass (which was absolutely beautiful).  Ben slept through the whole service, but since it was 1:00 in the morning when we got out of Mass, it was probably a good thing that he slept :)  We finally made it to bed at 3:30 and we were back up at 8:00, but it was worth it to see the look on Ben's face when he saw what Santa brought him!

 

 

 Santa brought a Little People garage, a bulldozer, a "digger", and lots of books!

 

 

After opening up gifts at home, we headed out on the long drive to Grannie and Papaw's (that 1/2 mile sure gets long when you've got a little guy that's excited for presents)!  

 

 I know his stone-faced look doesn't do it justice, but he was pretty excited to see a new Gator with his name on it!

 

 Papaw was excited for his present too...a shiny new gun cabinet :)

 

 Max liked his log splitter too.  Ellie must have been dodging the camera, because I don't have any pictures of her :)  She was pretty happy with her gifts too, though!

 

 

 

We headed home for a much needed nap (I don't know who was sleepier...Ben or us).  Three hours later, we were back up and getting ready for our last Christmas party, back at Grannie and Papaw's house.

 









 I'm sure they're probably talking about the weather and the "blizzard" that was heading our way!

 

 Another tractor to add to our collection...nothing makes Ben happier :)

 

 Max got a football and a new hair accessory!

 

There's a picture of Ellie...she couldn't escape the camera this time :)