Christmas Day

We got dressed and ready for lunch in the pouring rain and headed to GG/Pops. This is not the outifit I had planned for her. I bought her this really cute smocked dress last year after Christmas sale but it was still a bit too big so I said "Next year!" She was happy to take it off!

          We LOVE GG's Santa that she got last year. He makes for a really cute photo!!

                                              PaPaw and Gracie

                  Gracie was soooooo happy to have Mason there. She just loved him! He's walking now and so much fun!


                                  Kelly with my cousins; Elaine and Trent

         Pop made an awesome beef tenderloin and GG fixed the sides. We look forward to this meal all year. IT's so yummy. Everyone is over the turkey and this is a nice change.

                       Mason opening some presents.

Later that day we played and played in the snow! It was so fun but VERY bitterly cold.


      One last pic by our tree. I HATE taking the Christmas stuff down so I do it early and can enjoy the rest of our break. I started gathering Christmas things on Christmas night then the next day we took everything down together. So sad! 

We came in from snow and had hot chocolate and watched Brave. Pretty good movie. I was so tired though, I could barely keep awake!
 

                           What a great Christmas we had! Our last Christmas as a family of 3 :)

Christmas Day 2012

Christmas morning we got some pretty heavy thunderstorms. It started around 1:00 in the morning and lasted until it started snowing later that day. It made for a not so good sleeping night for us. Every boom of thunder and loud bolt of lightning I thought kept waiting for Gracie to come screaming in our room. She lasted until 6:45. I thought that was pretty good. We watched a little My Little Pony then she finally said "Mommy, you need to go check and see if Santa came!" Well did he...

I'd say she did pretty good :) She got exactly what she wanted from Santa- a doll house, piny pon dolls, and a dr. kit for her babies. We did the 4 present rule and it was perfect. She got clothes to wear, books/game to read and play, a dream night light that she needed, and a cash register was her want. It was MORE than enough but not over board. She still had gifts from Grandma and Grandpa to open as well. She got a medical cart and a butterfly kit to grow butterflies.

                 Gracie took this one :)

Pretty soon it was time to get ready for our Christmas lunch at GG and Pop's! We had the chance for snow so we were all pretty excited!!

Christmas Eve 2012

Christmas Eve came so fast! We just got out of school the Friday before so I felt like it snuck up on us and there were soooo many things I had wanted to do that we didn't get to. Boo. That day was a nice day and Gracie helped me do some baking. We made a Dr. Pepper cake for that night, Christmas cookies for Santa, and a few other goodies. She LOVES helping, but mostly loves eating the goods ;)




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Before we left for kids service we sent Maxum a video message. Poor guy was home with the awful flu and the whole family had to stay house bound because he was so contagious. It wasn't the same without them and we really missed them.

We did the kids service again for church and it really is short and very sweet. They tell the Christmas story and all the kids get to bring down an kid made ornament throughout the service. Usually she has Maxum to go with down to the front but she did a very good job!





Later on GG and Pop took us all to eat dinner. It was yummy. Then time to open her Jack n' the Box! She COULD NOT WAIT!! She'd only been eying it since after Thanksgiving when GG put it up and together :)

She got lots of fun things; new clothes, Brave, some new squishy's, and a new doll bed that GG made!

             We made her take a few more Santa pics then we let her put on her pj's. She couldn't wait!! We had our Dr Pepper cake then packed up.

              Gracie's favorite little dog on Earth!

We hurried to head home and get there before Santa! She was so excited. Excitement that I'll never forget! She was just giddy and couldn't wait to get to bed. I remember those days myself and it was so fun to relive them and see her excitement.

         Her cookies for Santa and a letter we wrote him that day... Then she was off to bed so Santa could come!

Christmas in Nebraska

We spent Christmas in Nebraska this year. It wasn't easy packing all the presents but somehow we made it up there on the Thursday before Christmas and Gracie did great. We even ate lunch in the car and she gulped up her kids Subway sandwich. She loves Subway :) While making a pit stop in Wichita, KS it started snowing.

It was the tiniest snow flakes you've ever seen but still snow.  She's really gotten good at coloring too. Very fun. She took about an hour nap after both of us screaming at her to close her eyes. Phew!

When we finally made it Gracie was thrilled to finally get there! Grandma cooked a spaghetti dinner for us. The next day Kelly and Grandma did some last minute shopping and Gracie, Grandma and I did some shopping too. We did find a pile of leftover snow that Gracie couldn't wait to jump in.

Later that night Grandma and Grandpa Jacobs came down. Gracie and I hadn't seen them since Amber's wedding almost 3 years ago!! The rest of the family was there too on Friday. We headed out for some family pics. The only whole family pic was last from Amber's wedding!  Here's what we got:

We also got  a good one with Grandma and Grandpa with the kids...

The kids played their little hearts out at the park. They were all ready for good naps :) After naps it was time for church. All the kids did great in the service. 2 years ago I had to leave with Gracie b/c it was dark and loud she got so scared and was bawling! One funny thing that happened. She got on my lap during the service at one point and then had some gas while sitting on me. We both got tickled and were trying not to laugh! Then she said "I tooted Mommy. Do you smell it? Do you???" It was hilarious!!

After church we rushed home, had dinner, then got a special surprise......

SANTA CAME!!!!!
The kids thought it was great :) He came with gifts for all the kids and it was fun. I have some videos I'll have to post another time.

The kids opened more presents than you can imagine!! It took over an hour for us to get through them all. They were showered with gifts. After all the gift opening the kids went to bed late and the adults played games. It was fun.

The next day was Christmas and some of the family had to leave to visit other sides of the family. We had a quiet day with the Grandparents. Grandma cooked a good pork roast and we enjoyed the beautiful day outside!

She didn't even wear a coat on Christmas Day in Nebraska! Crazy!! 

Amber came back later that night to tell us good-bye! These monkeys!!

The next day we got up super early and made the long trek home. Gracie was very sad to leave her Grandma! We made it home and were so happy to get home. Home Sweet Home!