Christmas #3: The Recap
Last Friday, we packed up the car once again and drove seven hours to Pensacola, Florida, where Chris and I grew up. My parents moved away after my sister and I graduated from high school, but Chris’s family is still there. It’s nice to have a tie back to my hometown like that, otherwise, I don’t think I’d have any reason to go back.
When we go to Pensacola, we stay with Chris’s mom, Jackie, and her boyfriend/partner/male companion/humorist, Charles. Their house has two spare bedrooms and so Chris and I sleep in one of them with Gracie in a pack ‘n play, while Bean sleeps on a lowered trundle in the second bedroom. Jackie has Cars 2 sheets and blankets on Bean’s bed and so he thinks he has died and gone to heaven with Mater and Finn. It has been so nice to stay with her in the past couple years since we have had the kids. Jackie makes sure that we have everything we need here, so that we don’t have to bring much when we come (well, relatively speaking…). She always has diapers and formula and Bean’s favorite foods on hand, plus she has all the necessary equipment that two little kids require: booster seats for the dining room, toys for the living room, a cushy kneeling pad for next to the kids’ bathtub. She just makes it easy to visit and we always have a nice time with her and Charles.
Christmas is especially nice. There are stockings and lights and and Elf on the Shelf. And, this year, there was Gracie the Giraffe for my Gracie the Puffalump.
It’s touching me…
Christmas morning was a lot of fun this year! Unfortunately, I didn’t get one picture of the action. Bean is an illusive photography subject these days. He’s quick. He’s impatient. He’s been known to make silly faces at inopportune times. Which means, I basically just documented GRACIE’S Christmas…
Gracie had a GREAT first Christmas! She was happy and awfully active. We couldn’t get her to sit in one place for long.
Clearly.
We spent Christmas day visiting family, which, again, I failed to document. (Bad blogger.) We’ve spent the next few days just hanging around with Jackie and Charles. And eating. Eating lots of food. Lots and lots of food. We went to a diner for lunch yesterday and Gracie Girl went crazy for her scrambled egg. She ate the whole thing and then spent the next half hour squealing and playing with her Grandmomma.
We’re going to be here through the rest of this week and, though we’re having a great time, I’m ready to be back home soon. Christmas is a marathon for our family and I’m so glad that we are in the cool down now. I’m ready to pack up our Christmas tree and put away our stockings. I’m ready to get all these new toys and goodies home and to spend some time sitting on my couch, reading my new Kindle. Mostly though, I’m just ready to stop blogging about Christmas!!!!!
10 Comments
Katy @ MonsterProof
How did you get your hair to look so fantastic during Christmas morning chaos? Impressive. And you still managed quite a few super cute shots for them being so active!
Jessica
Gracie is just getting cuter and cuter! Great pics!
Ann G-B
I didn’t take one picture on Christmas morning either! I did manage to set up the video camera in the dark which meant I got a few minutes of blurry tree lights with no sound! Wahoo!
jenny-bird
It sounds like you’ve had a lovely holiday with your family. I hope you enjoy these last few days of holiday at home before school starts. Bean is looking so handsome and grown-up. Gracie’s beautiful eyes and her sweet smile with her two bottom teeth bring a smile to my face. I can’t wait to have my own little ones. I love your long hair! You should embrace it and forget those old notions of chopping all your hair off. 🙂 My holiday with the family is just about to begin. We board our plane this New Year’s Eve for a whirlwind tour of Alabama. I’m looking forward to spending time with friends and family. Have a happy new year!
halcuri
I just a got a Kindle from my hubs as well! It must be the most gifted item for middle school English teachers this year. I can’t wait to read it, but unfortunately, I have stacks of creative short stories to grade, and by the time I’m done with those, I’ll have another 90 literary essays to critique. Oh well, I guess maybe I’ll get a chance to read it over the summer? Looks like you guys had a great Christmas, by the way.
Chloe
Glad you had three wonderful Christmases! 🙂
Have a happy New Year!
Alaina
Looks like Gracie really enjoyed her first Christmas! Have a wonderful rest of your time with family!
Rebecca @ The Reluctant Housewife
Wow! Your hair is getting so long!!! It looks beautiful. Hope you have a fantastic rest of the week up there.
kiersten
Glad to see Gracie had a good christmas. She’s getting cuter and cuter by each picture. I love her little snaggle tooth smile!
Lindsay (Young Married Mom)
Gracie and her namesake giraffe are too cute. What fun pictures! Good job capturing that moment, and so many others. Christmas with an infant is MUCH easier to document than Christmas with a toddler. I missed the boat for my little man, too. But we had a good time, and that’s what matters.