Christmas Comes but TWICE a Year!

After we opened gifts at our house yesterday morning, Jay and I loaded up the kids and headed over to my mom and dad's house for our second family Christmas get together.

When we got there, my mom had made breakfast for all of us...monkey bread, egg & sausage casserole and cheese grits...YUM!

After eating breakfast, we started opening gifts. My family goes about opening gifts a little differently than Jay's family. We all open our gifts at the same time, so it's a bit crazy, but so much fun. At any given moment, someone is cheering or crying because of a great gift they've received.

Truett and his Magic Color Activity Set from Uncle John

John and his LSU Christmas ornament from Mom

Emily checking out her new Tom Tom from Mom and Dan
Sarah and her pink coffee holder from Mom and Dan
Emma and her little lamb from Aunt Sarah

Danny trying to program his GIANT remote from Mom...hahahah!
It's always fun for us to see who can make my mom cry because of the gift they give. We all seemed to manage to do it this year! We decided to pull names among my brother and sisters and then to pool our money together and get a group gift for my mom and dad. Ever since I had Truett, I've always liked going to Art from the Heart (a little shop in Coppell that provides different pieces of ceramic plates, mugs, frames, etc...along with all the supplies you need to paint them. You paint the piece and they glaze and fire it for you) and painting something with Truett's handprint or footprint. They always come out so cute and make really great gifts for grandparents.

Anyway, I was going to do something there this year, but when we decided to do a group gift together, it got my wheels spinning. I was trying to think of something we could all do with our handprints or something. I came up with the idea to do a nativity scene. I talked to Emily, Sarah, John and Jay about it and we figured out the different characters. The plate came out so great. Mom and Dan were pleasantly surprised with their gift and we got at least a tear or two out of both of them!

The Nativity Scene

Truett's hand as the Angel

Emily's foot as Mary

John's foot as Joseph

Emma's foot as Baby Jesus
Jay's fist and knuckles as a camelMy fist and Sarah's fist as sheep
As we were passing out gifts to everyone, my dad came out of the bedroom with Truett's big gift...a Harley Davidson Big Wheel, complete with a radio and working blinkers! :)

Truett checking out his new gift...notice the Curious George bandaid still intact!

Truett hopped on and attempted to ride around the house for a while.

At one point, my dad took Truett outside to test out his new ride.

Of course, when Truett caught on to how excited we all were to see him ride it, he quickly changed his mind about how excited he was. Truett decided he didn't want to ride anymore once he saw I was trying to take a picture. Danny was trying to talk him into getting back on just to ride it back to the house.

From the looks of this picture, I think it's safe to say that the score is Truett - 1, Us - 0!

When we were finished opening gifts, we cleaned up all the wrapping paper, bows, styrofome peanuts, etc...,

visited...

relaxed...
and looked at all of the new stuff everyone had gotten.

Truett playing with his Diego Rescue Pack from Nannie Sarah and Sarah trying on Truett's Lightening McQueen hat from Papa

John had set up his Wii, so we thought we'd give it a try. We all took turns playing and really had so much fun. I NEVER thought I'd live to see a day when my parents would be playing video games. As you can see, I don't think it'll be the last time!

Mom showing her excitement after bowling a strike

We had a delicious Christmas dinner, after which we played games and hung out. Truett played in the box of LeeLa's costumes between snacking and playing games!MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!