What I did on Christmas Vacation (Part I)

Sorry if this is boring to my readers. I am documenting Christmas in order for it to be in my hardbound copy of my blog I intend to have made each year. I don't plan on selling it because I seriously doubt anyone would really want to read my ramblings more than once. (I am shocked at how many people actually read it the first time!) But I am very excited about the thought of my grandchildren reading about what their mom or dad did on a daily basis! What I wouldn't give to have stories about my parents in the words of my grandparents. So, here it goes.

We started the holiday season with Thanksgiving at Auntie Carla and Uncle Steve's lake house. OH MY is it beautiful! We had a wonderful meal with Grandma and Grandpa D., Grandma Connie, Uncle Chris, Auntie Scotti, Bill, Sandy, Greg, Spencer, Ryan, Melissa, Chad (Melissa's boyfriend) and of course our hosts Carla and Steve!

We played a fun Christmas song game and then the boys headed out for a Thanksgiving stroll. The girls stayed behind and had a fun little gift exchange filled with Christmas decorations that really got us into the spirit! Claire was very excited about her gingerbread house decoration that she got! The boys came back and we jumped into the pile of sale ads and planned our attack for the morning!

The next morning I was up before the sun and headed to Target. Only this year I headed south to Branson instead of my usual Springfield locale. I met Ashley and Rachel there and fought a serious crowd! But guess what? By the time I left there....my kids Christmas was DONE! That, my friends, was a Christmas miracle. I really enjoyed a day with my sister-in-law. Who, by the way, I am more thankful for each day. I TREASURE our relationship and I realize how truly blessed I am that she and my brother found each other! I got home and my family was still at Grandma D's making Christmas cookies. A tradition that started when Big Daddy was young!

I came in and changed into my new sweatpants that I bought, cranked up the Christmas music and started getting the house in order so we could drag out the Christmas decorations.