Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Christmas 2015.

My New Years Resolution is to blog more.  I know, I shoot for the moon with my new years resolutions....gotta keep them attainable :)

To prepare for Christmas, first we went and picked out a tree at Cedar Lake Farm!  I swore I would never buy another real Christmas Tree but I lied.  We also went and saw Santa at Bass Pro.  There was a long line but we didn't have to stand in it because they give you a time frame to come back at, genius.  Lyla wouldn't smile but no crying so thats good!






To get a picture of these two now-a-days......shew.


They loved the huge fish at Bass Pro.


My picture.  


The official picture, 2015.

We also had breakfast with Santa at Red Rocks.  We had breakfast and took a picture with Santa. 


Gage and "Sloang"


Gage and Addi 


The "Seriously, quit taking pictures" look.

Every year my mom and dads church (the church I grew up in) has a live nativity.  My mom sings and we love to go watch her!   That's her singing but not the best picture :(


We also went to zootastic....super cool!  Lots of lights and animals to look at.  "We" fed the tigers, meaning we paid $3 for a worker to give the tiger a quarter size of meat but it was cool to see the tiger jump up for it!  The giraffe was hilarious, he would run around his barn then run and stick his head out of one of the openings.  You could buy crackers to feed him so that was fun to see.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him :(



Driving through the lights!


Kangaroos


This poor goat.  He had the weirdest horns.  


Feeding the tiger.


Our little Family

Of course we had to go to Krispy Kreme after a Panther win!


Tristen, Bella, Mia, Gage and Lyla

As always, we carried on our tradition of baking.  Everyone came to my house this year because we are all in rentals and my kitchen is the biggest.  A little sad we weren't in mom's kitchen that we grew up in but we made the best of it!  We made peppermint bark, rice kripsy treats, buck eyes, white trash and more stuff I am forgetting.  We didn't take many pictures, oops.


Gage's annual sugar with cookie, ha!


You can tell she had been sick :(

Christmas was marvelous as always.  We went to Burlington to spend Christmas Eve with Erik's family.  We got to visit Grandmaw Allene in the nursing home.  She opened several gifts from everyone, we took some pictures and then left.  We went back to Grammy J's and did the white elephant Christmas.  I got a neck massager and Erik got a panini maker :)  We had a wonderful time and came back with a trunk FULL of presents.  Alicia got me a yeti coffee cup....I love it!!  It seriously does keep coffee hot for forever.  Janice got me a fit bit so I've been wearing that and its super cool because it monitors your heart rate.  We drove back Christmas Eve night so the kids could wake up to see what Santa brought.


He loves his doggie blanket!


Gage practically opened all her gifts for her.  She managed to open a few :)



A rocking chair and a baby doll....What more could a girl want?!



Aunt Alicia and Lyla


Gage, Lyla, Chase and Finley


Grandmaw Allene's great grand babies


Grammy J and her grandbabies

Once we got everyone in bed (it took a while), we set out all the presents.  I told Erik we were doing the "Wise Men" Christmas, something you wear, read, need and want.  Well.....he didn't stick by that rule.  I do have to say, the "wear" and "read" presents were not quite exciting, lol.  You know what kids do when they open a gift that isn't a toy?  They throw it to the side.  So it was kinda nice to see them open a few toys.  Gage got a leap frog, huge train track set and a big dinosaur that Erik found at Toys-R-Us.  Lyla got a Minnie Mouse shopping cart, baby carrier and stroller and a few other little toys.  Gage said his favorite was the dinosaur and Lyla LOVES to push the shopping cart around.  Its true, Christmas is so much fun with little ones.  Once we had our Christmas we got ready to go to the Looper Christmas.


Lyla and Gage, 2015.


Walking down to see what Santa brought.  Not that I thought this video would work, ugh.


Her Minnie Mouse cart.


So sad....that's all the pictures I got of Christmas Morning.

This year was our first Christmas that wasn't at Mt. Holly Huntersville Rd....sad but time for new memories!  Mom and Dad decorated a tree and we had Christmas in the barn at the farm!  It's not your average barn, its super nice.  As usual, they out did themselves.  The kids all opened their presents and then the adults did.  The bigger girls got chrome books so we didn't hear from them for a while, ha!  The little ones got a trike and they loved those!  Dad also bought a basketball goal so that took up some time too.  We played, ate and played some more.  Lindsay, Lauren and I had a sign made for dad (thanks David and Mike) for the farm:  Looper's Ponderosa.  Dad always joked that would be the name so we went ahead and had the sign made....he loved it!  We ate too much and enjoyed ourselves.  Later that day, we headed to Mimi's (my mom's mom).  We got to see more family and hang out!


Gage, Mia and Bella


Dad helping Lyla with her Elmo letters


Erik and Gage "slam dunk"


Dad's sign.  Farm life, here we come!

Our family from Asheville didn't come on Christmas this year because Barrett was getting a puppy!  Her name is Chesnee (from Chesnee, SC) and she is adorable!  Pam, Jenna, JJ and Barrett came the day after Christmas and we had leftovers, shot clays and even went to the ER.  That's a whole nother' blog post :)  Shocker.....none of the videos work.  I give up.





Chesnee

Here is a picture of Yaya and all her babies :)  We love her so much and would buy her the world if we could.  Our kids LOVE to go to Yaya's and never want to leave.....you cannot find that just anywhere.  


(front) Addi, Gracyn and Gage
(back) Olivia, Elise, Yaya and Lyla

Another successful Christmas in the books.  I have to say, this season has flown by and I felt less prepared than I have ever felt.  I already made a promise to myself to not let that happen next year.  We are so thankful for Jesus our Savior who is the TRUE reason for the season.  We are so blessed to spend yet another Christmas with our families that we love.  Thank you Jesus and Happy Birthday!




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