Getting in the Christmas Spirit

We certainly got in the Christmas Spirit around our house this weekend!  I had a 3 day weekend (whoo hoo) and Brandon had scheduled a half day on Friday.  Brandon has had the flu this past week but I'm so glad he was feeling better this weekend so we could have some family time.  We went to a light show, wrapped presents, watched Frosty the Snowman, and went to a Christmas party!

We hung out at home most of the day Friday.  Annie is fascinated with my camera.  Every time I snapped a picture of her she would come over to see it on the camera.

How adorable is this little outfit with her booties?

She and Ruby played together a lot as well.  They are such BFFs.  

Friday night we went to Starry Nights at Shelby Farms.  They decorate the park with thousands of lights and Christmas decorations and you drive through in your car.  Once inside the park, I let Annie sit upfront with me so she could see out the windows better.  She had a blast!  She kept pointing to the different lights and saying "ooooooh."  We had Christmas music blaring from the radio and it was seriously one of the best nights!

Saturday morning we lounged around the house, watching Frosty the Snowman and wrapping presents.  Anniston is not too interested in actually sitting down and watching the cartoon, but everytime they sing "Frosty the Snowman" she immediately drops whatever she is doing to dance to it.  I tried downloading the song to my phone but somehow that doesn't have the same effect.  So we watched it over and over and over.

Wrapping presents would have been a lot easier if someone would stay out of my boxes....

Annie has really been all about her books lately.  Only certain ones though.  She hasn't quite reached the point of listening to a full story yet.  She likes the cardboard books (because she can turn the pages easily) that have 1-2 words per page.  So we point at the picture and say what it is.  We can seriously do this for over an hour!  She will go get a book, bring it to me, and then hold up her arms for me to pick her up to sit in my lap.  Then repeat about 100 times!  Needless to say, she will be getting lots of new books for Christmas!

I had to sneak this one in here from earlier this week.  Annie loves to walk around the house in the morning while I'm getting ready, pretending to curl her hair.  This was the best shot I could get with my phone, so it's a little blurry, but how cute is this?  I think I'm going to have a girly girl on my hands pretty soon!

Sunday we drove to Jackson for an early Christmas party with my dad's side of the family.  I was so excited to see Anniston open her first Christmas presents.  She had so much fun!  We have so much to be thankful for this Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  The weekend started off with a Christmas Eve brunch at my sister's house.  She had the place decorated so cute and the food was so delicious.  I made these cute "Santa Hat Brownies" to take to the brunch.  I think they turned out pretty good!

Me and Allie at brunch

 Anniston all dressed up for Christmas:)

 Me, Brandon, and Anniston

The entire family!

Christmas Eve night we headed over to Brandon's mom's house to have dinner with his mom, Nana, his sister and her husband, and their twin girls.  Unfortunately, I suddenly developed a major cold and it got progressively worse as the night went on.  I had all the bad symptoms: runny nose, watery eyes, sneezing, congestion, etc.  It was crazy how it just appeared!  I had fun anyways but I didn't feel like taking pictures:(

Here are a couple of the gifts we got there:

 Yay!  My Kate Spade rose gold bangle!  I was SO excited to get this:)

Anniston got this adorable smocked cupcake dress to wear for next fall.

We drove to Jackson, TN on Christmas morning to spend the day at my aunt's house.  Sadly, I didn't feel much better than I did the previous night.  Thankfully, everyone helped out with Anniston while I hugged the box of Kleenex!  We ate lunch, talked, and then opened presents.  Allie and I were really excited to give Mom & Dad their present from us- we bought them an iPad!  They were so suprised!  I think they are really going to love it.  Now we can all Skype each other! 

Here are some of the gifts we received from Christmas Day:

 Aunt Allie got Anniston this Nike track suit complete with a hat and mittens for when we all go running with her jogging stroller.  She will be dressed so appropriately:)  Love this!

 My Aunt Nancy got me this adorable iPad cover from Etsy.  I LOVE this!  It even has two pockets in the front to hold notes, pens, stylus, etc.

 The watch in this picture was a gift from Allie.  It's a Michael Kors rose gold with a chocolate brown face.  Notice how GREAT it goes with my new Kate Spade bangle?

 This was another gift from my Aunt Nancy- a necklace with Anniston's name on it.  Again, it's from Etsy!

Anniston got so many learning DVDs.  I think we are going to try one of them out tomorrow!

We left Anniston with Mom & Dad overnight so that I could go home and pass out.  I was so exhausted and sick!  I took a long, hot bath, curled up on the couch, and got a full night's sleep.  I hate I was so sick for Christmas but it was a lot of fun anyways!  Here are some pics Allie took of us all Christmas Day: