Click, click, click

One of my presents from Hubby was a new camera!  YAY!  He bought me one on our honeymoon and I lent it to a friend.  When I got it back the screen was smashed.  So, when I opened my new one he said, "Take care of this one!"  Which means don't loan it out!  HAHA  I love it!!   I've been snapping away since Friday night!  And yes, we opened our gifts early because of all the traveling we were going to be doing. 

Thank you, Hubby, for helping me complete number 7!

Who's ready for a two day nap?!

Christmas 2011 has officially come and gone!  Hubby and I are exhausted!  This was the first Christmas that we've been able to spend with family in three years so EVERYBODY wanted us to be at their house.  We managed to spread it out over three days so we had more time to spend with our loved ones.

It all began on Christmas Eve morning.  Hubby's dad woke us all up at 6am ( I know, right?) to have some family time and drink coffee before our niece Lailah woke up.  He ended up waking HER up at about 7:45.

the left side

...and the right side

Hubby was not happy with the early morning wake up!

Hennessy and her stocking full of treats ;)

Ms. Lailah opening gifts

trying to further open Lailah's gifts  haha!

the duct tape gun was a success!!

After all the gifts were opened, breakfast was had, and naps were taken (except me and one of my BIL's ...we played with Lailah and her new toys!), Hubby and I ventured out to a friend of ours and helped them execute a huge Santa gift.  Santa brought their kids a new TV, new bed sets, and wall clingies to match.  It was fun getting it all set up!

I wish santa was this awesome when we were little!

We had a wonderful dinner of Jet's pizza with our friends  then headed off to Hubby's  Aunt and Uncle's home for their traditional Christmas Eve Party.   Their home is always full of friends, family, food, and loud music on Christmas Eve!

Isn't he a cutie?!

On Christmas morning we went to my Dad's house.  My brother spent a good chunk of the night and the morning smoking a turkey.  It was DELICIOUS!  We got my brothers kids sleds and they were having a ball with them.  I wish we would have had snow :(   I was super stoked when we opened our gifts.  I didn't think that our jackets would be done in time for Christmas! 

My sister, myself, and my brother.

He was being shy..

and she was being silly!

After getting stuffed with delicious turkey we went to another one of Hubby's Aunt and Uncle's house to stuff our faces some more!  Then his Grandpa read "The Elephant's Child" to us.  He would read that story to the family every year on Christmas.   A cousin brought the book so we all had the joy of listening to Grandpa read us a story!

The day after Christmas, after Hubby got home from work, we went to my Mom's house for more food stuffing and gifts.  I'm pretty sure that we've gained 20 pounds from all the food we've been eating!   It was fun to watch Ella and CJ open more gifts.  I think that was my favorite part about this holiday season.  We got to watch our some of our nieces and nephew open gifts.  It brings me so much joy to see their little faces light up when they open an awesome gift!

Ella got a kitchen! 

One of the many "Little People" sets that CJ opened!

I hope that your Holiday season was a cheerful and heartwarming as ours was!  I'm going to go take a nap now!!

Duck Tape, Duct Tape, TomAto, Tomato.....

Every year for Christmas Hubby's Grandma (Gammy) takes her grand and great grandchildren to the dollar store.  We each get to spend $5 each on the other family members.  So in our family that translates to $40 per grandchild and great grandchild.  It's a tradition that has been going on for quite some time.  Another tradition is to get my father-in-law nothing but duct tape with our allotted money for him.  That's roughly 35 rolls if everyone got him 5 rolls which we didn't.  He got about 25 rolls this year.  And here's what we did with them...

That's Hubby holding a duct tape gun complete with scope and silencer.  I can't wait till we give it to him at Christmas!!

I just had to share it because it's fantastic!  And...it was my idea :)