Christmas Wrap-Up

I apologize from the drought in my posts lately but the holiday season is always so busy.  There wasn't anytime to stop and focus long enough to fill everyone in on what was going on.  It all started with the weekend before Christmas.  I went home for our annual ornament swap and to celebrate Kinsley's 2nd birthday.  This year we had it at Jene's house in Southaven.  Oh, how I adore her house. She is so creative and has the best eye and you can see that all throughout her house.  I definitely want Jene's help when we finally settle.   We had food and drinks galore; cream cheese and pepper jelly puffs, ornament buns, salad, cheesey dip, cherry crunch, baby bites, hot chocolate, Amaretto sours, and a champagne & raspberry vodka drink.  Everyone did a great job choosing their ornaments this year because I wanted to take them all home.  Jene drew my name and obviously she gave me the most gorgeous ornament of them all.  It was a chocolate brown cross made out of old tin with gold specks outlining the edges.  It is so beautiful and looks perfect on our tree.  We stayed busy talking until the morning hours.  It was a great night to catch up and see all my favorites.



All the girls with our ornaments. This was probably take # 536

The next day we celebrated Kinsley's birthday.  It was your typical 2 year old birthday party with all the kids running around getting into everything.  Sure, children are a blessing but events like these make me grateful that I haven't recieved this blessing yet hah.  Kinsley got a lot of toys but her favorite was a toddler-sized grocery cart full of groceries.  She had an ice cream cake filled with cookies & cream ice cream that she loved.  It was a fun afternoon

After traveling back to Birmingham for 2 days of work, we ventured back to Southaven to spend Christmas with my family. While we were home, we got to see alot of our friends who we hadn't seen in some time.  My mom, sister, and I went to our old neighbor's house who we consider a 2nd mother to have dinner and Christmas with her and Heather's best friend, Jessica.  We usually go out to eat but now that Kinsley is around we decided to just hang out at Goldie's house and have pizza and wine.  They gave me a beautiful piece of EttaB pottery, a red and green platter that has Mississippi written across it. They know I love me some Mississippi and pottery!  Ben awoke on Christmas Eve morning at 3 am sick as a dog.  At first, he thought he had eaten something bad.  However, he awoke again 30 minutes later with more sickness.  He decided to move to the living room and sleep on the couch in hopes of keeping me from getting whatever he had.  This getting sick every 30 mintues continued well into the morning.  He was so sick that we had to leave him there all alone while we went to Nana's to have Christmas with my mom's family.  We had a great time at Nana's but it was sad not having Ben there and knowing how miserable he must be feeling.  When we got back to my parents that evening, Ben was awake and had been sick free for a few hours.  He was able to eat some noodles that my Nana had sent for him.  They stayed down and he was able to get rest that night.  My sister and Kinsley spent the night at my parents house so we could all wake up there Christmas morning and we could have Santa with Kinsley.  We stayed up late putting together an art easel, tricycle, and handful of other things that were ALL pink.  When Kinsley woke up Christmas morning, she was so overwhelmed by all the toys in my parents' living room.  It took her a few minutes to realize that all the toys were for her.  We then opened presents which takes so long because one person (this year it was Heather) hands each person a present and we take turns opening first.  It requries a break in between where we run to the potty, refill our coffee mugs, snatch a slice of ham, etc.  Santa was great to all of us.  Ben got pleny of Ole Miss stuff and a game for his Xbox, Heather got a laptop among others, and I got my favorite, clothes and jewelry.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching Christmas movies.  That night we went back to my Nana's to visit with her.  She was so excited to see us and happy to see that Ben was feeling much better.  We had to leave the  next day to go back to Birmingham because Ben had to go back to work for a couple of days.  However, not before my mom and I had a chance to do a little after Christmas shopping.  We were only focused on getting new tree trimmings.  My mom has had mostly the same ornaments since I was probably 5 or 6 with a few new additions.  She decided that she wanted to completely redo her tree next year with her colors being chocolate brown, lime green, and copper (she adores my taste).  We went to Dillards first because I had spotted some beautiful beaded leopard print, yes leopard print, balls before Christmas and I hid them in a special place to get when they went on sale.  So after all this time of wanting pretty leopard balls, I finally found some!  We then headed to a home decor shop that has the most gorgeous Christmas trees every year.  My mom loaded up on all sorts of goodies and we both bought a tall and skinny lime green reindeer that will find a special place in our homes next year.  When Ben and I made it back to Birmingham we had our own little Christmas with the 3 of us.  My mom got Layla a new dog bed and she was in love. How could she not be?  It was a Serta tempurpedic dog bed.  She is now sleeping better than us!  Ben got new clothes for work, a case for his Ipad, and new shoes, with a few other goodies.  I, of course got some new clothes, and monnogrammed lunchbox (Thanks, Arenda!), jewelry and new cowboy boots!  We had a wonderful night together and I am so grateful to be so blessed.

We were leaving for Florida to spend a very long weekend with Ben's family so I had a mile-long to do list to complete on Monday.  Oh no, I woke up bright and early Monday morning and had to beeline to the bathroom.  Yep, I had caught Ben's bug.  So instead of getting my to-do list done I spent the day laying on the couch sipping ginger ale and catching up on my tv.  Thankfully, I got over it pretty fast and we were still able to make it to the beach.  We spent the next 4 and a half days sleeping in, eating deliciuos food, walking on the beach, playing games, and watching football.  All of Ben's sisters are spread out all over the country so this is the one time a year we can usually all get together and see them and all their children.  The youngest girl, Katie couldnt make it this year because she is expecting and it was going to be a long trip from California down to Florida. She was definitely missed but the next time we see her she will have a baby!  My first trip to the beach was in 2005 when Ben and I had just started dating.  Their were only 2 kids, Harrison & Davis.  They were 5 and 16 months old.  Now there are 5 kids and 2 more on the way!  It is always so fun getting to see them spend time with them.  They are so goofy and fun.  The long weekend went by way too fast but thankfully we had beautiful mild weather so we were able to spend a lot of time outdoors. 

I apologize for pictures being in random order.

 

Enjoying birthday cake

Eating M&M's that were in her stocking with her new toys

Layla checking out her stocking

Enjoying her treats and new bed.

Lunchbox!  One of my favorite presents!

Merry Christmas from the Pipers!

Stuffed stockings.  New reindeer too!

Opening gifts wore her out

Last day at the beach & first picture of 2001

Hannah & me with our lovely ornaments

Ipad case

Now we're home and back to the grind.  We are very excited for this new year and all the blessings it has in store for us!