Our Christmas 2011

I am linking up with From Mrs. to Mama and e tells tales with our Christmas happenings this year. 

Christmas 2011 started on Thursday, December 22nd for our family.  We got together with Brent's parents and went to Outback for dinner.  We had a yummy meal and headed to their house to open gifts.  Brent's got some clothes and things, but I think his favorite gift had to be a pocket breathalyzer!  We had lots of fun playing around with that thing!

             Brent & I ready to open gifts!                          Brent's sister Kara with the gifts we gave her.

I got some super cute Pink clothes, Ed Hardy perfume, a seat for the bleachers for when we go to the races, a green peacoat, and black UGG boots.  His mom does way too much for us for Christmas, but she always does so well so I can't complain!

Then on Friday, Brent had to take off early because he had gotten a tiny piece of metal in his eye at work and we could not get it out!  Brent is a baby when it comes to messing with his eyes, so we made an appointment with my eye doctor hoping he could get it out.  We ended up waiting about two hours to get it out, but once the doctor came in, it was out in no time!

Friday night, my grandma had her Christmas festivities.  We had a huge home-cooked meal and then opened gifts.  

With my cousin Maddie.                        My little sisters.                         Cousins opening gifts!

We scored some money & gift cards at my grandmas. 

                  Me & Mom.                      My Memaw & her dog Dana.     Brent could barely keep his eyes open!

After we open gifts, we play some card games.  That is always the most fun part of the night!  My grandma takes cash and puts different denominations in envelopes and mixes them up.  If you win the hand of cards, you get to pick a random envelope.  I ended up winning only twice this year, but Brent did good enough for the both of us!  

On Christmas Eve, we headed to my dad's house for lunch.  He had a kitchen fire late in the summer and is still in the process of remodeling, so he just fried chicken wings and ribbon fries outside.  That was my perfect Christmas meal!  This was also his first Christmas married to his new wife, Ann.  

Brent & I before eating.                Dad and his Red Sox shirt.                Ann, me & the doggies!

Dad gave me my sewing machine, lots of jewelry and UK tees, a sheet set and a scented wax warmer.  He always stuffs my stocking incredibly full of candy that I do not need to be eating!  We also played a Christmas trivia game for cash!

Then we went to Christmas Eve mass, which was packed!!  From there, we headed to Brent's grandparent's house.  They had a big meal, played bingo for little prizes, and opened gifts.  This was the first Christmas for baby Avary so it was fun to see her playing with the boxes and ribbons instead of her toys! 

Then we headed to my step grandparent's house.  They were playing marbles and Apples to Apples when we got there, so we grabbed some snacks and joined in on the games.  They had been giving out shots all night, so they forced some on us as soon as we came in!  

Then we spent the night at my Mom & Step-dad's house and waited on Santa to show up!

On Christmas morning, the girls opened their Santa gifts. Their main gifts were a cell phone for Claire and a tablet pc for Raylee.  They were beyond excited!

Then we opened presents to/from each other and ate a yummy breakfast.  When my step-grandmother went to sit down to eat, she sat on Raylee Kate's tablet which was in her chair.  Well, we didn't think anything about it, but when we were finished eating, we found out the entire screen was shattered!  That made for an interesting morning...Raylee was mad, and our step-grandma felt terrible!  I'm sure we will always remember this Christmas for that reason!  Thankfully, my mom & Claire were able to find one just like it the day after Christmas to replace it after searching every store they could think of!

For Christmas lunch, we go to Brent's other grandma's house.  We ate and opened gifts there and headed to our last gathering, my extended family on my grandma's side.  We get to see some of our favorite cousins there, so it was a blast!

In all, we had a great Christmas, but I have to say I am glad it is gone because we have to do so much running between places.  Now it is time to take all the decor down!