The Monday before Christmas, Judd, Charlotte, and I headed to Cordele to spend the first half of the week with Judd's family. I had some work to finish up, but was able to bring my computer along and work during some down times. For the last two years, I brought gingerbread cookie dough along with me. It has become a tradition to roll the dough out, cut the cookies, and decorate them with my nieces, Katie and Lilly. The week prior, I had been really busy getting ready for Christmas, working, etc., so I didn't bring any dough with me. I had only been in the house for 5 min when Katie asked when we were decorating cookies. Oops! Judd's mom had the great idea to get some Pillsbury sugar cookie dough, so we rolled that out and decorated the cookies the day before Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve we headed over to Pam and Mike's house for dinner & dessert with the extended family. Judd's dad smoked a turkey all day. It was probably the best turkey I've had. When you add in good southern sides like fresh rolls, butter beans (lima beans for you yankees), black eyed peas, and dressing, you have a pretty fantastic Christmas Eve dinner. After dinner, we played Christmas Bingo and opened gifts. Charlotte was a really good girl, despite refusing to take a nap that afternoon. She crashed for a half hour about half way through the night, though.
We found out Christmas morning that Santa had gone above and beyond. There was a Wii console, razor scooters, and a princess castle for Katie & Lilly. Charlotte had a little pile as well :) It was a much smaller pile, but she didn't need much this year. It was such a fun morning. There is nothing like Christmas morning with children.
Christmas day night we flew up to my parent's house to finish out the week. We opened presents with my family on Friday evening after dinner. It was really nice to be able to spend Christmas both places. My sisters and I made presents for each other this year. While it was stressful getting them finished, I really enjoyed seeing what they had created.
My mom decorated a tree especially for Charlotte. She got a little live tree and decorated it with gingerbread men and dried orange slices. Then, after Christmas my dad planted it out in the yard to commemorate her first Christmas.
Of course, Charlotte grabbed a gingerbread man off of a low branch and bit his head off.
Judd headed back to Atlanta on Sunday and I decided to stay until Tuesday. I had a great time, but was glad to get back home and back into a routine of some sort. It was a Christmas to remember and I want to thank our families for making Charlotte's first Christmas so special.
3 comments:
My boyfriend's parents used to do that,the live tree thing where you plant it after Christmas. I had NEVER heard of it, but I really like the idea - he said that there was a big line of trees in the backyard from Christmases when they moved away. He's originally from West Chester - maybe it's a Pennsylvania thing?
Being with all of you made Christmas very special. I agree, wonderful memories. Love, Nina
We all had so much fun. Thanks for decorating the cookies with Katie and Lilly. They look forward to it every year. It makes no difference to them whether they are gingerbread or sugar! The fun part is the HUGE mess that they are able to make.
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