(Can you name that movie?? Probably not. It's a quote from one of my all time favorite movies! "Your's Mine and Ours" with Lucille Ball! I used to say that all the time to Mom, but she was the only one that knew what I was talking about.)
The view of our living room when we woke up Christmas morning- at the crack of DAWN! (Well- technically it was BEFORE the crack of dawn. Graddy was supposed to be there at 6:30, so by 6:15, I was up and getting dressed and coffee made!)
Graddy arrived a little before 7, which is our tradition. Mom and Dad have always been at our house on Christmas morning to watch the girls open presents and see their Santa stuff. I can't remember a Christmas when they weren't at our house before the kids got up. Even the year that it was solid ice...they were there bright and early! It's my favorite tradition.
We finally couldn't take it anymore and woke the girls up about 7:10! (We are worse than kids!!) I just can't stand the thought of them waking up and seeing their Santa presents and us missing the expressions on their faces, so we are always up early!
Headed in to see their loot!
We had them open the BIG box first! Josh had been telling them about one of their presents that they were going to be SO excited about, and it was killing them to find out. They tore into it and started pulling stuff out like Mickey Mouse ears, Disney cups, Disney Calendars, Minnie Mouse Pajamas, Minnie Mouse tshirts, Minnie Mouse bows...... I figured for sure they would figure it out!!!! But no such luck. They were beginning to act like "what's the big deal? I thought you said we were going to LOVE this present." So we finally told them to look at June in their calendars. Brenna flipped hers open to January and read "5 months till Disney" then to February and read "4 months till DISNEY" and each month she got a little louder. And finally on June she read "Leave for Disney World!" And this was her reaction...
From there we let the girls open the rest of their gifts. It takes a while because we make them open one at a time. I love getting to see the reaction to each gift they get. That is what makes Christmas for me. And I love that it forces them to slow down and enjoy each moment.
They got Pink converse from Mimi!
Next up they wanted Josh and I to open up our presents from them! They got me exactly what I asked for- a 6 ft phone charger!! YEA!! But my biggest gift was Josh being off for Christmas Day. It was his scheduled day, and I had major anxiety about being home alone on my first Christmas without Mom. And being the amazing husband that he is... he found a way to pay someone to work for him so that he could be home with me all day. He will never fully know how much that meant to me. It was the best gift ever.
The girls picked out a new Nike bag for their Daddy to put his clothes in when he travels. They were so proud of themselves for picking it out! They also got him a remote control car for all three of them to play with. I loved watching the pride in their eyes as they watched us open our gifts.
Probably my most favorite gift for the girls was memory books of them and MeMawMom. I put together picture books of pictures of each girl with MeMawMom. Their book was tailored to them. The only problem was I forgot to warn Josh that they were opening them, and he was a little blindsided (insert emotions). They LOVED them!! Brenna looked at hers for the longest time. I expected her to like it. But I didn't expect her to cry. She ended up in my lap in tears. That sweet girl misses her BFF something fierce. There were lots of tears shed over the holidays from her. It broke my heart, but I was glad she could get her emotions out. I love that they can now look at these precious memories any time that they want.
Here it is in the process of making..
Graddy and his knife...
After we opened presents, Pops and Memaw came over to check out what the girls got for Christmas and for Breakfast. This is another tradition. We have done this since the girls were little, and they haven't missed too many years of coming over for Christmas morning breakfast. This year we invited Aunt Emily and Wyatt to come over and eat with us since Joey was at the fire station. Our menu was "Billycakes". It is a fire station recipe from Josh's former boss named Billy! From scratch pancakes! YUMMY!!!
While Josh cooked breakfast, Graddy helped his Shortcake skate!
It was a great morning. Pops and Memaw headed out to go visit Granny, and Emily and Wyatt headed out to the fire station to eat with Joey. Dad hung around for a while and we all just chilled and relaxed and enjoying BEING TOGETHER. That's what it's really all about- being together. I had a lot of anxiety about Christmas this year. It was Mom's favorite holiday. She always did Christmas up right and enjoyed every moment. I did my best to follow in her footsteps and not left a memory unmade. While I would have much rather skipped Christmas all together this year and not thought about it at all, I knew we couldn't do that. Mom wouldn't WANT us to do that! She wanted everyone happy and having a good time, and that's what we did! We enjoyed ourselves. We laughed. We cried. We missed her. Yet we brought her to everything with us...in our hearts and on our minds. She was talked about A LOT, and I wouldn't have it any other way!! My Mama will always be a part of who I am, and I will make sure that her memory and legacy live on forever!
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