Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning we spent finishing up last minute packing for our trip to Florida, and then we went over to JC's parents' house to have a large Christmas celebration.

We then attended the 6pm Candlelight Christmas Eve service at church.  Jackson and Brendan ushered again this year.

When we got home, we ate some leftovers for dinner and then made our annual reindeer food.

The boys were less than thrilled to have me take their picture while doing so...

Emma managed to actually spread the reindeer food on the lawn while the boys threw theirs at Emma.

JC then did the annual reading of T'was the Night Before Christmas and Santa Mouse.

Emma put out Santa's magic key on the front porch...

And then it was time for the kids to open their one gift Christmas Eve night. 

Don't they look thrilled?

This year they got a UNC shirt, and we told them that we were going to go to the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando to see Carolina play Baylor.

Emma and I put out milk, cookies and cheese for Santa and Santa Mouse although I didn't get a photo of that!

Finally it was time for the kids to go to bed so that Santa could come.

And to all a good night...

December 2014

Better late than never, right?

We had a very busy month in December as most people do this time of year.  Of course we finally put our live Christmas tree up after our Thanksgiving trip along with most of our other decorations.

The first weekend we celebrated with some of our oldest and best friends.  We've been doing an annual Christmas dinner for many years now.

We also decided to sell our beach condo at Oak Island so JC and I had to make a quick trip down to bring back our personal belongings.  I was so sad to sell, but with the kids being so active in sports we never get to go anymore.

Emma and I hosted the annual Nutcracker lunch and then we all headed downtown to see the annual performance of the Nutcracker Ballet by the NC School of the Arts.  It was such a great day!

The weekend before Christmas, we also had some friends over for dessert and Christmas ornament crafts for the girls!  I love this festive time of year!!!

I tried out a recipe from Pinterest, and it was an epic fail..."Nailed it"! :)

Emma helped me set up a hot chocolate bar...

And of course, our elves, Fritz Fritz and Sprinkles, were up to a lot of mischief.

I had a lot of fun wrapping the kids' presents.

CHRISTMAS EVE Family Gatherings

Candle Light Service at church

The kids always open one gift each on Christmas Eve...

Before bed we always make reindeer food and then go out and sprinkle it. We also set out Santa's magic key and cookies and milk!

Finally the kids were all nestled in their beds, and it was quiet!

CHRISTMAS DAY

Santa came...

Mimi, Katie and Carson came over for lunch and to open presents.

We had a very blessed Christmas indeed!

I took photos for Mimi's Christmas card, and this is the photo she used.  I love it.

And this is one of our Christmas cards this year.

After Christmas we drove to south Florida for the week.  The weather was actually pretty nice.  On the way down, we stopped and spent the night in Melbourne Beach, FL.  

The next day we went to the Brevard County Zoo.  It is very small, but all of the animals are very close and we were able to see a lot.

Then we drove down to Ft. Lauderdale for 3 nights.

The view from our balcony.

On New Year's Eve we moved to Pompano Beach just a little further north and celebrated in the condo!

I also did a recap of our year...a photo for each month for Instagram on New Year's Eve:

We stayed in Florida until January 2nd.  It was so nice being in some 70 degree temps in January.

One night we took the kids to Dave and Busters.  They had a great time. 

We had a wonderful Christmas and after Christmas vacation this year.  2014 was a blessed year!