Merry Christmas!

Christmas seemed a little calmer and more enjoyable this year.... A lot of times we're stretched really thin schedule wise.  Our gatherings were more spaced out this year and it was awesome! We were able to spend good time with each family, rather than watching our clocks and rushing to the next house.

The Tumlinson Christmas was our first event this year.  We took some pictures for one of our dad's gifts before going inside.

It was fun having some new babies this year!  They didn't care about the gifts, but loved all the attention they got.

This little guy was definitely into the gifts this year. ;)

We celebrated with my Mom early on Christmas Eve.

That tool bench and those Wreck It Ralph fists have seen lots of play time!

He's gonna "Wreck it!"

The rest of Mom's side of the family came over for lunch and games.

That afternoon, we headed to Nana's house.  Ruston always loves some good Nana time.

We came home and opened up a special Christmas Eve surprise.... New PJ's!

And some slippers!

We got dressed and headed to the church for our Christmas Eve candle light service.

 

When we got home, it was time to put the frosting on Jesus' birthday cake...

 

...and draw Santa a picture.

The next morning, Chippey was gone, but he left a special note for Ruston!

He got some fun gifts from Santa, his favorite being the Larry Boy helicopter!

Christmas day was pretty hectic, but that was due to poor planning on my part. :/  

We started off at my Dad's house.

Then we went to Danny's parents'.

Then came back to Dad's for the Fiebig family's Christmas.

This little boy was done at that point.

He crashed on Pops and Mo's bed for a couple of hours and then woke up ready to smile. :)

We had a wonderful Christmas season and are so thankful to have such big families and lots of love.  Ruston has been playing with his new goodies non stop. ;)

 

Christmas Spirit!

We had tons of fun activities to get us into the Christmas spirit this year!

 
Look who showed up the day after Thanksgiving! 

 

Chippey came back this year with some new places to hang out and spy.  This momma sure is thankful that our elf is not a mischievous one.... I'm not really interested in cleaning up his messes! ;) 

  
Mr. Grinch brought 24 Christmas books for us to open and read each night leading up to Christmas.

 

We went to the Lighted Christmas Parade at the beginning of December.  Ruston and Kenzie had fun running around in her Crappaw's truck bed. 

Our church had some cute crafts for the kids to make after the parade.

We made a visit to Santa's house so we could give him a hint about what we'd like for Christmas.

It took a while, but we managed a smile. :)

We'd never been to the Christmas tree farm before, so I thought it would be a fun trip.

We thought they had different activities for the kids, but there really wasn't anything going on, other than a wagon ride out the Christmas trees.

We hadn't planned on buying a tree, but when we saw how cheap they were, we decided to!

We picked out a short little guy and figured we could put him out on the porch.

It was actually really fun to pick it out and cut it down.

  

The next weekend we headed to Cedar Park for our annual Christmas lights trip.  We always start out at IHOP.  I swear my child has other clothes... Just realized he's in the same shirt!!

This house is just beautiful.  I wonder if the neighbors ever get tired of all the lights and traffic?

Funny faces in the car :)

I still think this cul de sac is so fun.  It's exactly the same every year, but still so neat.

The house we visit collects canned food and the cul de sac gathers toys for Brown Santa.  Ruston got to make a donation at each place.  It's awesome that while these people are spending who knows how much money to put these lights up each year, they are still collecting for others rather than themselves.

Our Bible Study group got to have a little Christmas dinner outing.  It was so nice to have a girls night with these ladies!!

We made some cute Christmas ornaments for ourselves and the grandparents.  Pinterest has made crafting so fun and easy!

 

Ruston's Wee Care put on a Christmas program again.

He's a serious performer... no time for smiles. :)

Amy and I took the kids to a Trail of Lights in Round Rock.  We actually went after Christmas, but it was still fun.

And the perfect end to the night.... Chick fil A!