Christmas Fun!

We have had a fun few days celebrating Christmas with both the Stone and Armstrong families! It has been seven years (since our wedding) that all members of these families have gathered in the same place for Christmas and it was definitely worth the wait! Family started arriving on Wednesday and after my Dad arrived, he and Mark quickly went to work on the final stages of building the swing set.

During the afternoon on Christmas Eve, both grandfathers and Mark started moving the swing set in parts to the backyard. Meanwhile, Tootsie, Granny, and Mommy were busy entertaining Turner indoors with the blinds closed.... ...and the doors covered!On Christmas Eve, we attended the candle-light service at our church, and afterwards gathered for some family photos in front of the Christmas tree.
Then it was time to chow down on some delicious chicken and dumplings that Mark's mom made for us to have after the service! Thank you Granny - that made it so much easier for me since I had musical responsibilities at church! Granny also brought some yummy peanut butter and chocolate goodies...and shortly after we got home Turner asked, "Can I have some chocolate please?"

We said good-night to Gretchen (our Elf-Magic friend from the North Pole) and explained to Turner that Santa would need to take her back with him to the North Pole when he came to visit out house! After Turner finally went to sleep there was still a good bit of wrapping, breakfast preparations, etc. so it was quite late when we finally got in bed. Then, in typical fashion I was like a kid on Christmas Eve and couldn't go to sleep....so I think it was 2:00am when Mark and I finally quit talking and discussing the events of the day! Thankfully Turner is a late sleeper so our morning didn't start until around 8:00am!

Here's a picture of me, Mom, and BB clowning around before Turner came out to see presents. Please notice the light up LED Christmas light necklace my mom is wearing.

And then the fun really started! Turner had so much fun opening presents, although I did learn a valuable lesson for next Christmas. Turner has had such a fascination with "presents" and opening presents in the last few weeks, I thought she would like to "open" some of her own rather than have them all out in plain sight. WRONG. The first one we opened was all she wanted to play with - new toy = let's play now. It was quite a task to convince her to open all the rest! We won't make that mistake again!

And this toy was the hit of the day! (Well, maybe second to the swing set...) BB (my sister) gave Turner this keyboard and microphone and it is absolutely awesome. She has serenaded us several times with the mic at full volume and she can do something her mommy can't do - play and sing at the same time! I knew when I heard about this present that it was going to be a favorite for Turner, but really had no idea how much she'd love it.

And this is what our den looked like after we all got our presents unwrapped...

After a quick breakfast break, we opened our stockings and Turner was able to put together this lovely ensemble from her stocking - notice the pearl headband, glasses, pink high heels, and another microphone (cordless, for impromptu a Capella concerts).

Another hit from the stocking was Turner's very own, hot pink, mini flashlight! She always wants to play with Daddy's flashlight...now she has her own! Of course we had to open it right away and she promptly surprised us by wanting to "be a doctor" using the flashlight to check everyone's ears/eyes/mouth. After your basic checkup, you get a shot (or a push on your leg) with said flashlight and then the "doctor" kisses it to make it not hurt anymore. :)

After all the aforementioned activities were over, we ventured to the big reveal of the morning and Turner got to see that Santa did in fact bring the swing set she asked for. And the reactions that we got (see previous post) were more special than we ever imagined! This is a picture of her first slide down...please notice the expressions as she hits the ground and lands smack in a pile of mud!

We had a wonderful Christmas, and enjoyed some extended visits with family and the slow pace of the first week of our break! My mom, dad, and sister will leave tomorrow and Turner is going to Andalusia for a few days - hopefully Mark and I can get decorations put away and accomplish some around the house tasks before she returns mid-week.

More to come on some of the fun treats Santa brought me and Mark!