After the morning at Ga Ga's, we headed back home for Christmas Eve at our house. I always want the kids to wake up at their own house on Christmas morning so this is something we just always make work.
We played games and the kids enjoyed playing with their gifts from Ga Ga and Papa.
He's teaching her young! Ha!
And Belle had fun hanging out on top of the presents! Since her tree skirt was blocked with gifts she made due! Ha ha.
Papa loves to cook ham and the kids always enjoy watching the process!
After dinner we went out to spread our reindeer dust from Buddy on the lawn! We had gotten a dusting of snow so it worked out perfectly!
I think this is one of my very favorite traditions. There's just something so magical about it. There's just nothing like experiencing Christmas through the eyes of a child.
We came inside and the kids had cocoa and cookies!
While the grown ups had moscow mules, of course!
Daddy read the Christmas story from their Bible
As well as the Night Before Christmas.
The kids reluctantly said goodbye to Buddy. They love that he puts himself in a jar so they can hold him!
Oh the anticipation!
Santa came!
And I loved Buddy's note to them on the windows! Ha!
Annual stocking picture on Christmas morning!
They were beyond excited! They open their stockings so fast and they both want to talk to me and tell me what they got at the same time!
Belle is always in on this action!
Santa had to put in a special order for this rare ninja turtle figure!
He's set with Legos! He will have fun over break putting all of them together.
Santa even wrapped things in special North Pole boxes! You know, since Amazon Prime isn't really something from Santa! Ha!
Andrew had been wanting flippers and a snorkel set for the pool this summer!
And he was really into the Grossery Gang figures this year.
Santa found all of them in his workshop and delievered!
We love having Ga Ga and Papa here- the kids love to show them all their new toys.
The Descendants love spilled over into Christmas as well!
This girl got a real mermaid swim tail!
And fins! She couldn't have been happier about this!
In fact, she opened the rest of her gifts with it on, ha!
At the bottom of their sacks was an envelope with a note... neither of them had received their most anticipated gifts yet... so they knew the hunt was on!
Andrew's face when Daddy was helping him figure out his first clue!
Santa got smart this year and gave them two separate scavenger hunts so they wouldn't fight over reading and finding the clues! Ha! (He must've gotten that tip from the Easter Bunny!)
I tried chasing them all over the house to take pictures!
Clearly I saw Kerigan more than Andrew! Ha!
I was actually videoing her reaction here so this is a screen shot from that. She was thrilled to get Ashlyn- her Wellie Wisher American Girl.
Same thing here- a screen shot of the video I took.
He had been begging for a Nintendo Switch and Mario Odyssey! Mom and Dad had been telling him it was too expensive, but Santa can afford everything, right? (Insert eye rolling emoji here). He was beyond excited.
I always have to take a picture of the aftermath- Ha!
Literally, nowhere to walk!
Once all the opening is done, it's time to play with everything! She had a blast hatching her Hatchimal twins!
And driving her AG dolls in their new car!
It was about this time that we learned that Andrew had woken up at 2am because he had been so excited about Christmas morning. He.was.exhausted. He had looked at the presents under the tree, and watched TV in the basement until morning! He was acting all quiet and strange and I thought he was sick but turns out he just couldn't keep his eyes open! He literally took a nap the entire rest of the day!
Kerigan's other sibling (ha!) came over so the girls could exchange gifts.
Then they played for a while. Meanwhile... Andrew still sleeping.
As I was cleaning up I found these cute things Kerigan had written in her new journal.
So sweet.
Andrew finally woke up around dinner time! Ha! He was bummed that Ga Ga and Papa had left and he had wasted the entire day sleeping. I don't think he'll ever get up that early again!
He cheered up for our family game night!
Googly eyes fun!
And we finished off the night surrounded by Christmas lights and a new movie the kids had gotten for Christmas. Perfection.
This was a different year because the only time we could schedule our Christmas with my Dad's side was a couple days after Christmas. We were heading out of town on a special road trip anyway so the next day it was back to Ga Ga and Papa's after a quick pit stop at their mall!
They love Ga Ga and Papa's spa room and hot tub bubble bath!
The next night was the Ellett Christmas!
I love my niece and nephew so much! We were so lucky to grow up together and now we all have kids around the same ages (even though I'm 7-8 years older than them! Ha!)
This is my nephew's little girl, Lucy. I love how they're holding hands! Such sweet girls.
Then there's this little man!
Nash is my niece's little boy and he's so much fun!
All the kiddos!
It happened to be sweet Caprice's birthday so we had cupcakes to celebrate!
Silly girls!
The girls and our kiddos! This picture was so funny because I had no idea as I was posing the kids that Lucy had wanted to stand by Andrew. So I moved Andrew over by Nash so Nash would stay in the picture (he loves Andrew, too! Ha!) And I never knew Lucy was making this face! She was not thrilled. Ha!
So once we figured out what was wrong I took their picture together and she was so happy! So funny.
We hate having to say goodbye to this little man and his mama! They are heading back to South Carolina. But we will see them this summer!
This was the only family picture we got over all the official Christmas celebrations!
Love these two so much!
