Christmases go a little like this in our home:
- The Gray’s Annual Christmas Shindig – Friday the week prior to Christmas
- T-Paw’s family – Saturday the week prior to Christmas
- Little C’s Cookie Party – Sunday the week prior to Christmas
- Mr. Gray’s family – Christmas Eve
- Baby Gray, Mommy, Daddy, & grandparents – Christmas morning
- Annie’s family – Christmas evening and the following day or so (we usually travel)
So, rather than inundating the blog with post after post of Christmas, here’s our Christmas highlight reel. I’ll comment a little here and there, but in the essence of time and space (on everyone’s account) I’ll try to keep it short-ish.
The Gray’s Annual Christmas Shindig:
I failed to take photos of people, only the food spread. I have a few recipes I’m going to share, but those will come in another post.
Baby Gray had his first slumber party while we were hosting this year’s Shindig. He had a great time at Pops and Nonna’s house.
Christmas at GM’s:
This was this year’s first Christmas; excuse all the photos! They’re not all this photographically documented.
The Cozy Coupe was a hit before it was even put together! The assembly was a family affair–Uncle J and Uncle W joined in along with Mr. Mischief, WBT, and L! T knew better than to get in the middle of all those Tinsleys working on something together! What a great bunch of guys we have!
We managed to get a few great photos of the great grandboys with GM, too! This is my favorite from my camera.
Christmas at GM’s was a hit! We had a great time being with my brothers and their families. Baby Gray doesn’t get to hang with his cousins enough!
Little C’s Cookie Party:
That Sunday, we headed to Little C’s cookie party! So fun! All the little girls were in their Christmas dresses and carefully decorating cookies.
Baby Gray was in his thermal and TOMS, stealing cookies two by two and eating sugar! Ah, such a boy!
Mr. Gray’s family, Christmas Eve:
We took a break the following week until we headed to Christmas Eve at Pops and Nonna’s. This is the first year we have had Christmas at their house instead of Toots’ house. It went great. I forgot the camera, and my phone camera wasn’t cooperating, so this is all I’ve got for Christmas with the Grays.
We loaded Baby Gray up to get him home to get ready for Santa. He opened his Christmas Eve gift…
… which I quickly realized was not his Christmas Eve gift (yep, I’m 0 for 2 on them–I did it last year, too).
We let him open the correct Christmas Eve gift and then got cookies and milk for Santa ready.
As I carried Baby Gray and the cookie plate to the living room to leave the cookie, Baby Gray swiped it!
Luckily, we had another to share with Santa.
Christmas morning–Santa’s been here:
Christmas morning, Baby Gray woke up, at breakfast, and went right back over to where Santa left the rest of his cookie after his visit. He swiped that one, too! I love his green lips!
After our family breakfast, Baby Gray got right down to business.
Thank goodness Santa dropped his bike off pre-assembled so we didn’t have a repeat of the Cozy Coupe!
Christmas in Wimberley:
That afternoon, we headed to Wimberley for Christmas with Annie’s family. We ate a big, delicious Christmas dinner, complete with Aunt Cookie’s potatoes, and then Baby Gray was back to opening!
Once he finished up his gifts (and mine) he scoured the room for some gifts to steal.
Belated Christmas:
Last night, we had a bit of a belated Christmas with T-Paw and Annie. T-Paw was not feeling well Christmas morning, so he didn’t make it over. It had been a few days since we opened gifts, but Baby Gray hadn’t forgotten–look at that “please” he’s got going on–such enthusiasm!
Unfortunately, once he opened the first gift, the enthusiasm faded. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t like his helmet. I think once he actually wears it to ride with me (T-Paw and Annie got us a bike seat for him), it’ll be better. I wouldn’t want to wear it around the house, either.
We had a wonderful, and very merry, Christmas this year. Baby Gray had a blast!
By the way, I didn’t really succeed at the short-ish post that as I intended. Sorry. Because it was longer than I meant for it to be, I made the photos a little smaller. Click on them for a larger image.
Christmas, out.