Cookie decorating (and eating) are such a fun part of the Christmas season! We enjoyed baking and decorating some homemade Christmas cookies of our own with the Mayfields :-)
Once all the Christmas shopping was done and the presents were wrapped, I loved relaxing in the living room and enjoying our Christmas tree and decorations. So festive!
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| Since we don't have a fireplace or mantel, the china cabinet suffices! |
Unfortunately, because Christmas came on a Wednesday this year, Austin had to work the Monday and Friday of Christmas week. We were thankful for the time he did have off, though!
It has become a tradition of ours to spend Christmas Eve together. We get dressed up, eat a nice dinner and enjoy a quiet evening. This year, instead of going out, I roasted my first chicken! It was a delicious lemon roasted chicken with breadcrumbs. The only "oops" moment was that I discovered (upon trying to carve the chicken) I had roasted the turkey wrong side up! Instead of the breast meat being at the top, it was underneath- haha! It didn't affect the taste, though! We enjoyed mashed potatoes, broccolini, sparkling cranberry apple cider and enjoyed chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert. We concluded the evening by watching "Elf".
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| Our Christmas Eve Dinner |
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| My handsome husband! |
Christmas morning we slept in a little bit, opened our presents from each other, and started a new Christmas tradition. We made beignets! Then, we headed north to Paducah!
Because my Uncle Wesley, Aunt Joan and cousins, Michael and Matthew, weren't going to arrive until the day after Christmas, we decided to have the big Christmas dinner and gift exchange then. So, Christmas Day was pretty relaxing, We spent some quality time with Uncle P, Aunt Sherry, Mom and Grandmommy. We even got to visit Granddaddy in the nursing home! It was such a joy to see his face light up when he saw his family gathered to visit!
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| New favorite picture of Mary and me! |
Through some humorous circumstances (including not making it to the grocery store in a small town before it closed on Christmas Eve), Mary and I got creative in the kitchen with what we had on hand and invented our own spaghetti sauce. So many ingredients and laughs went into that dinner, but it turned out really well!
The next day we had our Christmas celebration with the whole family! Uncle Richard and Aunt Gina brought the ham (cooked for 10 hours to perfection!), Aunt Sherry, Mary and I made side dishes and I made the homemade rolls I made at Thanksgiving. There is nothing better than having a full kitchen filled with people you love and delicious food!
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| Our "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake :-) |
Following our meal, we all opened gifts! It was a blast! Austin's main gift was a wool flat cap that we saw in a hat shop in New Orleans and mine was a Buttercup yellow Kitchen Aid mixer! Our family was so generous- we just enjoyed being together!
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| Even David participated in the merriment! |
Sadly, after the gift exchange, Austin and I had to say our goodbyes at head back to Jackson so he could work the next day.
Saturday morning, we headed to Murfreesboro to celebrate Christmas with Austin's family! Adam and Leslie graciously opened up their home to all of us and we had a blast!
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| Carol with the pitcher we gave her! |
Following presents, we ate a delicious meal prepared by Adam and Leslie: roasted chicken, rosemary potatoes, carrots, green beans and rolls. For dessert, Leslie made scrumptious homemade chocolate chip cookies! The rest of the evening, we visited in the living room and listened to some CDs that Arica compiled with songs from their childhood. We had so much fun singing along with some of them (and dancing, of course!).
We spent the night in Murfreesboro and the next morning, had a lovely breakfast at Panera with Arica and Dylan. It was good to have some individual hang out time with them! After breakfast, we went to Adam and Leslie's church, The Experience, and really enjoyed it! The service was so refreshing in every way. It was so wonderful to worship with our family and our family in Christ! After church, we hung out at Adam and Leslie's, then headed home just before dinner. It was a great visit!
The next day (Monday), Austin headed back to work (high-ho, high-ho, its off to work he goes!) and Dad came to visit us from Birmingham! We kicked off our time together at Chick-fil-A (of course) and enjoyed spending time together!
That night, we celebrated Christmas with Dad! I made roast chicken once again (this time right side up!) and we enjoyed our Christmas Dinner together.
After dinner we opened presents! Austin particularly enjoyed his indoor/laser-beam skeet shooting set! Dad made Mary and me stamps with Donna Maye's picture on them! (She was unable to attend any of the Christmas festivities because she ate a bunch of chocolate covered marshmallows and had to get her stomach pumped the week before Christmas!) Dad got me some Cutco knives! I was so blown away by his generosity and have already used them! Good knives make such a difference! He also gave us each a photo book (and video) containing breathtaking pictures of his trip to Colorado and Montana this summer. It was so special!
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| Some assembly required |
We concluded our happy evening by watching "Elf". Dad had never seen it before!
The next day was New Year's Eve. After Austin got off work, we went to see "Saving Mr. Banks" (second time for Mary and me, first time for the men). People, bring your tissues, especially if you watch it with your dad!
We got home about 10 p.m., but the night was still young! In keeping with tradition, the Mayfields joined us to ring in the New Year. This year, Casey came as well. We played a crazy game called "Likewise" until about 11:50. I'm not going to explain it here! It's fun, just take my word for it!
Also in keeping with tradition, we shot off bottle rockets from our front yard!
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| Dad and Austin using root bear and cider bottles as launching pads! |
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| Sparklers! |
At the beginning of each year, I always wonder where we will be next year. I'm looking forward to filling our blog with many fun memories for 2014! Here we go!
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