Just magic. That's what this Christmas was. No need to say more than that. But of course I'm going to say more. Lots more. DUH.
Where to start, where to start???
Christmas Eve Eve Eve was spent in the kitchen. I had stocked up on everything I needed before the arrival of my family the following day. When dad and I first started talking about where we would celebrate Christmas we initially decided on his house. But after some thinking he changed his mind and we settled on my house. This made me happy, happy, happy! The thought of my family coming to Woodward again this year sounded perfect to me. My dad was going to be arriving early Sunday morning for church and Bailey and Spencer would be driving in right after noon which meant that I needed to have our big dinner prepared ahead of time. Hallie cooperated with me while I whipped up an eggnog cheesecake and mashed potatoes. The cheesecake was tantalizing as it sat on the counter cooling off. I almost couldn't control myself. But I did. Because I wanted everything to be perfect! This was both a blessing and a curse as are most of my OCD tendencies. I ended up crying huge alligator tears on the couch that night after Riley and Hallie had gone to bed. I let my mind run away from me. I doubted my ability to pull together a big dinner. I sulked about some stuff. Mainly missing my mom. I threw a fairly good sized pity party before finally retiring my swollen, red eyes to bed. It was far too late to be hitting the hay seeing as how I had to set my alarm for 7:00 that morning. I was like a tornado Sunday morn whirling around the house: showering, cooking, dressing and feeding Hal, dressing myself, mopping the floor, setting the table. You name it, I was doing it! In the midst of the goings on Hallie insisted that Dora have her own spot at the "big table" as well as her own plate full of food. I obliged of course.....
We did manage to make it to Sunday school on time (by the grace of God). Katie ended up teaching since Matt was out of town. She did a fabulous job teaching about a very touchy subject and it's safe to say we all walked away feeling like we'd learned something valuable. Hallie was dressed in her Christmas best for a special Sunday. I suppose I'm biased but I do believe that she looked like a pretty pink angel with her sparkly dress on. She even let me get away with the headband and tights! And believe it or not, she posed by one of the Christmas trees at church for me......
"Since I couldn't afford a gift for you consider this your gift momma"
She was surprised by our special guest while she was busy playing away in the nursery. Gman called out her name and she stood there with a puzzled expression on her face. She has a hard time understanding things that are out of context. She finally ran on over, gave G a big hug and then proceeded to give him a tour of the basketball gym......
"Dat way!"
"Over der G!"
Good thing G is over six feet tall because it sure came in handy for what Hallie had in mind....
Nanny, Papa and Aunt Kylie joined us in the gym too! Next we were joined by the Riddle fam and Hallie showed Miss Presley where the nursery was. After the service we hurried back to the house to get things ready for lunch. Gman's job was to drive to Shattuck to pick up Meme and he so graciously offered to let Hal tag along for the hour long round trip. I was relieved to say the least as I still had a lot to accomplish before it was time to eat. But before they left I requested a picture of the three of us by the tree.....
Bailey had forgotten that we were having lunch instead of dinner which meant I had some extra time to prep. The cheesecake and cookies soon were ready for consumption.....
The crescent rolls, baked mac and cheese, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy and ham (thanks to G for bringing that delicious hog) were hot and ready......
I glanced outside and spotted G pulling into the driveway. I hurried outside to see what sort of fun Meme and Hal had been having in the car. She was nearly asleep and they told me she had worn herself out from chatting the entire drive. Bailey and Spencer rang the doorbell a short ten minutes later. The gang was complete! We settled in for a great lunch right away. Well actually, Meme and Hal got a head start on everyone since Meme had skipped breakfast and was feeling a bit off so we forced her to eat right away. Hal, well, she was just hungry as usual!
Seeing my daughter and grandmother chat with eachother has to be the most fulfilling thing in the whole wide world. Hallie has many different smiles but the one she has on her face in this picture is just pure love and admiration.....
Even though my heart exploded into a million tiny pieces from all of the cuteness above I was able to load my plate with goodness and join everyone at the table for a delicious meal. After we had stuffed our bellies to the max we poured ourselves into the living room to open presents. Hal took a seat on the couch while I searched for her first gift from Meme. Her response when I placed it in her lap was a far cry from last year's disinterest in opening presents. She tore right into the paper and made sure to remove every last piece of tape and paper. It was beyond adorable watching her switch back and forth between dainty and ferocious opening styles. Once she'd pulled away every last piece of wrapping paper she pulled the lid off of the box full of clothes. Her expression was absolutely priceless as she spotted her pair of pink princess slippers. She let out a loud gasp and opened her mouth wide in surprise. Ca-ute!!!!!!!
Gman helped her pull out all of her new goodies. Some zebra pants, a thunder tee, a cuter than life zebra hat, some slippers and monkey pajamas....
It came as no surprise at all that she wanted to put on each other new surprises. She started with the slippers and went from person to person making sure they knew that there were princesses on the side of each....
After her slipper tour she waltzed over to Meme and gave her the sweetest hug and thank you in the history of hugs and thank yous. No, for real. The sweetest EVER. EVER, ever, EVER!!!! My fragile heart exploded yet another time that day......
As I mentioned she wanted to try on every single item.....
"Layers are in style, right?"
But she wasn't so sure about the hat.....
"Hmmmmm???"
She pondered about it for a bit in the playroom.....
"To where the hat or not to wear the hat...."
Her first pair of real cowgirl boots!!!!!!!!! We've been wanting these puppies for awhile now!!!!
The slippers flew off and the boots went on.....
Pure awesomeness.....
She was pretty pleased with her ensemble.....
"I'm totally rockin' this!"
A few Eskimo kisses and plenty of hugs later it was time to put Hal down for a late nap and take Meme back home......
Spencer stayed at the house on babysitting duty while Riley started working on his shed out back. Dad, sis and I headed to Shattuck. We spent the next hour at Deedee and Lonnie's house where we watched Aaron play with his new toys and chit-chatted with Matt and Amy. Meme noticed Aaron's new mini-recliner and sent me out on a mission to pick up a pink polka-dot one for Lil Red. Bailey and I found the last pink one and snatched it up right away. Aaron was more than ready to go see Hallie Grace for some playtime and more presents.....
"Go see Hallie?"
It was obvious that Meme enjoyed her quality time with both of her great grandbabies that day....
It was nice to spend some unexpected time at Aunt Deedee's that day....
We said our goodbyes and led the way as Matt, Amy and Aaron followed us back to Woodward where Hal was waiting to play.....
The cousins exchanged gifts and seems to be on the track to a fun time....until Hal decided to be a supreme toot and cling to me while refusing to join in on the playing with Aaron. This was the only pic that I snapped of the two kiddos interacting.....
She's sassy when she wants to be, I'll tell ya! Matt chatted with the guys in the living room while us girls and Aaron hung out in the playroom. They had to get on the road as it was getting late and they had a long drive home to Edmond. There were plenty of Christmas surprises remaining under the tree that evening. To kick things off Aunt B went to the laundry room to bring in the pink chair.....
We witnessed another priceless reaction as she ran over to it and hopped right in. After learning that it reclined she repeatedly told me to lift it up more...and more and more and more. Reasoning with a two-year-old is obviously no easy feat....
"Lift up, momma!"
Aunt B and I embraced our inner child and put on some pjs with Lil Red while the guys chose to forego the pajama option for opening presents.....
To say that Hallie had a lot of loot to unwrap would be a gross understatement. She didn't have quite as much holiday pep as she had pre-nap but it could've been overwhelm-ment (yep, just coined that word) from all of her awesome gifts.....
Apron for her kitchen
Sweeet!!!!
More kitchen gear
Of course Hal wasn't the only happy with her gifts. Aunt B was a happy gal with her new phone cover from Hal....
And I was just happy to be surrounded by so many of my favorites....
The wrapping paper continued to fly and the gifts kept piling up! The grownups all got everything we needed and more. Hal began to get overwhelmed by so many options to play with. Here's a look at her "I'm in kiddo heaven" face.....
It was high time that Lil Miss have some athletic options. Of course the man to do the teaching was none other than dada.....
And G lent a hand in the t-ball department too....
She had me thinking we'd waited far too long to get her a t-ball set. Poor girl had not a clue as to how to hit the ball. Awkward city! Even with help she was swinging the bat every which way with no regard for where the ball was on the tee. Hilarious!!! But neither G nor Hal seemed to mind that her skills would need some polishing. Nope, they were like two peas in a pod as usual...
Once her fellow pea had to bid us farewell for the evening she joined a new pod of peas. This trio made the goofiest three peas in a pod I've ever seen!
She had an absolute ball with Aunt B and Uncle S that night before bedtime. My cheeks hurt from laughing so hard after watching them wrestle around on their bed. Lil Red was doing a great job at stalling that evening and nobody seemed to care at all. It was Christmas Eve Eve for goodness' sake!!! But all good things must come to an end and she retired to bed without so much as a whimper of sadness. She was pooped despite her late nap. The grown ups still had some energy reserves left over for a movie and some leftover dessert. We watched Pitch Perfect and laughed for a second time as Bailey and I quoted it the whole way through. Riley was wondering how I'd conned him into watching such a girly flick. Needless to say, he did not finish the whole movie and hopped into bed to get some rest for work the next day. We stayed up watching the rest of the movie and some old Friends DVDs before yawning ourselves to sleep. Riley was up and out the door early which meant that I was wide awake far to early on a lovely day off. But it turned out to be a blessing because it gave me some time to get a jump start on cleaning up and starting breakfast. I had planned to cook a big feast but in the end I downsized a bit since G and Riley both weren't there to join us. Hallie stirred around 9:00 and played with her blocks and kicked back in her chair for Dora while I finished cooking......
She was itching big time to wake up her playmates so it wasn't long before she was sneaking in the door and bouncing on their bed. Lots of giggles erupted soon after when she notified them that "breakfast was ready!" The four of us devoured biscuits and gravy and buttermilk pancakes. Devoured is not an exaggeration. Not a morsel of food was leftover. Full bellies and full hearts. I was so thrilled to have them here that morning to spend some quality time with....
The three amigos continued their fun from the night before by playing more hide and seek, light on/light off and pretending to "go bed." They were such good sports and let the two-year-old be the boss all morning. She insisted that they all take naps but first they all needed cheesesticks and cups of milk. You can't make this stuff up, people!!
I had to make an unexpected run to the clinic that morning so I left the goofy trio to fend for themselves for a bit. Once I arrived back home we did some batting practice.....
I had to fight the overwhelming urge to pick up all of the clutter, er, I mean toys, but fought it for the sake of Christmas. She was having way too much fun to rain on her parade. Check out this masterpiece that she built....
I swear she had not a bit of help ;)
Trying on all of her new clothes from Aunt B was on her to-do list as well.....
Hallie Grace soaked up every last bit of play time she had with her friends before they had to hit the road....
We were oh so sad and bummed to say goodbye to B and S and didn't quite know what to do once they drove out of the driveway. I stayed busy cleaning up the breakfast dishes and getting some stuff put away. While I worked in Hallie's room she did some gift sorting. She came upon this awesome gift card to Build a Bear from Spencer's mom and dad.....
"So you're tellin' me that I actually get to build a bear?"
Nanny stopped by and caught Hallie and I being total lazy bums. She came bearing some wonderful, unexpected gifts! A Christmas countdown tree that she found on sale at JWs was a great addition to our decorations and she also brought Hal some new holiday duds for church service that evening......
"So we have to wait another year to flip the rest of these over?!"
Riley finally figured out that working on Christmas Eve was a silly thing to do and came home for some lunch with his girls. He spend the rest of the afternoon/early evening working away on his shed out back while I kicked back with my blanket and did some picture sorting/blogging/shutterfly-ing/wasting time on Facebook. Hallie took a nice solid nappy and I actually had to wake her when it came time to get dressed for dinner with the family at Katie's house. She was none too happy to be awoken but the promise of food helped perk her up a bit. Katie made some yummy potato soup and we snacked some Rib Crib ribs that Nanny had picked up in Enid earlier that day. Carmen munched away on her dinner while Hal ate like a mouse and got in some solo playtime while the rest of us ate.....
"I'm still mad at you for waking me up, ya know!"
The candlelight service at our church was beautiful/peaceful/serene/full of God's spirit...take you pick!! The girl's stayed with Aunt Christy in the nursery but we let them head up to the stage afterward to get some pictures by the GINORMOUS tree. To my surprise and dismay, Lil Red was in total picture-taking mode and sat still unlike her usual antics....
The girls looked adorable in their matching outfits and boots. I could just eat them up!!!
This little sweetie had no idea how much fun was waiting for her at home.....
This new toy of mine from my dear hubby came in handy that night as we watched Hallie open her gifts from Mom and Dad. Santa's gifts would have to wait until morning of course......
The evening was getting more magical by the minute. Hallie was beside her with excitement about opening all the pretties under the tree.....
Riley was in place with the video camera, I was plopped on the floor to pick up paper and help Hal open boxes. But oh my, she did not need help. The girl was like a precise machine peeling away pieces of paper one by one until every last bit was removed. It was incredibly ironic and hilarious all at the same time considering the girl generally has no concern for cleanliness and order....
I couldn't help but laugh at how serious Riley was while manning the camera. It reminded me of my Christmases as a little girl....we would wait not-so-patiently as my dad would program the camcorder and enter the date in it before we could open gifts. He only used it a few times each year so everytime he pulled it out it was like he was re-learning how to operate it. I remember begging him to hurry as he purposefully went slow just to get a rise out of us. It always ended in large amounts of laughter. Here's my filmmaker busy at work...
Dummy me felt like a doofus as Hal's first two gifts were related to her big gift from Santa. She didn't seem to concerned about it though. Nope, she wanted to put on her chef hat and apron immediately before opening more gifts....
Lil lady opened her sparkly new tennis shoes next....
Followed by some new puzzles...
And some boring (yet adorable) clothes.....
Last but not least was her pots and pans set which she insisted on opening ASAP....
My babies broke the rules and peeked in their stockings to find some goodies.....
New undies, shirts and socks
Four new zoo animals for her crew
Mommy didn't go ignored either. I was SPOILED with a capital S by my girl and guy. They surprised me with new cold weather workout gear. I took it as a subtle suggestion that I needed to start working out again and it appeared that Riley had been catching on to my feelings about not being able to run outside because of the weather. SCORE!!!!
Riley's big gift had arrived via UPS a week prior to Christmas. He ordered himself a coke blaster for his hot rod. I have not one clue what that means but he seems stoked about it so that's all that matters to me! After all of the wrapping paper was picked up and the munchkin was tucked tightly in bed it was time for reality to sink in. The reality was that "Santa" (Dad) had waited to do work in "Santa's workshop" (the living room). The gift that "Santa" (Mom) had chosen was not so simple to assemble. Here's how our 9:00- 1:00 went: screws, nuts, bolts and lots and lots of pieces.
Most likely loving me for my gift selection at this point....
Santa grossly underestimated how much time it would take to put her kitchen together. But we had quite a few laughs, a few adult beverages, gorged on some cheesy nachos and watched some Christmas movies. All in all a fabulous night! We finished right around 1:00 and put it in place in front of the fireplace complete with realistic shopping cart and pots and pans set up on the stove. I almost wanted to wake her up right then and there so that she could feast her eyes on what was waiting for her.....
Fresh off the sled from the North Pole
But morning came soon enough. Actually morning came VERY soon. She was a sweetie and slept in a bit but I was up with my alarm on Christmas morning to start getting food for Christmas lunch ready. I heard her start to stir and then she let out a "mommmmmmmmmmmmy!!!!!" Riley and I excitedly scurried (yes, we scurried) to her room to find this precious sight.......
She was looking absolutely scrumptious in her pink angel pjs with a delicious smile on her sweet face. Riley had the video camera handy and I'll never forget their conversation that morning as she stood watching us from her crib. He said "Hallie, Santa came last night. Were you a good girl or a bad girl?" Her response: "bad girl." I told her it must've been a mistake because Santa left something super cool! She slowly wandered down the hall with her blanket Linus-style over her shoulder as she scanned the living room when she came around the corner.....
She was in awe after spotting her kitchen. She pointed and gasped at the same time and then finally uttered the words "kitchen, momma!!!" and "Santa left babydoll too!"
"Santa snow!!!!"
The snow was cool.....but she had some cooking to do! She got serious with her gear and made breakfast for us...and even the dogs!
"Bear with me here, I'm new at this"
She was like a little professional pulling out her oven shelves while making sure to don her oven mits....
My first meal made by Chef Hal was a yummy piece of toast....
"Maybe mom was right when she said I needed a coat..."
"Ya think this means I need to help load stuff?"
Hal waddled up to Papa who was waiting at the door....
She looked much like a bag lady what with her scarf, coat, hat, boots, purse and gloves. But a cute bag lady of course....
Hal and Aunt Ky got busy checking out an unwrapped gift waiting under the tree.....
Her first tricycle!
Hal and Carmen opened their stockings while the grownups marveled over the goodies in ours.....
In mine I found a pair of Thunder tickets for Vday, a hefty chunk of change to put toward a new couch for the den, a massage and a Hob Lob gift card. TOTAL SCORE!!!
Gracen disguised himself as a gift and Carmen was more than willing to dig in and grab him.....
Papa loved his new custom Oakleys.....
And Nanny was very surprised by her five new pieces for her new dish collection....
Riley posted up on the couch and stayed pretty occupied unwrapping.....
Luke manned the camera for a bit....
I couldn't help but show off these hilarious pjs from Aunt Ky....
Nanny couldn't wait to open her highly anticipated iPad.....
Papa left Riley squirming and waited til the end to bring in this big daddy....
Yay! The welder he'd been wanting!!!
Hal's favorite toy of the day ironically didn't even belong to her. It just happened to be Carmen's elephant that shot balls out of its trunk. She preferred to use it as a fan....
Carmen didn't mind sharing at all. After all, she was busy hanging out in her daddy's hat....
Riley was Mr. Toy Assembly Man....
Lunch was perfect as always and the company was even better. Luke smoked a juicy prime rib and we scarfed down pie for dessert. We went home around 2:00 and Hal went down for a nap after doing a bit of cooking in her kitchen, nearly passing out on her sleeping bag and while testing out our new quilt from Nanny......
"I'm not tired...not one bit..."
"I swear....not even sleepy"
I started working on a very precious gift for Hallie Grace (I can't spoil the surprise right now) and Riley snoozed right along with Hal....I must admit I was enjoying a little quiet time to myself with the view of the beautiful snow covering the ground in the backyard. Sleepyhead #1 woke up and relaxed on the couch while I milled around in the kitchen preparing dinner for the family that evening. Hallie took a long Christmas nap nestled all snug in her crib. Nanny, Papa, Kylie, Katie, Carmen and Luke piled in around 6:00 for some chili that night. Hallie made certain to show everyone the ins and outs of her new domain......
The two girlies suited up in their chef hats and aprons but shame on me for not getting a picture of the funny duo. They played to their hearts' content and reluctantly came to the table for some dinner. Aunt Ky tried out Hal's stocking stuffer at the table....
We spent the rest of the night watching the Thunder game and just relaxing with everyone over at the house. I was relieved to have the last dish washed and slipped into my sweat pants for some time with my favorite guy later that night. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Seeing as how ten days have passed since Christmas Day my memory has faded a tad and some of the lovely memories I wanted to write about will be felt untold. But who needs stories when I have her face on Christmas morning imprinted in my mind forever and ever and ever. Priceless memories were made this Christmas and tears were shed for my momma who would've made it that much sweeter had she been here to share her laughter and love. Laughter and love were not lacking though. Here they are pictured below.....on the left is my laughter and on the right is my love.....
Here's hoping you and yours had a merry little Christmas.
Love, The Fannings
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