Gilbert Christmas

We spent actual Christmas Day in Oklahoma with Micah's family and drove back to Houston the day after Christmas.  That same day my brother and sister also arrived in Houston to get our family festivities started.  This was the first time my siblings and their families met Hailey!

The following morning we got the Christmas festivities started with our mass chaos opening of gifts. I've always loved the chaos, excitement, and craziness of opening gifts Christmas morning!  Once again, Hailey was so impressed it put her right to sleep.  For some reason Jacob was so unimpressed that we could barely get him to open one single present.  He eventually just went outside to play.  We finally were able to get him to open one and he immediately sat down to play with it.  It was fun to get to share in the joy and fun of exchanging gifts.

Last year we decided to start an annual "Dirty Santa" party with the siblings and parentals.  We decided with all the kiddos it was time to stop trying to really buy each other gifts and just have a fun little adult party of our own.  Micah and I had the perfect gift that we bought in Thailand but we could NOT find it ANYWHERE!  I'm so sad.  I'm really hopeful we will have it for next year.  Anyways, the gifts this year were highly entertaining as usual.  Selena got some "beer goggles" to label beer...the red-neck version of wine charms.  There was sunscreen flask, smelly toilet paper, OU golf balls (which I sadly was stuck with), and shot gun shell Christmas lights plus much more.  Once again we had a blast laughing together.

Of course we had to have our annual Christmas PJ pictures.  I love that the one with Bailey doing the splits Selena and I are being silly and Mom and Traci look perfectly normal.  They made up for it on the next one!

 My Mom had a fabulous idea as a gift for all the girls to book a private mani-pedi party at the nail place she always goes to.  It was obvious she goes often with the welcome she received when we walked in!  The party was at night so we decided to go in our pjs.  We made Margaritas to bring with us and picked up Chick-fil-A on the way.   It was so much fun!!  I think it should be an annual tradition.... ;)

Our whole family made the journey to Silsbee, TX, where my Mom grew up, to visit my Grandma and for Hailey to meet her Great Grannie.

Before the mad dash out the door to Silsbee we took a few family pictures. For some reason Selena's family is the only one I have of them alone!

Selena and her family had to leave to head back to Louisiana to get ready for their annual New Years Eve Bash.  I must say it looked like so much fun and maybe one year we will join them.  A couple of days after New Years, we headed to St. Arnold's Brewery close to downtown Houston for a brewery tour.  The entrance fee includes 4 tokens for beer.  We brought along chips, dip, and some games and had fun tasting out all the beers.  In hind sight I think we wish we would have gotten there earlier to enjoy hanging out more before the tour.  The tour was interesting but pretty short so the best part was hanging out tasting all the beer.  Luckily for us, Traci is not a beer fan so she was willing to drive everyone home.  I cannot believe this, but Bailey stayed home with Jacob and baby sat for us!! How is she old enough to babysit?!  We brought Hailey along and I think she enjoyed her visit.

We had a pretty fantastic time being with family and celebrating Christmas. Can't wait to do it again next year. 

Visit with the Perry's

We lucked out that the day after we returned to Houston, the Perry's were on their way back to Borger from Lake Charles so the stopped by for a very quick visit.  My family was very thoughtful and decided to go do some after Christmas shopping to get out of the house and give us some time alone. We had fun just sitting around catching up while the kids played. I'm so glad they were able to stop by.  Hopefully we can see them for a longer time soon!

Sperling Christmas

Every year we alternate whose family with which we spend Christmas day.  This year it was the Sperling family's year. We arrived in the USA December 16 and spent a couple days in Houston getting over jet-lag before heading to Wagoner on December 19.  The kids did great on the trip up to Oklahoma and we only stopped once for lunch!

Our overall plans in Wagoner were kinda messed up and put on hold due to kids being sick but we still made it all work.  Micah and his Dad were able to get in a couple rounds of golf and Micah's brother Andy was able to join them once.  We wanted more time for Jacob to play with his cousins but he enjoyed the extra time with his Grandma all to himself and I enjoyed the down time to fully recover from jet-lag. 

One of the things we had planned to do all together was to go see Santa.  Sadly, this didn't work out so we decided to take Jacob and Hailey to see Santa on our own.  We wished Kate and Evan could be there too but understood that they needed their rest to help them get well!  This was Hailey's first time to see Santa!

After Santa, we went to hang out at Andy and Jackie's and let the kids play and then nap.  This was the first time Andy's family was able to meet Hailey.  We were so excited to show off our beautiful girl!

  That evening we went to the Rhema Christmas lights at a church in Tulsa.  It ended up being a cold, misty night and our kiddos didn't last as long as I would have liked but they still enjoyed it.  Kate was so sweet taking Jacob by the hand showing him all the lights.

When everyone was together there was lots of eating, playing in the garage, cousins running around, and just generally enjoying each other's company.

Christmas Eve Andy had to work so we spent the day in Tulsa at their house so that we would have the most time together.  That evening we went to a wonderful candlelight service at their church.  Before church we took some family pictures. This turned out to be a difficult process with 2 two year olds!

After the Christmas Eve service we headed back to Wagoner to prepare for the arrival of Santa.  The kids took some pj pictures which once again proved a difficult task!  Kate put out the milk and cookies and it was time for bed. 

 Christmas morning we had fun opening presents.  Jacob still didn't quite comprehend "santa" but we kept telling him Santa had come and that he was able to open lots of presents.  Oddly, he still really isn't into the concept of gifts but he did open most of his this year.  It was difficult to get him to move on from a new toy to open another present. He also got frustrated when something he really wanted to play with took Mom and Dad too long to get out of the box!  Hailey slept blissfully through the entire event but she still got some fun gifts. Santa was good to Micah and I too!

The next day we packed everything up and headed back to Houston to spend our 2nd Christmas with my family. We had a wonderful time in Wagoner and were sad to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa!