Christmas!

Christmas Day brought lots of presents and lots of excitement.  Unfortunately I don't have a lot of the pictures from the day :( .   We woke up bright and early and started opening presents right away.  As I mentioned it was lots of fun and very chaotic.

Jacob and Hailey's Santa present was hiding upstairs until the very end. They loved the bounce house!

 My big present was a new bike and trailer to pull the kids.  Yes, it was super hot Christmas Day and even in my shorts and t-shirt I was sweating.

 For our Christmas meal Papa fried a turkey.  I have to admit it was one of the best turkeys I've ever had.  We've all decided he is welcome to fry turkey every year!

The day after Christmas we had our traditional girls outing to the nail salon.  Unfortunately Traci and Bailey had already left so it ended up being just me, Mom, Selena, and Maddie but it was still a blast and a great way to end the Christmas festivities.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a very exciting day for the Sperling family.  Micah flew in at 5:30pm for his final time.  We were all so excited to have him with us for Christmas and in the USA to stay! But before he arrived the family went to a Christmas Eve service. 

 After the service, I picked Micah up from the airport and we headed back for family picture time.

Love everyone's faces...even Micah's not so happy one. 

 When picture time was over it was time for our traditional family Christmas Eve.  We read the true Christmas story together and then hand out a couple presents.   Typically the kids give their presents so that they don't lost in the madness of Christmas morning and Nana and Papa give everyone their ornament and pjs.  Of course we put out cookies and milk for Santa and Papa reads "The Night Before Christmas".  This year Jacob decided he wanted to read it to us too!

Once the readings and presents are done the girls must take their traditional Christmas pj pictures! We missed you Selena.

 Now it was time to sleep and wait for Santa.

Before Christmas in Houston

After Thanksgiving but before Christmas the kids and I had lots of time to play.  My parents neighborhood had a Christmas festival with a big jump house, petting zoo, train, sleigh rides, and even Santa.  Jacob had a blast doing every single thing.  Unfortunately it started raining on us and cut our time short!

This was the first year that I didn't put up any of my own Christmas decorations.  It was  a little sad so the kids and I helped Nana put up Papa's "Cowboy" tree. Of course popcorn was involved.

At the last minute, I decided to drive to Dallas and back in one day to surprise Bailey at her dance recital.  It was so much fun seeing the look of shock on her face and of course getting to watch her dance.  She did such an awesome job, it was worth the drive.

The day after Bailey's recital, Chad, Traci, Bailey and Coleton all made their way to Houston to spend some time at Nana and Papa's before Christmas.  We had fun hanging out, playing games, etc.  I don't have many pictures from that time but it was fun!  Another tradition we've started is an Houston themed outing.  Since Bailey is of babysitting age now this makes it easier to do.  The adults all loaded up and headed to a local Houston brewery, Karbach Brewery.  Micah wasn't too happy we were doing this without him but we missed him!  We had fun sitting out on their back porch trying beer and playing games.