I can hardly believe it's been a year since we moved into our house and two years since we arrived as a family in Florida. This Christmas was definitely more organized than last year's. From getting our tree up the first week in December to getting the shopping done more than a week before Christmas to getting our cards out before Christmas I was definitely feeling more prepared and on top of things. Despite all my efforts though to be organized, we once again found ourselves scrambling to get in our photo with Santa at the 11th hour. And yes, the kids know they will be expected to participate in this annual tradition every year until Sage leaves the house...haha! Of course I was one of a thousand people who had obviously waited until the last minute to capture this photo as the wait at the mall was 8 hours...literally. Thankfully after being unsuccessful at the mall, Bass Pro came through for us on Christmas Eve morning. We made sure to arrive right when it opened and were the first people in line waiting for Santa. While waiting Jack bet Ty $10 to jump and scream like a little kid the moment Santa arrived. We always know Ty will take the bet and really we are paying for entertainment. Sure enough as Santa arrived Ty screamed like a little girl with excitement, calling him by name and running over to him. It was hilarious and too bad Jack accidentally pushed the wrong button on his phone to record because that would have been gold but the memory will last a lifetime. Even the store manager ran over a couple minutes later to make sure everything was OK as he had heard Ty screaming from clear across the store he said, and we all know how big Bass Pro stores are...
Santa!!! He was definitely one of the cooler Santas we'd had, and looked genuinely as excited to see Ty as Ty was to see him!
What a great time we had spending Christmas Eve with some of our favorite people!
Living in a house with such an open floor plan makes it a bit tricky to find places for all our Christmas trees, especially our main one. Last year we had just moved in and were missing dining room furniture so threw the tree in there. This year that wasn't an option but I was actually pleasantly surprised by how well it looked right in front of the sliders. Because of the reflection of the lights on the sliders, the whole front room seemed lit up.
Grandma Roddy joined us this year for Christmas, excited to escape her cold weather! As you can see Christmas weather in Florida is quite frightful... :)
After a successful morning opening presents it was time to relax and enjoy the day. While we aren't in our peak warm temps, the weather still was nice enough to take a spin on the lake. It looks like one cute curly haired blond child is enjoying my Christmas present...
I always try to include photos of the kids with their gifts as a way to remind me what they have gotten in past years! While the number of gifts seems to dwindle each year, the cost sure doesn't...lol! This year Ty really wanted a new phone, Connor only asked for a few vinyl records and Sage just wanted some air pods. Thankfully we were able to surprise them with other things too that they seemed genuinely excited about!
Of course it wouldn't be a complete Christmas without my prime rib dinner...and after dinner Christmas gifts!
And now it's time to relax...Merry Christmas!
