Christmas in Mississippi

Let the Christmas fun begin! I have been so excited about Christmas this year since our family hasn't spent Christmas together since Cadence was born 7 years ago. The cousins are such fun ages and I couldn't wait to get them all together for the holiday. Robert got home from work on Wednesday afternoon and we all jumped into the rental car (aka Santa's Sleigh due to how packed it was with gifts...I should have taken a picture) and made the 4 hour drive to our hotel in Tallahassee. The next morning, on Christmas Eve, we drove the next 4 hours to my sister's house just outside of Biloxi. 

We attended a beautiful Christmas Eve service at Mike and Bethany's church that evening. We sang "O Holy Night" by candlelight -- a song that always makes me cry. Don't the kids look adorable? I love Clay's reindeer tie.

The last time we saw Cora she was crawling. She's so scrumptious!

The Chiles family. Cadence has grown to be such a little lady.

This is the first time Papa has been with all 4 grandkids at the same time!

Isn't Bethany's tree beautiful?

Christmas morning couldn't have been any sweeter. It was so much fun watching the kids open their gifts. Abby loved the Magiclip princesses I bought for her. The dresses can be removed but Abby was adamant about them staying in their own dresses until we finally convinced her that they were all friends and liked to try on each other's clothes. This toy saved the day on our long drive home as she was swapping dresses for a good hour. Note: Rapunzel looks beautiful in Ariel's green. ;)

Robert and Abby spent a few days at Disney earlier this month when I went to visit my friend Halle and on multiple occasions Abby told Robert that she wanted to buy this Marie mug from The Aristocats for me. I love my very first gift from my little girl! (It's telling that she thinks mommy needs a coffee mug. It makes me laugh about all of those mornings she's heard me say, "Just a minute, sweetie. Let me get my coffee first.")

I found this Melissa and Doug barn at one of our consignment stores and knew Cadence needed it for all of her horses.

Grandma Zajkowski bought Abby this beautiful jewelry box. She was mesmerized by the music and the spinning ballerina.

Aunt Bethany gave her a Melissa and Doug ice-cream set and this fun cupcake backpack.

And Nana found the cutest Minnie bank. Cadence picked out the pink kitty scarf. Such perfect, thoughtful gifts -- all of them!

Then it was back to the jewelry box.

Bethany found this awesome sweater for Clay.

And Nana bought this bear pillow for Clay...

 ...but Cora decided she wanted to take it for a ride.

   

And then brought along her pink pony for good measure.

There are a lot of horses in the Chiles' house!

Abby found an Oreo somewhere.

Hey, you!

As if Christmas isn't enough, December 25th is also Cadence's birthday. So halfway through the day we put up some streamers and transitioned to birthday time. 

I can't believe she's 7.

Round 2 of present opening for Cadence! She got a lot of cute clothes.

And 4 pairs of boots! Boots with fringe.

Soft cozy boots to wear around the house.

And some heavy boots to wear at the barn.

It was a full day and a wonderful Christmas + birthday. The following day we all took it easy. Robert and Mike went on a brewery tour and for dinner we returned to The Shed and devoured some delicious barbecue. We're from Kansas City and know barbecue and The Shed is GOOD stuff.

I don't even want to talk about Sunday because it was pretty much a nightmare. Robert and I decided to make the entire drive home in one day which takes eight hours according to our GPS. We made a quick Starbucks stop two hours into the trip and then had lunch at Cracker Barrel (always!) a few hours later. There was some slightly heavy traffic that first half but it paled in comparison during the second half of our trip. Robert took over driving and the second half of the trip ended up taking 6 hours. And we didn't stop once! We had to take a few detours off the interstate around some big wrecks and traffic slowed to a crawl and sometimes a complete stop. Abby was a serious trooper and didn't complain once. I can't believe she sat in her carseat that long. 

When we got home Abby was thrilled to see that Santa had left a Little People princess castle at our house, complete with Cinderella's coach. She's been making the princesses dance pretty much non-stop ever since. Yes, it was definitely a princess filled Christmas. The following morning I had Robert and Abby open their last gifts. Ukuleles! I saw this pink ukulele on Amazon and just couldn't resist, and I thought it would be a fun thing for Robert and Abby to learn together.

As always, I'm sad when Christmas comes to an end. But as Abby told me, "it will come again later, mommy." Cheers to that, little girl! Thanks for all the fun and smiles you brought to us this year.