We got over to my Mom's house a little after noon. My Mom, Dad, brother and Darren were ready to open presents right away(only because they were excited to get started)...I debated for a bit because I knew my two were already tired. Wasn't sure whether we should eat and then open...or eat and put Em down for a nap and then open....
Decisions....decisions....so since I was still figuring out what to do Nana decided to do Santa with the kids! Max helped Nana hand out life saver books to all the "big" kids (aka Craig, Darren, Michael, and me) and hidden inside was a $10
giftcard to
ChickfilA!
Wahoo! Max dug right into his Santa bag! He was quite excited about his candy cane filled with Skittles!
Emery just enjoyed digging through her bag of goodies! Love this sweet little picture of her and
Pawpaw together!
And love the pics of her in my sister Laurie's rocker! Probably one of Emery's favorite things at Nana and Pawpaw's house!
Emery's stash from Santa!
And Max's stash...including my lifesaver book because Max felt left out that he didn't get one....not like he didn't get enough other stuff. Ha!
So I decided that maybe we should eat first and then nap...so we started to get lunch ready.
Then....Max decided that wasn't a good idea. Ha! He wanted to open gifts as did everyone else. So, I figured Christmas only comes once a year....LETS GO FOR IT!
And we did just that!! Max helped me hand out the gifts and Emery started us off!
Max opening his sports watch from Nana and
Pawpaw! He was really excited about it!
But he was MOST excited about his snowman playing
basketball ornament!!
Emery checking out her first Bible that Nana and
Pawpaw got her!
Nana was a huge help with the kids opening gifts!
Seriously....my daughter will climb on ANYTHING!
At this point (about 1:30pm) someone was getting quite FUSSY! So I figured it would be best to give her a little lunch. I brought a
lunchable jr for her as I knew she wouldn't eat much of the
traditional Christmas meal. She tore up the cubed turkey and cheese! And she was good for a little while longer.
After Max finished up with his BIG gift from Uncle Michael and Darren...we took a small break and I went to put Emery down for a nap.
Then it was time for all the BIG kids and Nana and
Pawpaw to open! It takes us a while to open at my Mom's house because we go around in a circle taking turns opening one at a time. I love it because you can see
everyone's opening their gifts and their true expressions when they do it. However, it is a little LONG for the little ones...that is why my mom had Emery and Max open all of their gifts first. Then we opened some things for Max to play with while we were all opening our gifts.
Michael and Darren opening their gifts for puppies Sam and Lucy! Max actually picked out the "pup"corn at
Petsmart for them!
Nana opening her Vera Bradley wallet from us! She LOVED it of course!
Michael and Darren loaded Craig up with some Dallas Cowboy ornaments for him to have a Cowboys tree next year with Max! Craig and Max were very surprised and excited about it! We actually went to Hobby Lobby to get a small blue and white tree for the ornaments for next year. I know it will look so cute in Max's room!
Pawpaw opening his gift basket from Michael and Darren! Lots of yummy dips, jellies, salsa, and candies from the Amish store!
Nana opening one of her BIG gifts from
Pawpaw! A Pandora bracelet! It is
sooo pretty!
She LOVES it of course!!!
Pawpaw and Max opening up a "fun" gift that Nana got! A little
Smore maker!
Here is Emery's gifts from Christmas at the
Maxwells!
And Max's!
Craig and my stash! Our big gift was
Garmin! So excited to add that to our new van since we didn't get the navigation system. Such a BIG surprise!!
We finally finishe up around 2:30pm so it was finally time to EAT!!!!
Everyone was so excited to smile for me....oh well I just wanted a pic of us all together. We ate so YUMMY food! Turkey,
Yankee dressing, southern dressing, cornbread casserole,
green bean casserole, yams, gravy, relish tray, and sister
Schubert rolls!
After Emery's nap we decided to rent a movie on
Comcast. We tried out Alvin and the Chipmunks the
Squeakel. It was so cute!! None of us had even seen the first one but I
don't' think it mattered because we enjoyed it none the less!
The kids LOVED it too! There was lots of music, singing, and dancing! Here they are having a little snack of mini
mms!! The kids were so cute sitting her in the rocking chairs until....little miss wouldn't stop standing in hers :( We ended up putting them up because she wouldn't obey!
Then later Emery had her "
traditional" Christmas lunch! She LOVED the
Yankee dressing!! Takes after her
Pawpaw and Mommy!!! Guess we have another
Yankee dressing eater!! No one else even felt like eating dinner because we were still stuffed from our late lunch.
On the way out I decided we should grab a family photo....not sure what I was thinking...
LOL This was the best we could get. The kids were totally exhausted and so ready to get home and play with some of their new toys!
We actually got home around 7pm and let the kids play till 9. They played hard with all their new stuff and honestly didn't want to go to bed. But they both passed out quick without much of a problem. Such a FUN filled day!! So sad it is all over. It just seems to take FOREVER to come each year...you work hard to make it special and then it is over in a flash! But I am so BLESSED to be able to be spend time together with family celebrating and of course truly BLESSED to know our Lord in Savior! God is sooo GOOD!
He was super excited and couldn't wait till it was time to go! Luckily he had his good friend Noah over to play this morning to help pass the time!
We tried out the Bartlett Lanes this time around and we had a great time! We actually ended up being right next to some neighbors of ours. It was fun to watch their two girls play and Max seemed to enjoy having other kids playing next to him!
Been a while since just the three of us went and did something together! We definitely need to take some time and do some other things with Max that Emery isn't big enough to do yet.
Max was loving it! And so were Craig and I for that matter!
Max would tilt his body thinking it would help the ball go the direction he wanted it too! It was too funny!
Max took over most of Craig's turn too. I actually didn't get a lane to play because I was thinking I would be helping Max a lot. However, that was not the case. He pretty much did most of it on his own. I didn't realize that they had lightweight balls that he could pick up and do all by himself! And the last (and first) time we went was almost 9 months ago so things were a little different this time around!
Every once and a while Max would want to use the blue ball which was 12 lbs so we would help him with that one but for the most part he did everything himself. He would even move his ramp thingy (I have no idea what the formal name of that thing is but I do know it is made to help kids with bowling) each time to get what pins were left!
Then he got brave and decided to play without the ramp. He was throwing the ball and knocking pins down! During his turn the bumper things came up and then they went down during Craig's turn. Max did pretty good when it was his turn but during Craig's turn he ended up getting a lot of gutter balls.
Right after his STRIKE!!! Wahoo!!
Check out that PRO bowler!
And just because Max wanted a picture of his STRIKE!! Ha! Notice Craig's score...that was all Max. Like I said lots of gutter balls since there were no bumper pads during his play. Actually pretty neat that they would go up and down for individual players!
Such a FUN afternoon! Max DID NOT want to leave the bowling alley. We asked him if he wanted to go for ice cream after and he told us "No, I just want to stay at the bowling alley and play all day!" Poor thing just wasn't ready to go after almost 2 hrs of playing! I am sure we will be back for a few more games very soon!
