Christmas 2011 {Part 2} & A Sweet Surprise

Happy New Year friends! I hope everyone had a great holiday season. We sure did, but are ready for things to get back to normal. And by that, I mean I have to stop eating everything in site. I never finished posting about our Christmas, so I'll share some today, and then wrap it up in one more post.

After we celebrated Christmas with Patrick's family, we made a quick trip up to NE Oklahoma to celebrate with my family.

The pictures are mixed together here, but we started Christmas morning with stockings for the kids. My sister & I decided to go ahead and do stockings at my parent's house that morning since the rest of the fam wouldn't be over til later in the day. You can see though that all Manny really cared about were the fruit snacks. Next year those will go at the very bottom. :) I also thought this little picture on the bottom left was such a cute idea. My niece Livvy brought this home from school. It's a little gift that says To: Livvy From: God, and inside is a little baby Jesus. Such a sweet idea! The rest of the pictures are from later in the day when everyone was there. Manny got lots of fun presents!

We tried to get a family picture together, but you can see how that went. Manny was way too busy throwing fits playing to pose for a picture.

When the kids were passing out & opening presents, I was surprised to have one of them bring me a big box. Since we only do gifts for the kids (other than a Dirty Santa exchange after the kids are done), I wasn't expecting anything. Well wouldn't you know, Patrick surprised me in a BIG way - definitely 1 of the top 3 surprises he'../../2011/07/30.html">my 30th birthday party and our engagement (I thought I'd blogged about that but can't find it - I need to do that!) Turns out it was a gift "from Manny". The card on it was SO sweet that I didn't even care what was inside. I took a picture of it, but since you can't really see it I wanted to include it here so I'll have a record of it. :)

To: Mommy
From: Manny
This is for all those late nights/early mornings, all those dirty runny diapers, all those temper tantrums - past, present, & future. For all those times I stand on your bare feet with my shoes, jab or climb on little sister in your belly, or pour out all my snacks all over the grocery store floor to hear them scatter across the aisle. For all the runny noses and the times I tell you I am done with my food by either spitting it out onto my shirt or throwing it across the room or onto the floor. For the times I rearranged your cabinets or the laundry for that matter, especially after you just folded it. For the times I empty out the bathroom drawers into the bathtub or the times I am crying and whining and WE don't know why. But what I DO know is that it doesn't matter how little sleep you get, how sick you may be feeling, or how grumpy I am...you are always there for me! For this I will always love you. Merry Christmas!
Love, Manny

After I read it, I couldn't stop crying...it just really meant a lot to me. I am so blessed with a thoughtful husband! I absolutely love the coat they surprised me with, but I will always cherish the card and sentiment behind the gift. :)

As you can see from the picture above when I was kissing Manny, he was way too busy playing with my phone to pay attention to me. He really wasn't all that interested in opening presents at times because he's so obsessed with my phone! This is what he looked like while the other kids were opening gifts. Not the whole time, but still...he's a mess! We ended up hiding it so he could focus. Ha!

My parent's totally spoiled all the kids, and it was fun to watch them open all their gifts. My mom made THE cutest aprons for my nieces...I'm a little jealous of them! :)


My parents even bought some sweet gifts for little sister (who we are hoping to finalize a name for soon!) I love the look on Patrick's face in this picture. He doesn't know what to think about all the girly stuff. And honestly, I don't either...but I love it. :)

We were so lucky to have our Grandma Joy join us for the day too. She is the sweetest thing, AND brought me an awesome jar of pickles she made! Thanks so much Grandma Joy...I'll be ready for more soon. :)

It was definitely another fun family Christmas celebrating Jesus' birth, and a wonderful reminder of the blessings in our lives. All that's left now is our little family Christmas at home, so (for those of you that are still reading) I will post about it later this week. :)