This is Autumn's first Christmas where she really gets it. We have been counting down the days. We have wrapped presents, sung happy birthday to Jesus many times, and baked Santa cookies all to build up to this day.
First things first...yesterday morning first thing, Autumn yells out from her bed, "Where we go tonight?" I reply: Brittany and Kinsey's house. Autumn: "We go RIGHT now?!?" I reply (mind you we are in separate rooms, so we are both in our beds yelling this to each other). "No, not till tonight." Autumn replies: "Santa Claus comes tonight!!!" Then she gets up and runs into our room very excited.
Yesterday started our time of love, family, and yet a lot of rushed chaos. We went to Papa and Granny's yesterday to spend the day with them. We ate Granny's homemade gravy and buscuits, and Linda cooked us eggs. Let me just tell you that's enough Christmas present for me. I love their homemade breakfast!!! We played and opened gifts. We gave gifts. We were able to spend a lot of the day there just relaxing and enjoying each other (other than the fact that poor Kristi kept getting attacked by the killer dog, Max). We got home around 4 yesterday afternoon, and made it to church for the 6:00 service (and we were even a bit early). The service was great! It truly reminds us how Great our God is! So, I am very thankful that we were able to attend the Christmas Eve service this year.
Next stop, Brittany and Kinsey's house for Currey Christmas. We got over there a few minutes past 7 and enjoyed eating and hanging out with family. Autumn loves to play with her two cousins. She thinks she's as big as they are (7 &10). Luckily for William, she even payed attention and played with him as well. She chased Lucy (which of course that poor cat loved, right?) Autumn kept telling us all day that she was going to go to Brit and Kins house to chase Lucy! Lucky Lucy! We ended up not leaving there till after 10. Autumn passed out in the car, and she was out cold.
This morning we had to be at my nana's house (well, Donna's house for my nana's cooking) by 8:30 or 9:00 (which is what we were shooting for). So, at 7ish, Autumn cries out a bit, then falls back to sleep. Then we try to convince her to come to our room. Finally I just go get her. Brandon tries to tell her that Santa Claus came to our hosue last night. She just looked at him and nodded. Brandon asked if she wanted to go see what he left for her. She said not right now. I need to rest. But eventually I think the excitement got the best of her and she finally gave in to our begging and pleading! So, we finally got to go see what Santa left. He did eat most of the cookies, but don't worry Autumn ate what was left over and even finished up the milk!
Santa brought Autumn a baby doll (her first cabbage patch...however, we aren't sure if she's in love with her yet...but that's okay), roller skates (Brandon just looked at me and said, "What was Santa thinking? I just shrugged my shoulders and smiled), and then he also brought her a digital camera of her own. She loved it! She loves to take pictures just like her daddy.
Brandon bought her a t-ball bat, t-balls, t-ball stand, and a t-ball glove...see the theme here? She loved it all. She wanted to of course try it all out upstairs. But luckily she saw it our way and realized it would be so much more fun to play outside. So here we go rushing around (I have already decided that she was going to live in her pj's today) trying to get her to put her shoes on and run outside so that we all could play t-ball for a bit (it's about 8:25 at this point).
We get to my nana's shortly after 9, we get to spend time with everyone...well, I get to spend time with everyone...Brandon and Autumn decide to go for a walk on such a lovely day (since they are both such "people" people...if that makes sense). After a few hours of eating, presents, and just spending time with family, we are off to our next stop...Grammy Mae and Pa's house.
Well, Autumn's much too busy doing somefin as she called it to even consider opening up presents by this point, because Grammy (Mae) and Pa got her a vanity and lots of accessories for it. We seriously couldn't pull her away from it. She loved it! I will definitely have to add pics later. However, eventually we wrapped up there and we were off for some lunch...then we realized we didn't know what we were going to do for lunch. We have nothing at home, we don't eat at the Currey's till 5, and everything is closed...well everything except for the good ol' Asia Chinese in Smyrna. So, can you guess what we had for lunch?
By this time it's already 1, so we rush home for as much of a nap as we can get. Then we head off Nanny and Papaw's house. We spent time over there, ate, and opened more presents. Wow, by this time, Autumn's cranky and exhausted...as we all are. But it's still been an amazing day.
We finally get home around 7, come in we let Autumn play for a bit, while we (no, not clean...that will come eventually, right now we were just trying to sort) try to get the house somewhat under a little bit of control. Then we go upstairs and watch some of ae's new movie "Nemo". I had seen it before, but didn't realize how many scary parts are in there for a 2 year old. By 9, we put ae to bed. And now here we are, exhausted, but almost too exhausted to sleep.
We did do our present exchange just a little bit ago (we do our's on Christmas night...we've done it like this since we started dating...can't change it now). Brandon got me 2 precious moments that are precious...well, I could have probably used a better word...but there's a good reason they are called that. Then he also got me a couple of pairs of cute pj's shorts and tanks...but of course (poor Brandon), I fall in love with the flannel pants and long sleep shirt...so guess what I am wearing tonight?!?
We had a very busy holiday. It was rushed and there were lots of presents.
But we made sure that we thanked God for His gift to us...His Son, Jesus Christ. The most amazing gift that has ever been given.
