Christmas Eve & Christmas Morning

This would technically be Christmas #2 -- just our little family of 4. If we didn't live in TN, this would be the time spent at home... where Santa came, and our special traditions would take place. Instead, right now we are in a pattern of traveling and doing this in my inlaw's living room before the rest of the family gets there. It's less than our ideal picture of what we'd like for the boys, but it's the best we can do in order to be able to share the holidays with everyone... we pray that at most we might have one more year with this situation.

For Christmas Eve this year, we wanted to take the boys to see a Christmas tradition that takes place in College Station, TX -- near where John and I went to college at Texas A&M. This light display is one of the best I've seen, and I've now been to the best of what Memphis has to offer as well...

I loved this sign -- of course, I would. Texas holds a BIG place in my heart, and I can't wait to move home again.

I was able to turn off the flash and get some pretty good pictures -- I loved this wreath that we drove through. The boys enjoyed the lights as well.

Not much I can say other than... Amen! I really want one of these for my house... but I know that isn't possible. HAHAHA!

The A&M section was fairly small... much smaller than we remembered, but we still loved it! They also have a village that you can get out and enjoy -- meet Santa, have hot chocolate, shop, and a few other things. The boys are a bit young for all that activity - so we just drove through and went on back to get them in bed for the night.

We were going slower than we would on a hay ride -- so we let the boys out of their seats to get a better look. We were able to pull into the parking lot at the end to put them back in their seats... so no judgies!

My picture of the nativity scene didn't turn out, but this part was right after it... and it was phenomenal. The three crosses...

This was amazing -- you can see the tomb behind the two angels on the ground... all the lights went off, and you see Jesus kneeling in the tomb -- then in the lights he rises up, and lights up in the sky -- then the angels all light up. I think I almost got teary.

Our cookie offering for Santa this year... we found the same tag that we used last year for the plate -- so I saved it again for next year. I guess we'll try to keep using it until we need to make a new one to add a new little one on there.

Santa was very good to two spoiled little boys, he did manage to throw in some educational toys too this year. I'm still working on getting all of this unpacked and am desperately trying to figure out how to organize everything to keep my sanity.

Santa continued the tradition of leaving a thank you note for the milk and cookies... he left a hint of a new buddy coming to visit us next year to help us get excited about Christmas.

Who would know that 5 seconds before this picture we had two whiny boys that didn't want to cooperate at all in the process of sitting on the fireplace? I love this photo -- it might be my favorite of the entire holiday season.

They REALLY didn't want to be shuffled into the living room either -- but I think they shortly changed their tune...

They were super cute and didn't quite know what to do with all this stuff they walked in to find. It didn't take them long to get things rolling though!

Look MOM!! These cars transform into dinosaurs! They love these things... Santa brought them Vtech Switch & Go Dinos.

They opened a few presents and then needed a break -- but they didn't need as much help this time around. Tyler almost enjoys it more than James... but James loves getting the toys out of the boxes. HAHAHA! They are quite the pair.

Here they are showing Daddy one of their new toys. As usual, we over did it a bit... but things didn't work like last year... so we had some shopping challenges to overcome.

It was only an hour or two between this celebration and the next one... but I'll get back to that tomorrow. I hope you're enjoying a little glimpse into the madness that is our extended family Christmas celebrations.