Christmas Celebrations

Twas the week after Christmas and moms everywhere were finally recovering from all the Christmas spirit. Gift bags and tissue paper were being tucked neatly away, toys were making there way into their appropriate new spots and moms finally had a chance to sit down and blog. Happy Monday after Christmas! I am combining all of our celebrations into one blog because who knows when I will get to sit down and blog again. I LOVE the photo above that I got of Eva all dressed up on Christmas Eve. I got a new lens for my birthday and have been trying to convince myself that I am talented enough to use it....I'm really not talented enough but I need to try using it more anyway. On to the celebrations....

Tuesday night we went down and stayed the night at Nana and Papa's with all of Ryan's family. We got the Frozen Slides game for all the cousins to open early and get to play that night. {This may have been because I saw this gift and really wanted to play it myself....

As the night went on and the girls got tired Mallory and Eva cuddled up on the couch. Mallory was rubbing Eva's hair :) You would think that after a night of fun everyone would be ready for an early bedtime. Right? 

Wrong. I will admit, my child is the worst traveling sleeper ever in the history of kids sleeping places. She does not settle down, especially if she misses that magical window in which she is actually tired and ready to wind down. I love her to pieces, I do not enjoy taking her to sleep other places. Sorry family. God bless Nana for sleeping with her in the living room most of the night. I'm already praying that Jensen will be one of those babies who can sleep anywhere. {Seriously, I pray for that.}

But then it was Christmas Eve morning! Four beautiful, happy, well rested, excited girls!Bring on the presents!

 This is Eva's new silly cheese face. I'm not sure who taught it to her but it does make my laugh.

This was the first year that Eva really cared about watching other people open their gifts. She was interested to see what everybody got. And of course she was an old pro and opening her own presents! I didn't get any great pictures of Eva with her new gift but she loved her cash register and basket of play food from Nana and Papa. 

Finally a true Bradley! I got my own stocking this year filled with treats. 

After some good Christmas Eve naps it was time to head to church. This was our best family photo this year. 

We came home from church and somebody was excited for Santa to come! Oh wait, no, not excited...TERRIFIED. She decided that she absolutely DID NOT want Santa to come inside the house. She was so scared that we told her we would call him. She said to tell him to just drop her presents down the chimney. That would be a great plan...if we had a chimney! We just laughed and went along with it, and what to you know...the presents were all magically here on Christmas morning! 

Santa brought Eva a scooter! Such a classic sleepy headed, happy little kid on Christmas morning photo. 

She also got a Tangled doll, a Doc McStuffins doctor's kit, and a few other little presents from her Daddy and me. 

One of her most favorite presents this year? Bandaids. That girl LOVES bandaids. Luckily she got a few boxes and has probably already gone through half of them.

After opening presents we made Santa pancakes for breakfast. Not quite the Pinterst picture, but still yummy. Of course we gave a plain one to baby Jesus in the manger and sang "Happy Birthday" to him. PS The Aldi brand of pancake mix is awesome. 

We spent the rest of the morning playing and playing and playing some more! I really enjoyed relaxing with my little family, in my comfortable maternity pajamas and not feeling the rush to do anything or go anywhere. That was probably the best gift anyone could have given me.

Getting new toys at Christmas may be just as fun for parents as it is for kids! 

My family all game over that afternoon for more presents, games, and Christmas dinner. 

How precious are these two? My grandpa Hank is so handsome. 

When she sat on his lap and I said, "Let me see a big pretty smile," this is what I got. Such a cheeseball.

Ryan got his first pair of Converse shoes, so now he can officially be a cool youth pastor.  

Eva got Tangled, which we have watched every single day since she opened it. Good thing I like that movie too!

And she got a puppy guitar so she can be a rock star just like our good friend, Austin. 

Everybody gathered for Christmas dinner. I even got out my real china and used my late grandmother's crystal and silver. For a pregnant mama, fine dining is a rare occasion. And I lit the dinner candles. #bonuspoints

We wrapped up the evening playing some intense games of ping pong. I know I said it before, but really, my grandpa is just so cute. He was so sweet playing with Eva. He is 94 and she is 3, so there was a 91 year age difference between them but they had so much fun. I truly cherish getting to spend the holidays with all of our family. Ryan and I kept talking about how blessed we are to have such wonderful families, where everybody loves each other and gets along, and we live close enough to all of our family that we don't have to choose where to spend Christmas. It may be a few busy days and an extra long blog post but it is something that we love and really appreciate. On to the new year!