InstaChristmaswiththeKings... (v. 2014)

I should have been packing our bags for the overnight trip to Waco, but I thought that this was a much better use of my time. How long do you think we will let me snuggle with him? He's seriously the greatest kid and I am so lucky to be his mom. 

Christmas came early for this crew - we grubbed on pizza, gorged on cookies, giggled, exchanged gifts and stayed up past bedtime - all in our matching jammies. 

The children all nustled, all snug in their "bed" while visions of dr. pepper and cookies danced in their heads. 

They just keep on "griswalding" our house.  Sadly (to Radley) this little tree lasted one night before falling over. 

Merry Christmas in our jammies!

We had tiny taste testers for Christmas prep - but they saved a little to share with everyone else. 

It just isn't the holidays if this one isn't at the per or urgent care. She was clearly fine. 

Let the annual meatball making commence! 

I'm pretty sure this was their favorite gift this year. All 4 of the grands together for mass and Christmas morning!

Sometime in August I decided that it would be adorable for all of us to get boots this year. I remember being little and everyone getting custom boots one year from this boot place in Lott, Tx and loved it.  I **needed** a pair, Ryan needed a pair, and the kids would be cute. Emmy and Landry fell in love with these pink boots in September and I snatched them up. Then I hesitated on that **need** referenced above until Frye's were HALF OFF on Amazon. 

Done.

Merry Christmas Y'all!

MOM! MOM! IT'S CHRISTMAS!! And I got a CLOCK!!

We were done by 6:30am. 

#letseat

The neighbors that tunic together, stay together. We are pretty much the cutest. 

:)

She was giving them very explicit instructions to not mess it up.

We have our family over for dinner every year on Christmas. The kids get to play and talk about what they got from Santa, the adults get to eat and have big kid conversations and we all get to be surrounded by the people we love the most. Love that we have a home to fit us all. Love that my momma's hospitality gene got passed down to me. Love that she's still the one that makes the gravy! And love that this crew will have memories created here of what their childhood Christmases were made of. 

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like being completely inappropriate and laughing until you are in tears. Y'all. Get this game. 

If you need some boots, I can't recommend these enough. Classic riding boot, hand crafted, super comfy and just amazing. I got these in gray - a bit unconventional but when sitting directly next to the dark brown you could not tell a major difference. I have 2 pair of brown boots already, so I went with these and have worn them with black, brown and grey already.

(Next up, I'm thinking I need these in Fawn (but that color is currently out). My birthday is right around the corner...)

A little GNO with dinner and movie with my favorites.

(Disclosure: We saw Annie and while I didn't hate it, we didn't LOVE it. Emmy was bored - it was a bit too grown up for their age group and as charming as Cameron Diaz is, you can never redo Carol Burnett).

And we continued with the chaos. Gigi got the first point of the night. And then it got REALLY good. 

Instead of exchanging gifts this year, the big kids treated ourselves to dinner out. No tiny humans to feed or tell sit still. No one asking us if they had eaten enough for dessert. Just us, chatting, laughing, and eating until we couldn't take another bite. This was my favorite gift of the season.

The gift of time really is the best. 

Okay, maybe Pops playing CAH was my favorite gift.

HA!

All too soon, we had to say goodbye and no one was less ready to do that than these two. Radley adores his "Cousin Owen" and when we got home, he teared up, grabbed his "phone" and pulled up a picture they had taken together. Can't wait for our next visit!

We took the decorations down and the last to go was all the wonderful cards we received. (80+! Thanks y'all!) I'm taking a cue from some of our loyal YMM followers and we will be praying over families at mealtime this year. Looking forward to this becoming an annual tradition with the Kings. 

2014 has been a great year - thanks for joining We5Kings on our journey!