Christmas at Grammy & Granddaddy's

On Christmas Day, we enjoyed family time at Grammy and Granddaddy's house. We missed Corey tremendously since he was working at the fire station. But we were glad to have lots of love and fun with my parents and my grandparents. The girls had such fun opening gifts...and you guessed it...they were totally spoiled. Ok, yes, I got spoiled too ;).

Audrey opened most of Addison's gifts for her, but Addison enjoyed investigating all the toys.

(And a big thank you to my brother for taking over my camera for a while...I actually have proof that I was there that day :))

Audrey sporting her new tutu.

Showing off her hairstyling set. She said now she "can be like Mrs. Brandi". (That is a friend of mine since Kindergarten, who cuts our hair when we come back to town- see this post).

Audrey is modeling her new Dora boots.

And playing with her singing dog that Nana and Pawpaw gave her. (Addison was TERRIFIED of this thing.)

--But she got a little brave, as long as it was being still and not singing.

Nana watched as the girls played with their loot.

Pawpaw relaxed and snoozed a little on the couch. We were so thankful that he felt well enough to leave the nursing home for a little while to celebrate with us.

Grammy was looking through her new calendar we gave her. I made calendars with pictures of the girls for each family.

I'm so glad Keith captured this moment. Pawpaw and I were reminiscing about when he used to have Nana's biscuits and a Sprite ready for Keith and me each morning when we were headed to school. I enjoyed these few minutes of memories and smiles with Pawpaw. (I will explain about the biscuit warmer later...that is a post all by itself...)

A girl after my own heart! She loves taking pictures! :)

With my sweet big girl! Nana gave us some cookie cutters to use when we enjoy time in the kitchen baking cookies together. :)

Mommy and her girls!

Sweet sisters.

I love to see this smile and hear her laughter.

We even got a little "cheese" out of her...

While others were opening their gifts, Addison decided she wanted to assist Uncle Keith with opening on of his presents. She had a time slowly ripping the paper. Uncle Keith got a kick out of it because he was going to find out what his present was before his time to open gifts.

Someone is very excited about all of her gifts.

Audrey sings some Christmas carols for Pawpaw.

We had a fabulous day being together! At least until close to midnight...when Addison and I both woke up with a stomach virus :( Fortunately, we were at Grammy's house! She played nurse to both of us all night. I'm so glad we were there so I would have some help. And hopefully, no one will get those germs!

Thankfully the virus ran its course in a few hours and by the next evening we were feeling a little better.

Thomas Family Christmas

After we enjoyed all the surprises left by Santa, Audrey, Addison and I loaded up and headed down to Grammy and Granddaddy's house.

We were going to spend Christmas Eve night with my dad's side of the family for their Christmas party. It is always lots of loud laughter and fun, not to mention delicious food since my Aunt Carolyn always cooks!

Audrey and Addison were covered in love, kisses and many gifts! And as you can tell, they enjoyed them all!

Audrey was ecstatic about the ladybug pillow pet!

Addison and Jay

Then Addison said, forget the gifts...I'll just enjoy these coasters. :)

Here Comes Santa Claus...

Santa Claus actually came to our house a little early...on Christmas Eve morning, since Corey was going to be working at the fire station on Christmas day.

Santa has been to visit!!






The girls had no clue that Santa had been informed to arrive early until they awoke that morning to a pile of gifts!




Audrey was so surprised!! Addison wasn't quite sure what to make of all of it. I think she was still partially asleep. When she realized that there were toys, she perked right up.

Audrey got a Dora book.

Addison got a musical train.

Addison also got a cookie jar shape sorter.

Santa wrapped all the gifts because he knew how much Audrey liked unwrapping them.

Gotta love the bed-head!



This cutie was even ripping into her gifts.

Audrey finally got her much desired PINK hula-hoop. Yep, Santa had to work his magic to find a PINK hula-hoop. Who would've thought they would've been so scarce at the North Pole?!?



Audrey was thrilled that this My Little Pony Ferris Wheel was in her stash!

And can you tell that she LOVED the "singing Barbie". She had been wanting one of those so badly.

Addison checked out her bag of clothes. What she really wanted to do was eat the tissue paper.

And Audrey received cute clothes, too!

I had to take a picture of these because they were just the sweetest things. Audrey took some of her prized possessions from her toys and wrapped them in blankets as "gifts" and placed them under the tree for the rest of us to open. She did this all by herself. What a sweet heart! It makes me tear up just looking at the picture.

Now back to a little bouncy fun!

Our 2 best gifts ever in front of the tree. Aren't they adorable!

Santa's Elves

Each year my mom heads-up a Christmas party for the residents of a local nursing home sponsored by her church. You can see the past parties here and here. But this year, due to my grandfather being in the hospital and then at the nursing home (the one where we have the party), there just wasn't enough time or energy to have the party as normal. My mother was crushed, as was I, since it is just as important to us and a tradition that we have done for more years than I can remember.

After some brainstorming, we decided to do generic goody bags so at least each resident would get something and it would be useful. We knew we still couldn't do the full blown party...but they would have a gift to open.

So, on a Friday, the girls and I headed down to mom's and met up with her for lunch. Then the shopping began! Audrey and Addison were troopers as we hit up a couple of Dollar Tree stores and Walmart. There we emptied the shelves and filled cart after cart with tissue, soap, lotion, shampoo, snacks, puzzle books, body wash, and a few other goodies. We seriously needed Santa's sleigh to get all of our loot home.

Mom and I stayed up until 3:30 a.m. sorting goods and filling bags.

The next day, my cousin, Vicky, and her family took a load of the goody bags to half of the residents. Her kids loved on the residents and even sang a few songs for them.

Audrey, Addison, Mom and myself took the other half to distribute to the rest of the residents. Each person was so thrilled to receive their gift and get a hug from the girls.

This tradition is so special to my mom and me. I hope it will be just as special to my girls.

So even though it wasn't our "normal" Christmas party, we were still able to help brighten the day of many people. Who knows...this may become our new "normal". It was such fun to spend the "girl" time together shopping for this even.

Here are the girls in front of all the gifts, ready to be our little "elves".


Audrey and Addison giving Pawpaw his goody bag.



Isn't this one cute reindeer??