Christmas morning!

 Our Christmas morning consisted of telling Lily last night...........that she was not allowed to come out of her room until at least 6:30!

She was opening Alexis' door at 6:30 on the DOT telling her to wake up...get UP...and its time for presents!

Even though we didnt do 'Santa' this year...the girls still had that same Christmas morning feeling....and so did I! It meant alot! :)

 First year...in 10 years...I didnt stay up super late to put out gifts! Woke up this morning, put it out...and BAM...ready!

Two excited girls!

 

Checking out allll the goodies!

I have to think....both girls....think we are cooler than Santa! :) ha!

Talk about shocked! Leaving for a cruise to the Bahamas.............TOMORROW! Say what!

Yeah...Lily.....being 100% Lily.....immediately said... 'I KNEW it! I am not stupid...I knew we were going on a cruise!' {Yeah....cant keep anything from that girl!} Insert...shake my head!...

She was really excited, though she did want us to know that she figured it out....but was shocked that we were leaving so soon! At least we got her on something! :) 

Stay tuned! We still have Nan, Pawpaw and Brandi's Christmas coming up in a little bit!

We are sad...this year we are not having Christmas with all the crew {Mal, Meg, LaLa, etc} since they are doing Christmas with the other halves' family and because Mal and her little family are in Baltimore. We always have so much fun with them and will miss them!

Merry Christmas Eve!

 Its one of my most favorite nights!

I just love all the prep for Christmas............ love getting ready for Church....

and I LOVE our Christmas Eve Church service.

My absolute favorite!

The best I could get! Lily's face.......UGH!.........she wouldnt take a picture! :)

One of my new favorite pictures!

Love!

Us girls!

After we ate........they could not WAIT to dive into presents!

Lily and her twin! She picked this out when we went to California and was so excited to have it now! After all the fun...we came home and crashed...ready for our new normal with 'Santa!' :)

Merry Christmas from us!

 As we close out 2021, I look back in time from this year and reflect it as a good year despite still being in a pandemic and knowing how the world is just becoming cold and uncaring. Overall, seeing the brightness and being thankful that my little family and I have had a good year is what is most important!

Merry Christmas!

Our annual Christmas eve picture....with alll our cats! :) BOO...that the sunlight was coming through the blinds....on Lily's face as we were taking the pictures and didnt know it until we had put everything up and struggled with even getting the cats to sit still! So....we didnt try again! :)

And here her smile looks extra big due to the sun! BOO!............

So...we settled on this remake with our phone once Nannie came over! She went to Church with us and then over to Grans!

Our new normal of Christmas traditions!

 So...one of Lily's big questions.....WHO is going to eat the Santa cookies now???.....

and can we all eat them together?!

So....thats what we did!

The girls had the best morning making the cookies, then decorating them before picking the 'best' ones before eating them!

They loved cutting the out and getting them ready to bake. Lily picked out a cat....wanting a 'cat Christmas' and then Alexis had a snowflake!

They both said that this is the best new tradition and each year from now on, they want to add a cookie cutter!

I said it will be fun to keep with the Christmas cat and snowflake...........sooo... :)

Lily wanted all of her Christmas cats to look like Aubie! Aubie had an ugly Christmas sweater on.... got into the Christmas lights in another and so on! Lily was very creative! Alexis' did different styles of snowflakes!

Their successes!

We all actually picked the same 'winners!' These two would have been what Santa would have actually eaten! ha! Instead.............we all enjoyed them! :)

What will for sure be our last Santa picture!

 Yeah....

both girls....

no longer want to sit in Santa's lap....

my heart is broken! :)

I had to trick them into thinking we were going to eat at Chick-fila....to get them to see Santa! :)

So...officially our last Santa picture. This marks the end of my girls as babies! Though they know, now, I look forward to Christmas with them knowing the true meaning and all the new memories we will be making together, for example, Lily is excited that we are going to make cookies....NOT for Santa...but for all of us to eat together on Christmas Eve! :)

 

We LOVE Auburn!

 We took off to Auburn and had the BEST time!

We love Auburn.

Just love it! We just all get so happy and is just the best feeling to head to our most favorite place. We enjoyed a full day of shopping and eating and then the basketball game! It was a beautiful day and we made the most of all we did!

Number 1 Auburn fans...right here! :)

Lily loved seeing the Eagle!

Christmas in Auburn!

Nothing better than seeing Aubie!

LOVE!

Auburn WON! We spent the night at Grand National after! The girls LOVED shutting down the indoor pool after as well! We got up today and they swam their hearts out. We literally stayed until they were ready to leave and headed home! It was a fabulous trip!

Our annual Coco-Jammie Christmas light night!

 It is such a fun tradition! We always pick a night....load up....blast Elvis Christmas in Daddy's truck....listen to him belt out Blue Christmas, get goodies {this time we got all the good stuff/drinks at Dugger Mountain} and go around town looking at Christmas lights!

I think it is so fun to drive around and see all the hard work everyone puts in decorating their homes!

We surprised the girls...and Nan and Pawpaw...when we went to their neighborhood! Their's is the best out of every neighborhood we see!

 Earlier in the day I picked up this one from Aunt Pam's house. Lily had a blast spending the night with them and decorating cookies before picking her up! She loves her Aunt Pam!

Our Christmas light night!

Dugger Mountain was SO cute decorated!....and always soooo good!

My favorite color is Christmas lights! LOVE! :)

We saw some really great decorated houses! This was our most favorite! I mean, their own radio channel and the lights going along with the music! SO fun!

Morris family Christmas!

 Always a good time when we have the Morris family Christmas!

Last year, due to COVID, we didnt get to have it but BOY we made up for it this year! Jada hosted and had good food...and fun Christmas games! We had the best time!

This picture is priceless! Tyler came in 3rd! For a guy....he came in 1st! ha! His drawing was REALLY good!...........especially for the way he had to draw it! :)

Lily played and played this! Cindy taught her chop sticks and once she got it down...that all she did!

This is what we had to do to draw our Christmas picture! ha!

Then...we had to turn Nannie, Bobbie and Melvin into Christmas trees! Lily was working soooo hard to do  Nannie! The rest of this team failed them! ha!

Some of the crew!

More of the crew!

After Christmas trees....we had to do reindeer! We were all broke into 3 teams and these were our leaders! ha! I have to say...my team...Team Melvin WON! We dominated all the games!

Soooo funny!

The oldest ones there! ha! We had so much fun!

Just a little life lately!

 We have been soaking up our time off and the great weather too! I mean almost 70 degrees in the middle of December!..................love!

Lily has been LOVING alllll the friends in our neighborhood. There was a time...not too long ago...that she was just too young to go off with her friends. BUT now....her and her friends are old enough and they are living their BEST life! Literally they play ALL day...ALL afternoon and just have the best time!

This was round one! ha! Now that Brody and Bryant live behind us.....this is my view everyday...literally. Lily is constantly staring out the window looking to see if they are outside. As soon as she sees them...she takes off!

Same day...round two! Usually they are all together but on this day..the boys had to leave and then the girls showed up!

All the laughter is my favorite!

Alexis finished up allllll the basketball games until the school year starts back. She loves cheering for basketball. I love watching her....just not basketball. Its not really my thing. :)

Love when we get to see her. Most of the time she sits down where we cant see her.

We went to the JSU basketball game (like we cant get enough of basketball) though it was a great game and JSU beat Florida International in a very exciting game!

Lily and Lex both found friends and ditched us! Lily ended up on the jumbotron....dancing and having the best time!

It was such a beautiful night...a couple of nights ago...so we enjoyed a beautiful night outside (again in the middle of December) eating Heirloom together as a family! The lights....the square's lights...family...good food...such a fun night!

My side of the table!

Tyler marks 10 years with JSU!

 Today during the Staff Christmas lunch, Tyler was awarded his 10 year pin!

Thanks to good ole Don....AKA....and must be actually called.... President Killingsworth....made Tyler stop and pose because he knew that I would want a photo! ha! It was hilarious! 

Ran into this guy.....he actually came over and said hello to me and my co-workers too! We were honored to be in his presence!

When his name was called............he flew by my table! ha!

Don....good ole Don...KNEW to look for me for a picture! Priceless! :)

I was really far away so the picture quality is sad....but still....this will work!

Wordless Wednesday!

 

THIS..........THIS cracks me UP!