Christmas 2018
Christmas is so special now that we have Melody in our lives. And now that is she getting older, she is able to understand more about everything that revolves around Christmas. And we are still as busy as every during the holidays.
Our Christmas fun actually started over Thanksgiving weekend while we were in Memphis. Brad’s mom wanted to get pictures of the three girls for her Christmas card this year. Check them out below.
A few weekends later, we traveled back to Memphis for Breakfast with Santa. The night before breakfast, we had dinner with the girls, his parents, and our sister-in-law.
The next morning, we headed to breakfast.
There were 6 adults and 6 kids, all Brad’s family. First we had breakfast, then we waited in line to meet Santa. Santa and Mrs. Claus did walk around while we were getting our breakfast, and Melody leaped in my arms, ha!
The girls started to get antsy, so we decided to go ahead and wait in line. Santa pictures went as well as I expected…which was awful, haha. Melody is terrified right now of him. Hopefully next year she will be better like her big cousin, Caroline.
Then the girls played with their presents from Santa while we finished breakfast.
Then that evening, we had Christmas with my mom’s extended family. Melody was a bit hesitant around all of the people be barely remembers, but when she saw Nana and Grandpa, she was all ok. She was also a pro at opening presents when it was all over!
We visited Opryland for a few days, and we bought our ornament of the year while there!
Melody had her first school Christmas party. There was a small program that the older kids did, and this year they let the two year olds perform one song. It was super cute.
And we were able to eat lunch with Melody afterwards.
During the whole month we did lots of crafting.
We also did some baking.
And we had lots of fun at our annual Grille 29 Christmas dinner.
This year we spent Christmas Eve day with my parents. We did lots of laying and playing around.
Then we opened gifts. Melody really seemed to enjoy opening presents, and she even kept asking for one more present, haha.
After opening presents, we had a great dinner, and we even made sure to take family pictures! Oh and my grandmother was able to come and that was really special.
We left my parents not long after dinner so that we could get home in time to make cookies for Santa…
After our cookie making, we all changed into our matching Christmas pajamas.
Then Santa made a visit to our house!
Christmas morning was eventful. Melody woke up at 7 (which is about an hour and a half earlier than normal!). She is currently terrified of Santa, but we convinced her he isn’t too bad when she saw the presents he left!
She didn’t seem hungry for breakfast yet, so we went ahead and opened gifts. We had her 10 gifts to unwrap. She was done after 7. All she wanted to do was play with the toys she unwrapped, ha!
After we finished unwrapping fits, we ate breakfast. Melody had her usual nutrigrain bar and yogurt, while Brad and I had breakfast casserole (made with turkey sausage). Oh it is so yummy!
And like I said, Melody was done and wanted to play.
We let Melody continue playing with her presents while Brad and I got ready and loaded to car for our travels. We were sure to take a few pictures before leaving though.
We left for Memphis around lunch time. Since we had such a big breakfast we just snacked on the road. Not long after arriving in Memphis, Brad’s brother’s group came over. The girls played for bit.
Then they opened a few presents from their great grandparents, and they played with those.
Then it was stocking time!
And before we ate, the girls played and relaxed.
Then we ate some great food!
And the last fun thing of the night was opening gifts. Melody once again gave up after she opened her “big” gift and didn’t want to open anything else. Instead my niece, Caroline, helped me unwrap! Oh, and I forgot to take any pictures!
The last of our Christmas adventure was going to see Mary Poppins Returns the next morning. The girls did surprisingly well. I was nervous about Melody. While she did well at her first movie, I wasn’t sure how she would be with Caroline and the added distraction of another little one. But Caroline did amazing, and Melody was really good. She only got up a few times. She danced during a few of the musical numbers, and she even went and sat with Nannie and Bob Bob some.
We had such a fun Christmas season! We traveled a lot, and we got to spend really great time with family. It went by way too fast for my liking, but the holidays always seem to do that.
Oh, and this year we decided to do an Advent Calendar with Melody. We found a cute Little People on Amazon. Melody had so much fun opening it each day!
