This year we spent Christmas in Florida! It was nice to have the WHOLE family together, to see my friends, to eat lots of good food and soak up the warmer weather. Lots to be thankful for this year!
Santa stopped at our home in Charlotte the morning before we left for Florida. Matt and I were SO excited for "Christmas morning" in our home. And we were left disappointed. We had set our expectations WAY too high thinking it would be a magical Christmas morning. And it wasn't. The kids came down the stairs excited but the morning quickly went south as Caroline tore through her gifts as fast as she could looking for her Doc McStuffins Hospital Cart (hiding in another room). With each gift she opened she became more and more disappointed and cranky. Meanwhile, Thomas was frustrated by all the wrapping and gave up opening his gifts. He then asked Caroline to unwrap them for him...which she did...and then she would proceed to play with them and they'd fight over the toy. After all the presents were unwrapped we directed Caroline to the play room where her Doc McStuffins table was...and she cheered right up. Overall, it was OK, but now we know for next year to adjust our expectations...and to have the big gift unwrapped, assembled and waiting under the tree.
The next day we set off for the absolute longest drive down to Florida. The traffic was horrendous and it took us 10+ hours to make it home. Also, the kids are in to different movies now and our DVD player in the car only plays one movie at a time. So anytime Elmo was on for Thomas, Caroline would whine. And when Moan was on for Caroline, Thomas would lose it. So that part was fun. But finally we made it! And we arrived just in time for Sandroni Saturday Steak Night dinner.
Sunday we walked up to church for a beautiful Christmas Eve service. When the service ended we went to grab the kids from Sunday School and found them all dressed up in a nativity scene. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen.
Can you find Thomas, Caroline and Jackson?
Sunday afternoon my bestie May came over and we went for a 4.5 mile walk before heading back to the house and popping some bubbly.
That night we ate pizza, Caroline sprinkled reindeer food in the yard, we walked the neighborhood to look at the lights and assembled toys after the kids went to sleep.
Christmas morning the kids were much more excited and came barreling into our room to tell us that Santa had come and we needed to get up right away!
The kids were happy, happy, happy!
We also celebrated Jesus' birthday! I'm pretty sure my kids still have blue icing in their hair from diving into this cake.
My bestie Shannon also came over and stayed for Christmas dinner.
And that was a wrap on Christmas in Florida!
