Christmas #3

The third and final Christmas celebration this year was on the Sunday after Christmas, when we got to give Allie and Brody their gifts.

I got Allie a gift card to ITunes and Brody a new Lego that he had been wanting.

They both loved them, so that was a success!

I used to always DO something with them, rather than get them something, but I have big plans to travel for most of 2016, so they got an actual gift this year.

I didn't take many pictures while we were there, but I really wanted to get one good one with the kids.

 Which was basically impossible...

  

Got one decent one...and look at the comparison from this year to last year!

Brody is wearing the SAME shirt!  

Also, I think Allie wins the award for growing up the most in one year.

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When we got home, I finally finished up the arm-knitted scarf I was working on.  I'm afraid if I don't keep doing it I will forget how to!

It turned out okay...but maybe I need to forget how to do it?  Not sure I love them...

But if anyone wants a scarf, I can whip one up in about 45 minutes now! 

Christmas Day

Christmas morning!

My mom always has a few small presents for me to open on Christmas morning, and this year was no different.  

She's sneaky.  She asked me earlier in the week how much money I spent on myself on NYC last weekend:  I bought three rings, a fleece onesie (which I now wear allllll the time), and a few other small things, all for around $100.  

So I got a $100 wrapped up in drawings of what I bought.  HA!  I look like a mad monkey in that picture she drew of me in the onesie.  And it was even more comical because I was, of course, in the onesie that morning.

I slept in some (slept in for ME anyways), so we had to quickly get ready and head over to Jason and Kelli's house for breakfast with them.  (And by "get ready" I mean brush my teeth.  Because I definitely didn't put clothes on or touch my hair...)

My mom wore her new arm-knitted scarf that I made for her in NYC last weekend. 

Pajama picture with Hadley & Hudson! 

After a little dance party to Hadley's new  Descendents CD, we had a huge breakfast.  

I actually still wasn't feeling well, so I had a smoothie and that was about it, but I still sat at the table next to that cutie and helped him chow down on cinnamon rolls and sausage.

Hidey-the-cat got to come inside for a little bit to play with her new toys.  Hudson (and Hadley) just loooooves that cat so much.  And he's the best cat ever and let's those kids pull him every which way.

 

We didn't stay over at their house too long.  We played with some of their new toys, cleaned up, came back home, quickly made some more food, and then drove over to Tony and Christa's house for lunch. 

I got the girls (Kelli, Christa, my mom, and myself) a string art kit for Christmas.  The idea was that we would all do them together...but that wasn't going to happen.  Christa made hers right away (Miss Arts & Crafts!), so after lunch, I had her do mine for me, and I did my moms for her.  It's still up in the air as to if Kelli will ever do hers or not. ;)

 

While Christa was working my map...I had plenty of help from Hunter on the house I was trying to make for my mom.

 

As soon as I would get a little bit of progress, Hunter would get the strings all tangled up and we would have to start over.  It was slow going, but he eventually got tired of it and moved on to playing legos so I could actually finish it.

It's just a little obvious which two Christa did and which one I did. Hahaha!

Good thing about moms is they don't care how bad the art work is, they always love it. 

Hunter painted my mom a picture for Christmas, so that along with my string art went up on the walls when we got home that afternoon.

 

After walking the dogs, my mom and I decided to head to the movies for a Christmas night date.  

Apparently, the rest of Kansas City also decided to go to the movies that night, too.  We had to park half a mile away!

We saw Joy, which was just okay...and I definitely wore the onesie and house slippers to the movie.

 

It was a pretty uneventful Christmas, but a good one none-the-less.  Lots of family time, and being together is what makes Christmas so great!  

(And being able to wear a onesie all day.  That also makes Christmas great.)

Christmas Eve

Nothing says "Christmas Eve" like a 5am workout, right?

And we even got a couple of extra workouts to do on our own over the weekend when the gym is closed.

 

When I got home, the kitchen was crazy.  My mom was in full-on cooking mode -- in her nightgown because she doesn't like aprons.  The mini crisis was that the mixer was broken.

So off to Wal-Mart I went for a new mixer.  

We whipped up some cookies - several kinds.  I'm pretty awful in the kitchen, so all I got do was put the three red hots on each cookie.

And then I realized I was in charge of the Santa veggie tray ... and had no veggies.  

Back to Wal-Mart for the second time before noon.

Back at the house, I cut the vegetables (I really did!  And didn't even cut my finger!) ... and then burnt the cherry pie for my brother.

And then I burnt the white chocolate I was trying to melt so it got too hard to dip the pretzels in.  And the "red" turned out more hot pink.

After that, mom just had me wash dishes and keep my hands off the food.

How awesome are these!? ;)

Since I'm the only single one with no kids in my family, I got the duty to go to church an hour early and save an entire row for us.  (If you've ever been to a Catholic church on Easter or Christmas, you know why this is necessary.)

So I pulled up to a church - one we've never been to - right at 3, and the parking lot was basically empty.  I finally went in around 3:20, and it was still pretty empty!

I took pictures to kill the time...and text my family giving them a hard time.

OH, and I got a text that Hunter had just thrown up.  So now we were down 3 people and didn't need a whole row.  Awesome. ;)

The church really filled up about 3:45.  It was like everyone showed up at once.  I did my best to keep the row to myself, and even had to kick people out twice.  

So when Jason, Kelli, Hadley, Hudson, and my mom showed up, it was church selfies.  (My mom was about to strangle me for having my phone out in church, but what did she expect when I was stuck there for an hour by myself?)

 

Quote of the day:  Hudson, during church, looked at his moms earrings and said, "Your earrings look like pickles.  I like your pickles momma."  HA!  That kid is hilarious sometimes. 

We all went over to Jason and Kelli's house after church, and the kids helped us unload the presents from my car.  

So many presents we needed TWO trees!

Oh and while we were at church, Hunter had a nap and a miraculous recovery...so they weren't going to miss the Keeler Christmas after all!  (We all think he was just faking it to get out of church.) ;)

Two things are funny about this picture:  1.  Jason was singing he was so happy I got him a bottle of Crown Royal.  2.  Hudson is wearing a play wedding dress because he wanted to be able to twirl a skirt around like Hadley was. 

The veggie tray!  A little pinterest fail entertainment:

My Santa's face is just a little...square.  And his mouth is smirking at me.  But whatever.  It totally looks like Santa, right? 

Before dinner, I made everyone pose for a GoPro family shot.  It's aways such a fight to get everyone to agree to sitting down and smiling.  But any time we get everyone looking and kind of smiling at once is a huge success!

"Gram" and her three babies.  These kiddos are her life!

Hudson is very in to taking pictures, and he loves playing with the GoPro.  He's totally got it down. ;)

We finally sat down for dinner, and we all ate way too much.  The kids went straight up to play in Hadley's room while the adults got the present ready.

 

Kelli's real tree was just gorgeous!

We always try to keep it organized and even with present opening, but eventually it just turns in to a free for all.

At some point in all the madness, Hadley jumped on Jason's shoulder when he was laying on the ground.  None of us thought much of it until Jason was completely silent, not moving his arm, and kicking his feet in pain.  

Guess it was a little worse than we thought. 

He laid there like that for probably 5 minutes.  Kicking his feet and groaning.  He couldn't move his arm!  I was just sure it was out of place, but it didn't look like it was.  He eventually made it up and took his shirt off so we could get a look.  We still don't know what happened, but must have been a muscle or tendon something or another.  

The last present of the night was for my mom.  A big F A M I L Y frame for her new house from all of us.

 

We originally got it for her to put up on the mantle above the fireplace, but she's since decided to mount a big tv on the wall there...so we'll have to find a new spot for that!

At some point today, I started feeling sick.  Actually, I hadn't felt great since the weekend in New York.  I can't decide if it's a bug or if it's just my body hating me for eating like crap for the past 5 days.  Either way, I was kind of a bum all night, laying around on the couch.

Hopefully tomorrow -- Christmas Day -- is better!

Christmas Eve-Eve

December 23.  Christmas Eve-Eve.  And it was 60 degrees in KC.

I got up to work out at 5am, and it was already 51 degrees!

I ran a couple of errands yesterday, and one was to Joanns to get a frame for this cool "Period Table of Kansas City" print that lists a lot of the restaurants and theaters here in KC.  I love it!

 

My mom and I had some Christmas prep plans for the day, but my brother called a little before 8am.  He went to drop off Hunter at day-care ... and day-care was CLOSED!  Guess who got Hunter all day! :)  

He is such a good little helper and helped me put together the kids table for ginger bread house (and train) decorating that night.

Kelli brought the kids over a little after that, and while they got to baking with Gram, we got working on the ginger bread trains and houses.  

"Wait, how does this work?"

 

It was hard than it looked, but we eventually got them semi-assembled.  Maybe not just exactly like the box showed, but hey, the kids are 2, 4, and 5.  Pretty sure they won't notice...

 

It was absolutely way too nice of a day to be inside, so off to the park we went!  (Still can't believe it was 60 and sunny in December!)

The kids had so much fun running around and playing on the toys.  

But even more fun when I discovered a little creek running nearby.

Trying to get all fancy with my iPhone photography ;)

Who knew throwing rocks in water could be so fun for so long!?

 

 

I practically had to drag them out of the water.

Hadley and Hudson went home for nap time.  I took Hunter home and set him up with a movie on my Mac, hoping he would sleep, too. (It didn't happen.)

Meanwhile, I decided to try my hand at another arm knitted scarf.  I literally got down to THE LAST ROW and then got distracted helping Hunter.  I dropped one of the loops and one whole side of the scarf unraveled.  I knew it was a lost cause so I just left in a heap on the floor.  So angry.  Angry enough that I think I'm done with arm knitting.  (That was short lived.)

Hunter decorated a few cookies after the movie, but really wasn't in to it.  He just wanted more iPad time and popcorn.  Which is exactly what he got.  (He generally gets whatever he wants when he's with me.)

I tried to get the house somewhat organized and cleaned up before the whole fam came over for dinner and gingerbread house decorating.  

Our little tree is just so cute!

Before Tony and Christa could make it to the house, SANTA FaceTimed with the kids.  I don't have any good pictures of it because I was recording it on the GoPro (it's on my YouTube page), but oh my goodness, it was so funny.  The kids were all so nervous to talk to him!

 

 

I think they enjoyed it, but they weren't nearly as excited as we were hoping they would be when he was on.

Family pic:

The kids suffered through eating dinner with the bribe of candy and gingerbread houses.  Worked like a charm.

Decorating was slightly disastrous.  Hudson spilled his entire bowl of candy, Hadley used a whole tube of frosting on one spot.  You know, about what you would expect with kids that age...

 

Also, how my brother decorates vs how I decorate:

 

 I broke out the Pook gear for my sister-in-laws before they left.  They're always up for pictures and my antics. ;)

Christa loves the onesie as much as I do!

I'm still working on figuring out the GoPro, but we got one pretty funny picture of all of us together:

Happy Christmas Eve-Eve!