Christmas Vacation

Bo and I usually celebrate Christmas together here in Atlanta on our own before heading out of town to be with family. This year, our gift to each other was a trip to New Orleans and tickets to the Sugar Bowl. So there were no gifts under the tree, nothing to open. I'm sure some people think that is sad, but we aren't very big on gifts anyway, so it worked for us, and we were really excited!

We packed up the car and made the 8.5 hour drive to be with my family in North Palm Beach, FL.  Our first night in town, we met up with (part of) the Paty family for dinner at the Yacht Club, which is a new tradition that we started last year and everyone was really looking forward to it. Usually, the kids hang out together, the moms hang out together, and the dads are off hunting or fishing together...so it is really nice to have us ALL together. :) Such a blast with them as always!

next year I will bring my real camera and not an iphone...!

 

The next day was my sister's bridal shower! (separate post coming soon!) Preparing, partying, and cleaning up/recovering took up most of my time while we were in town (totally worth it!) - but unfortunately we didn't have much time to see many of our friends who weren't at the shower. Sorry guys - we will be back in a few months. Special shout out to Gen, thanks for stopping by to hang out!! :)  And just for kicks, here's a sneak peak of the bride-to-be at her shower...

On Christmas Eve, we went to church service at Faith Lutheran and then we were off to Grandma's house. By most people's standards, our crew of 16 family members is a massive get-together. But with the size of our family,  it was actually a very small gathering, and a pretty tame paper ball fight! We missed the rest of you. Thanks mom for most of the pictures :)

 

Christmas morning, we surprised our parents by coming out in matching pajamas. They loved it! And so did we :)

my parent's home - do you all see where I get my Christmas tree and decorating obsession from now?!

Santa came! You can also see why I still hang stocking from the entertainment center...no fireplaces in South Florida

The pups also had a good Christmas. Molly and Jessie play so well together, and we ended up with two tired, happy dogs. Win all around! Dad gave them Christmas bones, and he was their best friend after that.

iphone laser eyes

they played and played and played...

and then slept and slept and slept :)

Leslie, Paul, and I finally decided to stop exchanging gifts this year. We usually just make a list of stuff we want but can buy for ourselves anyway, so we saved ourselves the time, money, and hassle of it and just enjoyed each other's company instead. Santa's elf brought us a puzzle to work on together and we spent most of the day watching old home videos of Christmas past. It was probably my most favorite Christmas (as an adult, of course - nothing beats the magic of believing in Santa).

That evening, Grandma came over for dinner, and then we all went out on the intracoastal for our Christmas Day boat ride!

And just like that, Christmas vacation was over! We were there for almost a week, but time flew when we were in town, as it always does. We had a wonderful time with everyone. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!