Merry Merry!!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We are hanging out at the Roberts and having a wonderful time! I've been hearing stories about Christmas with this family for YEARS, so I was very excited to participate this year. Let me tell you, I was not disappointed! We have had so much fun and I am so grateful to have such amazing in-laws.

Christmas Day went by in a blur, but it started out with the traditional Christmas morning and Santa visit. We all came downstairs to find and unwrap our many gifts. It. Was. Awesome. Everyone was spoiled to death with so many pretty things! Some of Bryan's gifts included a new driver, "work" clothes (a.k.a sweats), and golf shoes. He also opened my gift to him...a new table saw! Let's hear it for future home improvement projects haha! I opened SO many great things too--new books, clothes, jewelry, a Anthropologie candle (LOVE), kitchen gadgets and platters, and a Vera Bradley weekender bag and wallet! Bryan also surprised me with a gift card to get a new purse! (something that I have apparently mentioned the need for a few times.)

The parents and grandparents got a chance to open their gifts as well. I had to mention this because the sweetest moment took place when Nana (Bryan's grandma) teared up after opening her new Kindle. She was so taken by surprise and so grateful that she just couldn't help it and it was possibly my favorite memory from the day--I think all of us got a little choked up!

The Roberts also do a really fun tradition after everyone has opened all of their presents. "Santa" hides letters in the tree that are addressed to each kid with a poem that hints to one final present. This was so much fun to do and is something I know Bryan and I will incorporate into Christmas morning for our kids! We took turns reading our clues and then set off around the house to find our gifts. Bryan and I found ours in the basement but we brought them upstairs to open up in front of everyone. I have mentioned a time or two (or maybe more than that haha) that I have been lacking a camera of decent quality. Well, since I have the best family in the world I was SO happy to find out that my final gift was a Canon Rebel XSI!!  Bryan was also very surprised and so excited to open up a new laptop (!!), and spent the rest of the morning playing on it while I read the manual for my new camera and took approximately 344589243598 pictures. No joke.

Here are a few pictures of the rest of the day (courtesy of my new, amazing camera):

Bryan with his new toy (thanks so much Alisha, I will now be swatting this helicopter away for the next 6 months). Kidding!

Abby and I have matching cameras!! Ah, look at that clarity....I am never going back to normal cameras again.

Practicing a few landscape shots. Such a pretty Christmas Day!!

Sweet Judy serving our delicious breakfast!

The first of many details shots....yummy food! (my camera makes it look so pretty)

Haha I was going through my pictures and laughed when I saw this of Pop! I think Bryan took this haha. Playing with Nerf guns...silly man. This picture basically summarizes what the boys did ALL morning!

I have a gap between morning and evening pictures because we all headed upstairs for naps after all the gift excitement. I also got a chance to talk to my mom who I missed SO much all day as well as the rest of my family. Bryan took a few pictures of me on the phone, but those will never make the blog because they are AWFUL. Anyway, it was good to hear my mom's voice and all the noise going on in the background (I come from a very loud family haha). If you're reading this and are from my side of the family, I love you and thought about you all on Christmas Day!  I can't wait until Bryan and I can be with you all next year!

...And back to this year's Christmas Day:

Mr. Al (the faithful blog reader) on his IPad before dinner.

Getting ready for Christmas dinner...

Desserts!

The table all set for dinner....which was amazing by the way. We had such a good time talking and laughing and Al even got us all choked up with his sweet speech before we ate. (I've learned that I want to cry a lot when I'm with this family...happy tears of course!)

The beautiful Christmas tree!

Bryan playing games...I think everyone was just hanging around the living room at this point (and being my test subjects as I took about a thousand pictures of each of them).

Pop!

The helicopter that has terrorized every member of the family. Gah, I can't get over the picture quality!

I love this one of the Nerf guns and darts. What can I say, I'm a details girl!

This is the non-Cowboys game club. We all hung out upstairs. I think it got pretty intense downstairs, so I steered clear of that (and football bores me to death so of course I found other things to do).

What my future children will look like haha! I've always LOVED this picture!

Ha, more dessert. Homemade cheesecake! Judy was also so thoughtful and made a very tasty chocolate pie since my family always has that at our Christmas. We were eating all day!!

I liked this one of Alisha with her belly. Cute!

I took about a billion of this moment, but this picture was my favorite of the bunch. Judy, Alisha, and Hensley!!

More details...

The bell from the Polar Express. I love how this turned out.

Our day ended with a Chinese Gift Exchange which was a lot of fun and got a little out of control! We all received gift cards to different restaurants, but some people chose to scheme a little bit so they could end up with the gift cards I wanted.....I'm a little bitter. BUT it was all okay because we get to eat out all month now!

I love this one of Nana and Pop.

After the game we all headed to the basement to watch Despicable Me, which was SO cute!!!

So that about does it for our Christmas. I really missed being with my family, but am so thankful that I have Bryan's family who all make me feel right at home. We both are so blessed!

I hope anyone who is reading this had as great of a Christmas as we did! I am a little sad that it's over but can't wait for what the new year will bring!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!