Christmas PJ Party

Christmas Eve at my mom's is always lots of fun.

We dress in comfy pj's, eat sandwiches and snack food (shrimp cocktail, chips & dip, etc), and have ourselves a cozy little Christmas party.

My brother had another party to go to later, so that's why he's not in his jams.
My mom also insisted she get a quick photo in front of the tree with her kids. They had just come from a Christmas Eve service at church, so of course, I'm the only one in my pj's here.

(my brother, me, little sister, and mom)

(now with the grandma)

(I have decided that I'm not very photogenic. Either that or my husband takes terrible pictures of me, almost all of them being somewhat unflattering. The majority of them, I don't seem to look like I do in real life, and I'm not sure how that happens? I mean, I do look like that... just not quite.

Anyway. Back to documenting.)

Growing up, we never put lights on our house. Not even the little white, twinkley kind. I seem to remember the word "tacky" being used. Although... they loved looking at other homes all decked out in lights. So I don't know? But growing up, no matter how many times I asked, we always just did wreathes and garland.
My dad still does things simple.
My mom??
Well, every year, she adds something else to her Christmas decor.
It started out slow. She replaced the boring, green garland with the kind that has lights on it.
And well... that garland hit some untapped decorating nerve in my mother.

The woman now has 20 Christmas trees in her home. She has two in the dining room, one in the living room, a girly one in Madison's room, a vintage one in her room... you get the idea. She loves Christmas. So much so that people request to come tour her home during the holidays. I'm just waiting for Southern Living to show up. All those years of me telling her nobody's going to come through the house with white gloves on, and just watch, she'll prove me wrong (she's a total OCD neat freak, so I spent a lot of time dusting as a kid).
Anyway, her menagerie outside seems to grow every year.
She's got flying reindeer, a horse and sleigh, a reindeer family...
But the whole thing fits her personality perfectly. A little over-the-top, but in a really wonderful way.

"Is your house on fire, Clark??"

 (their Great Dane, Zeplin, tends to bump into the reindeer, so that's why the baby's booty isn't lit. lol. Also, those are not ravenous wolves or vampires hiding in the bushes... they're supposed to be holly berries, but they look a little scary, don't they? I love my mom.)

So we started out the evening just lounging around, eating dinner, and catching up.
For all the running around we do, it's nice that when we're actually together, there's no major rush to get it all over with. We enjoy the ride. The twinkly lights in the tree, quiet music in the background, making sure Noah doesn't get into the knife drawer (we actually remove the entire drawer now...).

(being silly with Pop Pop)

(in case you're wondering, that's a potato scrubber in his hand. he loves that thing. haha)

(sneaking in a little George)

Then gift-giving time.

A gift from my grandmother... a larger-than-life cardinal and matching dish. Yaaaayy. Wonder how she knew? ;) (just kidding. love my Mamaw...)

 She also gave us a couple of Outback gift cards, so Brad and I can actually go on a date soon! So excited!

"Just what I always wanted!"
(there was a shirt inside)

(they gave me a new carpet cleaner. psst... did you spot N and the potato scrubber?)

One of our most favorite gifts from them?
A new garbage disposal.
Oh law, we're such grown-ups now. My sister was all, "wow, how boring..."
But seriously, our garbage disposal has been broken since the summer. You can't even pour water down it, because it started to leak under the sink. It's been such a pain using only one half of our sink.
Thank you Mom and Art!!

Noah's big gift from his Nae Nae and Pop Pop was a "manly" kitchen.
That thing is awesome. It makes noise when you put a pot on the stove. Noah loves it. It's great for pretend play, which we've been working on. He likes to make me drink out of the little cups... but he has to hold the cup. I guess he's afraid I'll spill it? :)





Overall, the evening was perfect.
We did have one little hiccup, though.
A drawer was left open in the kitchen (it was me... enter major mom guilt), Noah came running in, wasn't looking where he was going, ran into the corner of it, fell backwards, and hit the back of his head on the tile floor. Double whammy. It was awful. We had to keep him awake for a good hour (even though it was his bedtime), just to make sure he didn't have a concussion. I didn't get a picture of the damage until last night, since I was a little busy doing the mom-thing and lovin' on him. But the knot had turned purple within seconds and was a good half inch off his forehead. Ugh. I felt awful. Thankfully, he was fine, and his bangs cover up the bruise. :)

Taken last night:

And that was Christmas Eve with my mom's side.
Christmas Day is still in the works. :)

Happy Wednesday!