Christmas Time WAS Here... AKA The Long Post- Pt. 1

Well, for most of us Christmas has been done and over with for a while now, but I'm just now blogging about it...

This post is actually going to cover my whole Christmas break, from the decorations, to the week of Christmas and everything we did then. I've decided to put up a separate post about the week I spent at my friend Kristen's house.

Okay, okay I'm going to attempt to do this...

I put all the pictures up small, because there are SO many, but if you want to see any of them bigger you can just click them.

let's start with Christmas decorations...






Our Christmas tree.










Our mantle.









I put icicle lights in my window this Christmas. :)











The reflection of our Christmas tree in our cool mirrored stocking holders.








My grandparents' house is surrounded by a hundred (and a couple more) year old, rod iron fence that we decorate every year with garland and red bows. So classic and pretty looking.









My grandparent's house, all lit-up at night. :)








OK, how about some pictures from all of our Christmas festivities?

All of our Christmas gatherings lasted about 3 days. And I've decided since I don't really like any of the "normal" pictures I'm just going to tell you what we did each day and then show you some of my favorite random "photography" from each day.

DAY 1- Christmas Eve

This is usually the biggest day of our Christmas gatherings, because it's the day we go over to our grandparents and have dinner and open Christmas presents AND then we go back to our house and open presents at our house... But it was probably the shortest gathering of all three days this year. Mainly because not all the family had even gotten there yet...

The first two are actually from the night before Christmas eve, but it was so beautiful, I just have to put a couple pictures up.





Seriously, it was even more amazing in person.











Maybe I just have a thing for sunsets, but I think this is gorgeous.




OK, now onto Christmas eve...





Michael and my grandpa having a chat.












Aaron jumping on the trampoline. For some reason I absolutely love this shot





Some of my favorite holiday treats, that my grandmother makes every Christmas...






Hello Dollies- possibly my fav.












carrot bread- it's better than it looks. :)










Pralines- YUM!






DAY 2- Christmas day

This was probably the most full day of the week, but I just have a few pictures to share...

two to be exact, from a tea party that my cousin Aliyah insisted I have with her. ;)


























DAY 3- The day after Christmas

This probably wasn't the longest day, but in my book it was the most fun! We went out to our cousins', who live on a big property with lots of goats and all kinds of good picture-taking opportunities. :)






I took a lot of pictures of the gate that keeps the goats in... I don't know why, but I like it.





















Oreo- the cutest baby goat I've ever seen.











the field of goats.









Evan hanging out in the field of goats, he loved them, he was out there most of the time we were there, he even got to name a new baby goat.











The goat Evan named. He named it butterball, like the candy, he said.











Evan holding butterball.











A couple more of Aliyah... She is pretty much always up for a photo-op.











Which is OK with me, because she is so darned adorable.







Stay tuned for part 2! About my week at Kristen's! It should be up in another day, or so.