Christmas in San Antonio - Day 11 & 12

Christmas morning came a DAY early for the U-crew.

We celebrated Christmas morning on Christmas Eve morning.

The Hillman's were leaving right after the present opening so they could get back to their house to do their Christmas traditions there.

We always have cinnamon caramel rolls, which are AMAZING!

As you can see Nolan really enjoyed this TABLE!

Jackson was dressed and ALL ready to open some presents.

He was so excited to get Christmas started!

Here is a shot of the tree and presents.

Jackson always looks at James like he is crazy!

Don't worry Jackson...HE IS CRAZY!

The first present Jackson opened was from his Aunt Kati.

She gave him his first Texas ABC book. 

PERFECT!  He loved it!

Harvey gave Dad a Forever Lazy!

Are you kidding me?

Richie was the first to try it on!

I gave Kati a New Kids on the Block puzzle that I got from DI!

It was 75 cents and I could not pass up that deal and was shocked that so many people did pass it up!  What are they thinking?

Jackson got  a puzzle of his very own.

And he also got undressed.

That PJ outfit is WAY warm.

He also got a way cute hat made by my sister, Elizabeth.

Gosh!  I love it so much.

When my sister Kati saw it she said, "You even put on the Nike Swoosh."

Elizabeth and the rest of us replied..."OR HIS MOUTH, KATI!!"

It was quite funny.

Now I definitely have a little Minion of my own!

Ok...after all of the presents were opened Harvey came down in a Forever Lazy of his very own.  Apparently it was a buy one get one free deal.

Jackson fit right in with his hooded PJs!!!

Jackson in front of the Christmas tree.

A picture all ready to be put in his First Christmas ornament.

Logan went ahead and kept Jackson entertained for quite sometime with this flashlight.

We were all pretty tired after the early morning Christmas present opening.

The rest of the day on Christmas "morning" was spent just relaxing.
We played a round of Things that night.
It was Richie's present to DaD.
It is a pretty good Group game.

The next day for Christmas it was a pretty low key day.
We went to church at 11:00 and then went to the Fire Station and Police Station to drop off a plate of goodies for them.  We thanked them for working on Christmas day and for their on going service to the community.  They were all very thankful for the nice thought.

This is us dropping the plate off at the Police Station.

That night we had an amazing dinner prepared by Mom.
Turkey, sweet potatoes, veggies, rolls and so on.
Yum Yum!

After dinner we headed DOWNTOWN.
Dad was driving the TAXI boat on the river, so we went down to ride it and spend some time with Daddy!  It was so fun to be on the river and see all of the Christmas decorations and lights.
And of course to be with my family and see DAddy-o!

It was a bit cold that night.
We made sure to bundle Jackson up tight.

Jackson was way excited to be on the boat and to see his Dja-Dja!

A pic of us on the Taxi with the coolest Boat captain EVER...MY DAD!

They changed the way they did the lights this year on the river.
It isn't quite as MYSTICAL and MAGICAL as it was in the past...
BUT, it was still absolutely BREATH taking to see ALL of those lights on the trees.
It looked absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

We had a great Christmas celebration.
It was, of course, GREAT to be with the family.
It was pretty relaxing and very enjoyable.

So glad we were able to come home to Texas for the holiday!

Christmas in San Antonio - Day 10

On Friday it was time to do some SERIOUS Family Time!

Our first item of business...eat breakfast at the Guenther House.

(Richie needed a little extra help to get out of bed.)

This restaurant is AWESOME!  It has become a tradition for our family to eat here at some time during the holiday season.

I ordered the biscuits and gravy and it was the BEST biscuits and gravy I have EVERY had.

 

 Every year at the Guenther house they have a Gingerbread House of AMAZING-NESS!

It is always fun to see what they use for each part.

One of my favorites were these little polar bears sitting round the fire, cooking their fish!

 By the time we sat down JACKSON WAS HUNGRY!

Don't worry, he loved eating parts of my biscuit.

 He was just so cute sitting in the high chair.

 Can't get enough of this guy!

Our family is a little too big and they have to separate us into two tables. 

 They said this was the mature table...I am not too sure about that.

 Jackson got to spend some pre-breakfast time with Gramma!

 And yes..I know we are in Texas, but it was a bit chilly outside this morning.

After the Guenther House one car went to WalMart and the other cars hurried home to get ready for Mom's Surprise B-day Party. Her birthday is on Christmas, and the grandkids weren't going to be here for the actual Christmas day and we wanted Mom's birthday to be special, so we decided to throw her a SURPRISE PARTY!

And it worked.

We surprised her!  

We even surprised Dad.

Apparently, he was not part of the email conversation that had been going back and forth with all of the kids.  He had no idea what we were doing.

 The night before Madi and I picked out all the decorations.

We had to get the birthday hats!

Jackson was asleep when we first got home...but don't worry..

by the time Gramma got there, he was AWAKE!

In fact in this picture, it looks like he had a little bit TOO much milk to drink!

He was so excited to get this party STARTED!

We also got Noise makers.

Madi sure does know how to pick out the party gear.

Look at the special Birthday chair.

AND all of those presents.

Ok not all of them are for Mom...some are our Christmas presents.

Madi ALSO picked out some cool glasses and a cool hat for the Birthday girl!

 Nolan was sure to get his seat that he loved soo much.

He just loved sitting here and looking at the little snowmen who play music.

 I give my mom an ABC book each year for her birthday.

This year I gave her the ABC book for Arkansas so she could remember the birth of her 11th grandchild.

 Nolan loved to carry the book around.

Mom got some really fun things for her birthday!

And, I think she liked the whole Surprise party thing.

 Later that afternoon Zach did not leave Jackson's side.

He was his buddy for quite sometime.

 He even helped him get into his little jumper.

 Later that night Andrew hung out with the kids upstairs and played some Wii games.

 Richie put together a puzzle.  It was a hard one.  Every piece had a straight edge on it.

Yikes.  I am glad Richie took that puzzle on!

The rest of us played a CRAZY game of Mexican Train.

It was sooo fun.  

We laughed a little bit toooo hard.

The kids were sleeping outside in the tent again...

at one point Madi came inside CRYING.

When asked why she was crying, she answered..."ZACH BIT ME!"

When asked, "Why did Zach bite you?"

"Because he thought I was Samantha!!!!"

HaaaHaa!  That was quite funny.

Needless to say...we had a great night!