Our First Texas Christmas

Christmas this year was so much fun! Presley was really into it and it's hard not to catch a child's excitement during such a magical holiday! Plus it was our first one in Texas (without being with any of our family) so we had to make it great!

Christmas Eve we had a few final preparations to attend to. Presley and I made chocolate chip cookies for Santa...

…and Presley enjoyed some good Daddy time while I worked on dinner and finished wrapping.

We decided to keep with my family's tradition of having a nice, prime rib dinner on Christmas Eve.

Our menu included prime rib, twice baked potatoes, pear salad, and, of course, the 11-layer Christmas jello. Ashley usually makes this bad-boy and I was not excited to have to make my own this year. But, it turned out great and it's worth it because Jeff loves it.

After dinner we went outside to spread the reindeer food that our elf, Tinsel, left for Presley. We did this last year and spent a ton of time outside spreading the food. Clearly, that was a Florida luxury. It was so cold here that it was more of a dump-and-run effort.

We opened our Christmas jammies, read Luke 2 via FaceTime with the Peepers,

and put out the cookies and milk for Santa.

Presley took this job very seriously. No one goes hungry at our house!

When Presley was fast asleep, Jeff and I got up to make sure Santa had visited our house. He sure did!

Of course, all of the cookies got eaten!

Presley was so excited to see if Santa came. Daddy lead her out...

and she was so excited to see that he had definitely visited our house and left plenty of presents behind!

Jeff was excited about his Texas-style boots.

And I was equally excited about the beautiful handbag he picked out for me.

Jeff's big gift was a "power tower"--a workout station that will help him reach his fitness goals for the year. I've resigned myself to have a "formal gym" instead of a "formal dining room" while we are in our rental house.

We spent most of the rest of the day playing with all of Presley's new toys!

And she was so happy to wear the purple dress that Santa brought her. It was the only thing she asked Santa for!

I love this picture because she's laying in her "carriage" in her purple "cinderella dress" looking lovingly at her Flynn Rider doll (whom she has a crush on).

After naps, we were very glad to be able to join the Copeland family for dinner. It was fun to let the kids run wild, eat good food, and enjoy good company--especially since we didn't have any of our own family to spend it with. The Copelands have kind of adopted us and we are grateful. 

We had such a wonderful and relaxing holiday. I enjoyed the time with my little family to reflect and show my gratitude for our Saviors birth and begin some of our own Christmas traditions.