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. 

The tradition lives on

We had the Copelands over for the annual graham cracker house build. There were not many pictures taken but, I assure you, it happened, a good time was had by all, and we ate more candy in one night than we do all year.

A special visit to Santa

We heard that Santa was visiting the Gaylord Texan hotel so we jumped in the car to go and meet him. It was a fun way to spend the morning. The hotel was all decked out for Christmas and Presley loved exploring while I waited in line.

She was so excited to finally meet Santa and to tell him that she's been a really good girl and wants a purple dress for Christmas. She was definitely more excited than these pictures let on. She clammed up when everyone started trying to get her to look at the camera and smile.

You mean to tell me you're going to squeeze down our chimney on Christmas Eve? I just don't see how that's possible.

The Polar Express

This year we were excited to take the Polar Express to see Santa! Grapevine has an old Victorian train that turns into the Polar Express each Christmas and after reading about it, we couldn't wait to take Presley.

She was pretty excited to ride on the train and liked singing carols and watching the elves as we chugged along.

All of the kids got a magic bell,  just like the book.

The train arrived at the North Pole, to be greeted by a forest of Christmas trees and plenty of "snow"

The elves put on a little musical program that all led to the introduction of the big-guy himself.

Presley loved the music and dancing and was so excited to see Santa that she ran up and gave him a hug.

After enjoying her frosty milk, she was happy to cruise the tot-lot on her choice of bikes.

We were happy that it was magical enough for Presley. Jeff and I were a little disappointed at the quality of the production but, maybe that's just because we're used to living so close to Disney ;-)