Christmas Morning...

Disclaimer: I think I was a bit tired because NONE of these pictures are that great of quality.

YAY Santa came and Nash was excited to get a letter from him....

 The kids were truly blessed this Christmas and it was fun to share the excitement with Granny and Grandad. 

 Nash got his Power Rangers!

 This next picture makes me laugh.  Nash started opening Asa's presents and you can see on Asa's face how sad he was about it...

 Before you think how spoiled Nash is to get an iTouch.  Let me just say it is Darin's old iTouch wiped clean just for Nash.  He loved it!

 Asa was Grandad's little sidekick!

 Although, he loved watching animal clips on YouTube with Granny.

Christmas was a lot of fun!  My favorite quote from Nash was when my mom told him he could play with whatever he wanted all day.  Later that afternoon he was touching his little boy parts and I told him to stop.  His reply "Granny told me I could play with whatever I wanted to." ...umm that she did.

Presents!

We always got to open our granparent presents on Christmas Eve and so do our kids.  Mostly because Ked and Ash spend Christmas with Ashley's family so it is a chance to share that fun moment with each other.

Sadie got a real sewing machine.  She has already made a quilt with Granny's help.  She certainly has a good teacher. 

Asa loved the novelty of ripping open the presents. 

Ashley gave Cody a cake box.  There was an inside joke about it but I forgot to ask. :) 

Uncle Cody gave Nash some dinosaur stuff which was a huge hit with Asa.  Where as the ball Cody got Asa just caused major frustration because there was a ball inside of the ball. So I spent 15 minutes trying to open the ball to get the other ball back.  Once that was accomplished there was order in the universe again. 

Sadie is holding the above described ball. 

 Everyone seemed happy to be together.  Those are the best Christmas's EVER!

 After everyone left it was time to get the cookies ready for Santa...

We had a pretty happy little boy.  The only thing missing was daddy.

Minute to win it....

 The kids had to get a kiss from their foreheads to their mouths.  It was a little hard because the candy kiss was sticky...

 Nobody saw it but Sadie won again!

 Then we played toss the marshmallows into a bucket.  Each bucket was worth a different amount.  They had one minute to get as many in as possible.

They were all pretty determined but Nash ended up winning in the end.  He was so proud of himself!  All of the games were so fun and the kids had a blast...and I think the adults enjoyed it too.

Cup Pyramid...

The next game was all about the kids.  They were to hold one hand behind their backs and build a pyramid out of cups.  The one with the most cups one.  As you can see Asa was still stuck on the plate game....

 

My dad the dog whisperer...

 Poor Darin was stuck at home in South Carolina/Georgia so he was facetiming on the phone Cody is holding....

 Ashley was good at trying to keep Asa out of the game and out of trouble...

Sadie ended up winning the game.  Her dad was the timer and he gave her a little advantage. ;)

Draw a tree game...

The next game I gave out instructions for how to draw a tree.  Everyone had to hold the plate on their head and follow my instructions. They got points for each part of the instructions. 

 My dad really can't do anything without the animals congregating around him...

 Ked always has the grumpy face on but he was really concentrating.  He actually one the game.

 Ked's picture is on the left and it looks nothing like the tree but he earned more points then Ashley's picture on the left that looked exactly like a tree.

If I had all the money in the world I would give you....

I think holidays should be fun and full of family traditions and great memories.  So I took the time this year to come up with some fun games to play for our Christmas Eve party.  The week before I asked all the grandkids to tell me what they would give each member of the family if they had all the money in the world.  The answers were pretty funny.  It was interesting to see what was on the kids minds.  There was definitely a theme for each of them.  Koen and Sadie and had guns and hunting on their minds.  Nash was into secret hide outs.

I even had the kids pick out a picture from the internet to illustrate what they would give each person. It was cute to watch their faces as each person read their letters.  They seemed so pleased with their gifts.

Sadie gave Ashley warm socks. The picture however was some thigh high leather legging things.

Koen gave Cody "a cow bride. Because you need one."

Sadie gave Cody "a pink tutu so you can dance around with Ava and Sancho" (his dogs).

 I wish I had written down all the gifts because they provided a BIG laugh.  Nash gave Grandad a secret hide out so he could hide from Granny.  He also gave Kedrick a garden where he could hide in the flowers.  He gave Cody blue mittons because he is a boy.

 This Christmas Nash REALLY wanted power rangers so he was super excited when Sadie gave him all the power rangers in the world.

This was a fun activity for the kids!

Christmas Eve Dinner...

When I was growing up I had 2 sets of Great Grandparents and 1 set of Grandparents who lived in Blanding.  We always spent Christmas Eve with my Great Hurst Grandparents and my moms brother Todd's family who lived in Blanding as well.  It was always one of my favorite nights of the year.  G. Grandma Hurst had all of the grandchildren share a talent, Aunt Toni read a story and ALWAYS made us either sing the Star Spangled Banner or recite the pledge of allegiance.  Why I do not know but it is a fun memory anyway!  The adults cooked a delicious meal complete with ham and funeral potatoes and G. Grandma made some awesome pecan tassies and yummy cinnamon pickles.  There was always so much food and I would give anything to taste my G. Grandma's yummy cooking again. 

Now I only have ONE grandma left alive in Blanding.  My Grandma Cosby. We were never close to my Grandma Cosby and I was a bit afraid of her growing up.  We were always closer to my Grandpa Cosby because he just always seemed to care more about us, or he just showed it better.  We invited Gma Cosby over for Christmas Eve and my mom did an awesome job with the dinner.  She even included pecan tassies. :)

I will be sad when all my grandparents are gone.  It seems so lonely during the holidays without them around.