The First Christmas {This Year}

This past Sunday was the first of our Christmas celebrations this year. We got together with Ryan's mom and step-dad and all his siblings for our Christmas dinner and gift exchange. What I love about Christmas with this side of the fam is the chance to see Christmas with a bunch of kids in the mix. I was the caboose in my family, and I only have one niece, and while it was always fun to watch her open gifts, there's a whole separate element of a handful of kids squealing with glee over each other. So much fun! Ryan and I hung out in the back and took pictures of all the gift festivities - and loved it.

Ryan's mom and Allen live in a STUNNING log cabin. Seriously STUNNING. Check it out:

Ryan and I went over early to help with some final preparations, which for Ryan, meant making a cheeseball:

...WHILE drinking eggnog. {Do you guys like eggnog? I cannot handle the mere SMELL of it!}

We uncovered an art project he made for his mom in the 5th grade. I have a very similar one somewhere at my parents' house. Awwww...meant to be, right???

I helped with some cleaning and gift wrapping - and taking pictures of the beautiful decorations Nita worked on so hard the last few weeks!

Ryan went to find the shrimp in the fridge where his mom said it would be...and...

...evidently there was ANOTHER package in there. WHEW!

Dinner was scrumptious. Pancakes, sausage, cheesy potatoes, ham, pecan rolls, and a million desserts.

{Ryan stole our niece's chair before dinner. When she finally noticed, he had some SPLAININ' to do!

The kids wasted no time getting full, so we could get to the presents!

Ryan has some blognonymous family, so I can't show you all the pics, but here's a few of us {and proof that I actually was there.}

 When it was all done, the tree area no longer looked like this...

 And Ryan looked like this:

Great night for Christmas numero uno!!