We had such a sweet Christmas this year! My parents and grandmother came to stay with us for a few days. Matt has been off work ALL week --- including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! Wow. He has NEVER been off the night of Christmas Eve before ... so he got to see how it all goes down. I am usually doing dinner, making breakfast casseroles, baths, bedtimes, reindeer food, cookies and milk for Santa, reining in the sugar-crazed kids, cleaning up so Santa can actually have room, putting all 4 kids to bed by myself, getting back up to put toys together or wrapping a few last minute jobs, trying to quietly put all the presents out, making sure the Elf is gone, and then putting myself to bed only to get a few hours before getting up before the kids to catch them coming down the stairs with the videocamera. Its exhausting and hard to actually enjoy it... BUT since Matt was off... I got help this year! yayyyy!
Mati Claire is 9 and getting into the pre-teen stage. She was a little hard to buy for this year, but was happy with books and movies. Mattox racked up on electronics and everything Minecraft!
Merritt got all the "big" gifts this year. She got TWO motorized vehicles that we think she can do for her size and weight. Small girl problems. When you are extremely small, not strong, or coordinated enough to do regular bikes and trikes... she has a hard time enjoying playing outdoors sometimes (especially when the older siblings are running circles around her). She gets frustrated and then chooses to come back in. Hopefully these new toys will let her have some fun too.
It was alot of fun to watch Mason open his gifts this year. This being his second Christmas, he quickly learned how to unwrap his presents! He REALLY liked his new PB chair (it is pretty soft and cuddly!). I have to say that I think his Christmas pajamas turned out pretty darn cute! oh.my. that little tooshie. and.his.curls. Lord help me. I can't say no to the curls!
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| Never even had time to finish decorating the tree. No angel or star at the top. Matt never got the last of the decoration down out of the attic... we let Coco, our Elf, stay there for awhile. |
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| I let the kids decorate however they wanted!!! its hard to "let it go". |
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| But I can do some mean cupcakes. chocolate cupcakes with peppermint frosting. and swirled. yes, that made up for the cookies! |
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| Mamaw playing with Mason |
Our annual Sunday School class Christmas party was another big hit as usual. I feel the need to explain why we dress up. The party has evolved over the last 10 years from starting out as a tacky Christmas sweater party...to dressing up like Christmas movie characters.... to dressing up as Christmas-related anything...to just dressing up in general! This year's theme was the HMA's (Holmes Music Awards) and we dressed up as singers. When your last name is Miley and we've joked that we should name our kid or our next dog Cyrus.... it leaves very little room for debate. We went as Miley Cyrus and Billie Ray Cyrus! Fun times. Just for the record, I DID wear a nude colored bodysuit under the swimsuit/sports bra. Technically, the only skin showing was my arms. just fyi. It was hilarious seeing everyone's costumes! At our age, we all have very little shame anymore. You have to be able to laugh at yourself and I hope no one took that too seriously. I did tell my girls that I was NOT who you want to be or take after. They don't have a clue who she is, but enjoyed watching me be silly. And blonde for the first time ever.
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| go big or go home, right? |
I am SOOOOO looking forward to 2017! Its going to be great! I am done with both schools' fundraisers til the next school year. We have a couple of vacations planned (one with kids and one without!). Matt is turning 40 this year. Girls are turning 10 and 5! Merritt will be starting Kindergarten and graduating out of preschool (what??) My 20 year high school reunion (not even sure if I can go to that, but 20 years really?) And then my sister and I are going to see Bruno Mars in NOLA later in the year! I.can.not.wait!!!
