The Barker Blogs: Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas 2016

Christmas might as well be the whole month of December. I feel like I am running around all month doing parties, exhibits, baking, decorating and stressing over what to get everyone. There are so many activities!!! My memory has been awful these past few months or maybe even this whole year or maybe its been since the twins were born. My memory is so bad I don't even remember when it started going bad. (I really need to see a Dr. about that!!) Anyways, my phone says that the first Christmas activity was our annual girlfriends Christmas/Ornament Swap. We had pizza at Carla's house and we all brought snacks to snack on. I love spending time and catching up with everyone! We missed those that couldn't make it!!!

Next event according to my cell phone (Man! What did we do when we didn't have cell phones?) was the Trees of Christmas at the Ada Wright Center. The boys made sure they took a picture beside Aunt Holly and Mrs. Dow's tree!

First Steps Christian Preschool Christmas Party/Program was next. Ryan and I were both able to go and we split our time in each classroom. It started out with their little program. Each class came in the gym and lined up just like they had practiced. Each class sang their song and then they sang one together. The twins were sheep and Liam was a wise man. A month later we are STILL singing (to the tune of "Are you sleeping") "Baby Jesus, Baby Jesus, please don't cry, please don't cry, don't you know we love you, don't you know we love you, yes we do, yes we do" After the play I went to Liam's class and Ryan went to the twins class. About half way through we switched. They have learned so much this year and we are so thankful for their sweet teachers who take the time to teach them!

Next was our Ugly Sweater Christmas party at the Meacham's. We cooked way too much food, bought way too much booze (we were all too tired to even drink, except for John Meacham lol) We played a fun game where Chrissy wrapped a bunch of cheap little gifts in Saran Wrap and we each took turns unwrapping it while the next person was rolling dice to get a double and get their turn. After that game we sat around the table and played Speak Out! That game is so much fun!!!

-Dont ask, Ryan picked out my sweater.

The next morning Mom, Pam, Niki and I made a trip to Murfreesboro. Mom and Pam found this really cute painting to do at Painting with a Twist. It was a gingerbread house that we got to put our names on. It was fun and it's always a good time hanging out with them! I was miserable. I don't know that it was food poisoning from the Ugly Sweater Christmas party because no one else had it and it definitely wasn't the drinks (because I didn't have but maybe 2 all night) but I spent the better part of the early morning remembering what I had to eat the night before. I was miserable while I was painting but I made the best of it. Ibuprofen and some OJ and I was feeling better afterwards!

Our next endeavor was going to see Santa. We dressed all the boys in their monogrammed pajamas and headed to the Stones River Mall to see Santa. Luckily there was not a single person in line so we hopped right on in. The twins were terrified at first but finally warmed up. Liam acted his silly self. Then it was Hudson and Brooks' turn. Hudson was scared to death and cried practically the whole time and Brooks didn't mind because he was being held. I think the picture of all of them together should go to one of those websites where they put together funny photos. It would fit right in with some of the funniest! The twins look real enthused Ha!

-So remember at the beginning of the blog when I said my memory is SO bad. I cannot seem to find where the original santa pictures are and the link to all the rest of the pictures. I know that I have put them somewhere safe I just don't know where that somewhere is right now ... they will show up one day I just know it! - I hope! Here is the picture I took of the picture that I found on my phone.

After our trip to see Santa we ate some dinner at Outback. Eating as a family is stressful when there are just as many kids as their are adults. They all did well for the most part considering the circumstances. After we ate we decided to drive on down to Nashville and take the kids to see the dancing lights at Jellystone Park. We waited in line for an hour if not more. The lights were awesome and the kids loved it! It took us about 20 minutes to drive through it.

Dancing to the music...

Our family has 3 places that we celebrate Christmas at each year. This year we moved Brasfield Christmas to December 23rd at my mom's house. That way we would be able to spend more time together and not feel like we were rushed around. We had our usual breakfast for dinner, played dirty Santa, and watched all the little ones open their presents. We got all those little ones in front of the tree to try to get a picture of them all together.

Christmas Eve starts out with Gilley Christmas. This year was at Ben and Kandy's house. There, we ate party food and snacks. After we were all stuffed, we opened all of our gifts and watched all the little's open their gifts too! That's the best part for me, seeing how excited the boys get! We played our yearly Dirty Santa. This side of the family is super creative with gifts and always go above and beyond! There is always lots of stealing involved!

After that's done we go to Granny Mac's for dinner. This year was pretty low key. We had Little Ceasers' Pizza. We also played Dirty Santa there too!

Looking at Uncle Barry's phone to see where Santa was headed next. After watching this, Liam freaked out and demanded that we go home because he was afraid that he would get skipped over. He shouted out "but he sees when you are sleeping and he knows when you are awake!!!!" Needless to say we left so we could get home and get the boys in bed so Santa wouldn't miss them!

Christmas morning. Oh, Christmas morning! Ryan and I got the boys to bed and filled up their stockings and sat out their gifts that Santa brought. I told myself I was going to keep it low key this year and I feel like I did okay with that. I did 4 wrapped gifts for each. Something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. I stuck to that. It was Santa's gifts that needed a cap. I need to stress much less next Christmas. Liam was asking for things last minute that I couldn't find or didn't have time to go look for. He got things he didn't really ask for but in the end he loved it all and didn't care about what he didn't get. All three kids got bike's from Santa. Liam got a huge Batman that is about the size of him to go in his Superhero room. The twins got a Paw Patroller and some Paw Patrol figurines along side their Paw Patrol bikes. They are so big into Paw Patrol right now! Ryan and I bought a hot tub a couple weeks before Christmas. We also bought some luggage in case we decide to up and take a trip soon ;) We didn't have any good luggage so it was much needed. I also got an iPad mini to take to work with me so I can play games and read books and not run off data on my phone. (That has become a problem!) Ryan got a griddle and he gets to go pick out a good lightweight jacket whenever he decides to go shopping to look for one!

When they first work up that morning ...

My parents loaded up all their gifts and brought them to our house to see what Santa brought the boys. We cooked breakfast here. After that we packed up and made our way to Ryan's parents house where we had more breakfast/brunch there. We got to see Granny Barker and the boys took their picture with her!