Christmas with Family

Christmas at my grandparents' house is a long-standing tradition and is always so much fun. Its even more fun now that the focus has shifted to the next generation. They have changed so much since last year. Granddaddy loves playing with the 3 little ones.

And Grandmama always works her magic in the kitchen.

This is the world's best banana pudding. Don't bother arguing with me, my Grandmama's banana pudding is absolutely the best there is.

Every year Santa drops off a bag of goodies, which is pretty neat because we get together the Sunday before Christmas, which this year was a full week before Christmas Day. But Santa does it just for us and leaves a letter asking someone to help him by handing out the presents. This year it was Ella and Caitie's turn to be Santa's little helpers.

We piled all of the kids up in Granddaddy's lap but it doesn't take long before Mason starts pestering the girls. It really must be part of being a boy to natural pick on girls. He is always trying to tickle them or just poking at them and taking stuff away from them. Its pretty funny if you ask me. ;)

My little sister (on the left) has been Santa's first choice as helper for a long time since she was the youngest (by far), but now she has been dethroned by the 3 little ones. I think she enjoyed relaxing through the festivities though. She will be 15 in April.....can you believe it?!?!!!

Caitie is a hilarious little girl. She's going to be a comedian.

Ella is growing up so fast. She is going to be someone's boss.

Mason is full of energy. Based on his current interests, he is going to either be a garbageman or an engineer.

Each year we read about the birth of Jesus before opening presents. This year we passed out slips of paper, each with one verse from the account of Jesus' birth in the Gospel of Luke and went around the room reading the chapter verse by verse.

Then it was present time!

Mason was very excited to bring his first gift from Santa's bag to me to help him open it.

My Aunt Darlene and Uncle Jerry made the 3 little ones a book based on a storybook that my aunt wrote and illustrated when she was a little girl. It is the cutest thing ever, and so meaningful!

Mason was excited to get a bap-pul (apple), and didn't waste any time trying to dig in. When I showed him what it was actually for, he was equally excited about that. I thought this was such a clever gift for a child, a bank and a little bag of money for them to put in it. We have taken this money out and put it back in too many times to count.

Mason gave both the girls a nano-bug, which I thought was a totally appropriate gift from the boy in the family. The girls were both so excited!!

Caitie even gave Mason a thank you hug.

Then Mason stole someone's nano-bug, and we made a mental note to go buy him one to go in his stocking.

After completing this post, I noticed I should have taken more pictures of the adults....the kids are just so cute that I have a hard time turning my camera elsewhere!