At least ever since Patrick has been around, we've decorated cookies at Kristen's house a few days before Christmas. Kristen has earned the nickname Martha Stewart from her friends for years. And let's just say Patrick does not exactly have the same decorating ideas or cares as she does, so allowing his cookies to go on her platter has always been a little struggle. He finds it hilarious, she finds it annoying. It just adds to the entertainment of our time together. This year Cayden and Teagan wanted to help decorate too. While we waited for the cookies and the icing to get ready, Teagan had her first cup of hot chocolate with her cousin Cayden. {hers was always served cold until now}
Then the decorating began...
Caroline didn't want much to do with the decorating cookies. But she showed up just enough to get a cute little picture and pretend. Love her expressions.
Then, we made gingerbread houses! This was our first time doing this, and we had so much fun. I think we'll make this a new yearly tradition too.
He was too busy working and refused to look for the picture.
Waffle House for dinner!
Then, we decided to go ahead and do presents a day early since Christmas Eve gets a little busy and we're working with little kids now.
The face a 5 year old makes when he opens underwear for Christmas.
Cayden was checking the tags to see if he could tell who each one was for. Teagan thought she would do the same. No matter what the tag said, she would pretend to read, "T..E..A..G..E..N...seeee, Teagan!" {She insists that her name is spelled with an -EN instead of -AN.} She helped anyone who would let her open their present too.
As I mentioned in my last post, we let Teagan pick out presents for everyone.
For Laudie: 2 pink loufas!
For Papa: a Ninja Turtle coloring page. I think Cayden had his eye on this one.
For Uncle Daniel: a Christmas coozie
For Nana: stemless wine glasses
For Aunt Kristen: Polkadot ribbon
For Caroline: A Frozen book
And for Cayden, she actually helped pick out his real gift but she added some yellow Nerds to it too.
More plaid shirts for our little Mountain Man!
Everyone got undies!
...and this girl hugs hers.
Nana thought that all the presents had been opened {I can't tell you how many years she does this and totally forgets about other presents! So funny.}, so disappointment set in for this little guy that the one present he reallllly wanted and thought that Nana and Papa would come through with wasn't going to happen.
I don't think I was supposed to post this picture, but it is just too perfect. And let's be honest most people don't have a clue whether this is Lauren or me. {except that I might have just given it away...sorry Lu!}
My dad had planned to make some pumpkin pecan waffles for Christmas Eve morning. Although he didn't realize until about midnight when we were all getting ready to head up for bed that it was supposed to sit overnight. So Lauren and I stayed up with him and helped get it ready for the morning.
We tripled the recipe because it didn't say how many it would make. I think we changed bowls two times before settling on this massive one. And that's when we realized maybe we made too much.
...because when a bowl is this big, you need to take a selfie with it. Her face, I die. And I might for posting this.
Hot chocolate...take 2! She was a fan!
Good grief.
Uncle Joe is in town!
...and Teagan almost immediately asked him for a dance party. And he's an awesome uncle and said yes!
Teagan would not pose for a picture with Mema. I think it was foreshadowing of what was to come of this night for her.
Libby gave Reynolds his evening bottle. And she sang to him {Rudolph and Jingle Bells} and bounced him the whole time. He seriously settled as soon as she started holding him. And if you know her, you know how special this is.
...and a smile! Love seeing both of my grandmas with my babies. It makes my heart so happy, and I love seeing how happy they are when they have a babe in their arms.
And that concluded a wonderful evening with family!
...Well, until 1 a.m. that is. Teagan woke herself up coughing so much around 11pm that she started screaming and we had to go back in and help her settle down. We could tell that she sounded horrible and were hoping a good night's rest would get her to feeling better. But then 1 a.m. hit and my mom brought her into our room {she was sleeping in their room} because she said she was trembling. She had a fever. We had Reynolds sleeping in the room with us, so I was going to head downstairs and sleep on the couch with Teagan so she wouldn't wake him up. We didn't make it to the stairs before she started throwing up. She was so pitiful, and you could tell that it kinda scared her a little. Mom of the year here forgot her inhaler and had no Tylenol with me. My mom had some chewable tablets but Teagan pretty much threw those up as soon as they hit her mouth. So we were basically at a loss for what to do for her coughing and fever. We did what the only thing we could think of, we snuggled her.
And she fell asleep in my arms. I can't tell you the last time this girl did this. She has always needed to be left alone to fall asleep, but she was so exhausted she would be in the middle of mumbling and trying to tell us something and fall asleep.
We made a pallet on the floor and her and Patrick slept downstairs together. And I know it is so unclear, but this is the sweetness I found the next morning when I went to go check on them.
And super glad that I had my mom to help us through Teagan's first middle of the night little bug. Christmas Day ended up being exhausting in a different way than originally planned, but we are thankful for getting to spend time with family and overall good health. Tomorrow I'll post about our Merry, Merry...3rd {and final} round.
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