6th Annual Tacky Sweater Christmas Party

Every year we get together with our friends for our annual tacky sweater Christmas party. We raid our mom's closets or the thrift store and try to wear the tackiest Christmas attire that we can find. It is always so much fun seeing who is dressed the tackiest and it's fun getting together with everybody. This is one of the few parties that we can get all of our friends together. This year was a little different. We  normally do our party mid-December but one of our friends was getting married on the 14th so we had to do it a week earlier. It didn't seem like a bad idea, until Auburn surprised everybody and had an amazing season that sent them to the SEC championship game, which just so happened to be playing the afternoon of our party. Several of our friends went to the game so it didn't feel like we had as many people this year as in years past. Steven and Jessica came over early to watch the game. We enjoyed being able to watch it with friends. It was a amazing game, and we won!!! Our only hope to go to the BCS championship game was for Ohio State to lose their game that night. Usually during our parties we are playing a Christmas movie or Christmas music on TV, this year, we watched the Ohio State game and prayed that they lost. They did, and we are going to the championship game!!! It was so exciting to share that moment with our Auburn (and Bama) friends! It was even more reason to celebrate and have a good time with our friends.

Of course we had our photo booth again this year. We try to make it tacky too. Before the party, me and Bryson went to the Dollar Tree to choose some paper. He chose funny little elves, gold garland, and what he called a football Santa to decorate the photo booth with.

We always take a picture of the food spread but for some reason we didn't this year. There was a ton of yummy food that everybody brought to share. We did get a picture of the yummy cupcakes.

Every year we play dirty Santa. This year we didn't have a theme for the gift, we just set a limit of $20. Without it being said, the theme still ended up being board games and alcohol.

 Me and Michele ready to play dirty Santa. 

 The whole group with our gifts.

Me with our preggo friends Joanna and Jessica. 

We had so much fun spending the holidays with our friends. As we all are growing older and having kids of our own, it is gettting harder to get everybody together. I'm hoping this is one tradition that will last a long time!

 Oh Steven!

 Chris, Robert and Steven. 

 Abbie and Jessica. 

 Carl and Joanna

 Brett, Carl, Steven and Robert. 

 Vann and Robert. 

 Michele and Lindsay.

 Jessica and Lindsay. 

 Brett

 Robert and Brett

 Paul and his tacky sweater. Ha!

 Robert, Steven and Patrick

 Me with the guys.

 Steven and Emil. Yes, Emil is wearing a onesie.

 Merry Christmas Y'all!

Joanna and Jessica.

 

 Robert and Steven

 Thank you Target for selling tacky sweater awards!

Celebrating after the big win!

Our tacky sweater winners. (It was a tie between Steven and Paul)

We had a tie breaker and Steven won.

The Polar Express

For years, I have heard people talk about taking their kids to ride on the Polar Express. Last year I wanted to take Bryson because he loved the movie. When I looked for tickets, they were sold out! That's when I found out that tickets go on sale during the summer and sell out almost immediately. I knew it was something I wanted to take Bryson to. I called my mom and asked if she would be interested in going with us. After talking with her and my brother, we thought it would be fun for it to be a whole family thing, then Bryson and Will could enjoy it together. Thankfully we were able to get the tickets before they sold out. About a week before we went, we started talking to Bryson about it. We watched the movie and talked to him about trains. During the month of December, we count down to Christmas by letting Bryson open one new book every night before bed. We thought that since we were going on December 1st, that we should have the first book be The Polar Express. I wanted him to open it before we went so thankfully Elfie was able to help us out. The night before, he flew home to the North Pole to get the book and brought it back for Bryson to open.

We read the book and he was so excited! We had to be there an hour before the train departed which was right at dinner time. While my mom went and got the tickets, the boys had fun playing with the train table inside. After we got the tickets, we grabbed a pizza and sat outside to eat before the train came.

After eating, we saw everybody getting in line. Even though our tickets were for a certain train, we still wanted to get good seats on our train, so we headed over to stand in line. It was so cold! You could tell that Bryson was not interested in standing in line. Thankfully it didn't take too long for the train to pull in. Bryson thought it was so loud but loved the decorations that were on the front of the train.

When it was time to board the train, the conductor punched everybody's ticket like in the movie. It wasn't a golden ticket and he didn't punch any cool designs, but Bryson still loved it.

Once everybody boarded and the train departed, Bryson was so excited. He loved looking out the window. Everything was decorated so cute on the way to the North Pole. When we got there Bryson loved it! He got to sit with Granna and Papa and look at all the pretty lights. The train stopped and we waited for Santa. While we were waiting, the elves boarded the train and visited with all the children. This was wonderful because I was so worried how to keep Bryson occupied while we waited for Santa. After a visit with the elves, then came Santa and Mrs. Claus! Bryson was so excited to see them. When Santa was taking pictures with other children Bryson kept waving and screaming "Hey Santa, Hey Santa. I'm Bryson!" It was so cute! I had heard that if you took a copy of your book that Santa would autograph it. Sadly they don't. Mrs. Claus said it had something to do with copyright issues, but he did sign Bryson's ticket which he was just as excited about.

After our visit with Santa, we enjoyed cookies and chocolate milk. We also got an ornament from the elves to remember our trip by. We had so much fun and we can't wait to go back next year!!!