New Years's Eve

Every year for New Year's Eve, we always ring in the new year with our friends and no kids. For some reason last year, I really missed Bryson. I love hanging out with our friends and drinking some wine, but all I wanted to do this year was ring in the new year with him and Robert, just the 3 of us. At first, Robert wanted to still go to our friends house. They have kids so he thought that maybe if we took Bryson we would still have fun. For some reason I still didn't want to do that. Thankfully for me, all of our friends felt the same way. None of us really wanted to do anything except stay at home and spend time with our families. It's funny how things change as you get older. So we started out our new years eve just like we do every year, except we brought Bryson. We ate Mexican at San Antonio Grill here in Helena. After dinner, we headed home and watched all the new year's eve shows. Some of my fondest memories growing up was from new year's eve. We still went to bed on time, but my parents would always wake us up before the ball dropped and we would toast to the new year with sparkling grape juice. I enjoyed a few glasses of Sangria, Bryson had some sparkling grape juice, and Robert had some Crown. None of us had much and we were all asleep before midnight. I fell asleep on the couch and Robert said Bryson fell asleep playing on his bedroom floor. He did wake us up right before the ball dropped and we did get to ring in the new year together, then quickly fell back asleep. As crazy as it sounds, this was probably one of the best new year's eve's I had in a long time. We love spending time with our friends, but now, I would rather spend any free time I have with my family. I did take a few pictures of our low key new year. I'm not sure how we will spend next new year's eve, but I hope it's just as good as this year.

 At dinner

 Bryson had fun playing Hungry, Hungry Hippos while we watched TV.

 Our yummy drinks!

Bryson enjoying his sparkling grape juice!

Mooneyhan Christmas 2013

Since my grandparents passed away, we have still kept the family tradition of celebrating Christmas with my dads family. We don't see them as often as we did when my grandparents were alive because our own families have grown, so it's nice to know that at least once a year we all get together to celebrate. This year was my parents turn to host and they decided to have it at our church so everybody would have more room. Since we have so many kids now, we need more room for them to all play. We had a wonderful time. The food was great! We still keep some of my grandmother's food traditions. My Aunt Linda makes her fruit salad and brings it in the bowl that grandmother used to use. I make the chocolate and butterscotch pudding. The first Christmas after she passed away was my turn to host Christmas. I was able to use the same cups that my grandmother would always use for the pudding. But then they disappeared. We could not remember where we put them. Thankfully my dad found them this year so I was able to put the pudding in the cups my grandmother always used! The one thing my brother mentioned was my grandmother's lemon pie. Nobody knows the recipe but I'm determined to find it. I know she used Eagle Brand Milk so surely I can find it somewhere. Hopefully I can perfect it and we can have it at our next family get together.
After we ate, we let the kids open their gifts. This way they would be entertained while the adults played Dirty Santa. The kids did a great job taking turns opening gifts and sharing what they got. With the adults, we used to draw names for Christmas gifts. It started to get harder to buy for everybody and opening gifts went by too quick. Nobody really saw what everybody got and nobody really knew who had who's name. The last time it was my turn to do Christmas, I decided to start a new tradition for gifts; playing Dirty Santa with gift cards! We have a $25 limit, we have fun playing the game, we are socializing, and everybody leaves with something they like.
Once again, we had a great time together as a family. Hopefully we will be able to get together some time during the year before next Christmas.

Christmas 2013

Better late then never right?! We had an awesome Christmas this year. The older Bryson gets, the more fun it is. This year we crammed all of our Christmas parties into one day and it was crazy, but fun. We woke up early to the smell of a yummy breakfast casserole I put in the crock pot the night before. It was my first to make and it wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. I followed the directions but I personally think it had too much onion and tomatoes. Next time I think I will cut both of those out.

Me and Robert kept waiting impatiently for Bryson to wake up, but it seems like he's going to be just like me. I always slept late on Christmas morning and so far he's been doing the same. When he finally woke up, we were all so excited! He was so happy to see everything that Santa brought. He enjoyed playing with those new toys before opening his gifts from us.

It took a little longer than normal to open his gifts this year. Not because he got so many but because he actually wanted to play with them this year. He usually just opens them, throws the paper and the gift to side and moves on without even looking at what he got. This year he wanted to stop and play with every gift before opening another one. It was so cute! There are so many things that he enjoys playing with this year so he got a huge variety of gifts from all of his favorite characters. Jake, Caillou, Despicable Me, Monsters University, Daniel Tiger, Thomas, Lego, and Play-Doh. It was so easy to shop this year because we could go into the store and just pick out anything and he will love it! He's really into movies and board games and has been talking about Hungry Hungry Hippos forever! He was so excited to get that. We also started adding to his movie collection. Our goal is for him to own all of the Disney movies, which is hard because they are not all sold in stores or online. We have to wait for them to be released from the vault.

 When we finally finished at our house, we headed to do Christmas with my family in Trussville. We wanted to eat first so we would still eat at my Aunt's house but it was so hard to keep Bryson and Will from wanting to open their gifts first. They did so good watching each other open gifts. They patiently waited their turn so we could see what everybody got. I think Bryson's favorite gift was his trampoline. Out of nowhere, and after all the gifts had been bought, he started talking about Santa bringing him a trampoline. Thankfully my dad found one just like he wanted. My favorite gift was our awesome new Keurig. Everybody that knows me knows that I am a huge coffee drinker, but Robert never has been. But since he works in Montgomery and has to drive back and forth everyday, he has become a pretty big coffee drinker, so the Keurig was the perfect gift for us.

 After Christmas at my parents house, we went to my Aunt's for dessert and more gifts! Thankfully she lives in my parents neighborhood so we didn't have to drive far. She surprised the boys with a treat from Santa then we enjoyed all her yummy desserts. She always makes the best banana pudding and chocolate cake. My aunt has always been known to give us gifts that we actually need. We have fun unwrapping things like paper towels, toilet paper, soap, shampoo and trash bags. It may sound crazy but those gifts are amazing! We go months before we have to buy those things at the store!

 Our last stop for the day was in Pelham to celebrate with Robert's family. We enjoyed a yummy dinner and more gifts! Bryson got more movies and Lego sets. We then played gift card dirty Santa with everybody else. We ended up with dinner and a movie! Now we just need to pick a night to use them. I also got a $50 Starbucks card, which was gone very quick! The best gift though was our paid airfare for our New York trip on Thanksgiving! Lola usually pays for it but it's so expensive. We thought we would have to pay for it this year but that was our Christmas gift! I can't wait to take Bryson back.
We had a wonderful Christmas. Sadly, it was over way too fast. It seems like we just put up our tree and just started looking at Christmas lights and it's already over.I know that next year will be just as fun as this year, if not better!