Christmas Spectacular

Jeff and the boys got home late last night, after Emerson was already asleep, so she didn’t get to see them until this morning. She actually woke up at 6:30am, so her and I had some good cuddles on the couch together, just the two of us. She was just dying to wake everyone up. I got to to wait until about 7:45, but then she couldn’t wait any longer!

Since I had woken up so early with the Tater Tot, I was exhausted already by 8am. So Jeff took the kids to pick up donuts at Donut Kingdom, while I got to lay back down for a little while. I got up to make a pot of coffee, and laid back down for a few minutes, and then got up when I heard them come home.

This little weirdo only eats the top of the donut, with the icing.

Then we had lots of time to hang out and play together this morning. But after a little while, the boys were tired, so they went and laid back down for a morning nap. Jeff ended up falling asleep as well, so Emmie and I had some more Mommy & Emmie time.

Then she devoured this turkey sandwich for lunch (she ate literally every single bite), plus cheese crisps and a side of shredded cheese (the girl loves cheese), plus lots of ice water.

Emmie went down for her nap after lunch, and then I laid down for a nap myself. I think all the boys stayed asleep for a while too, but I was awoken from my nap later, when the boys brought Emerson into my room, and she climbed into bed with me. It was right at 2pm by the time we were all awake again (overcast, cloudy days are just perfect for naps, am I right?!), and Emmie was in a great mood, playing and giggling with her brothers.

I left the rest of the fam at home, and ran to Walmart to grab my grocery pick-up order. (I may have also gone through the Taco Bell drive thru for a $1 beef burrito since I napped instead of eating lunch.)

After getting all the groceries put away, Emmie was just dying to go on a walk with her brothers. She actually started asking me about it yesterday, and she was more than ready for it today!

While Daddy & Emmie & the bubbas played with chalk outside, I washed all the dishes from the past few days of leftover lasagna & hot tea mugs.

Our orange tree in our back yard is loaded down with oranges right now. I think we must have had over 200+ oranges last year, and I think we’ll have at least that many if not more this year! They’re usually ready right about Christmas-time, so I picked one today to test out, and it was delicious! I think we’ll probably spend some time one day after Christmas next week harvesting them all, so we can get the boys to help us out this year.

After a little bit more time spent snacking and hanging out and watching part of a Christmas movie, we loaded up to head to dinner. Nana actually came over to eat with us, and we wanted to go to Newk’s. But when we pulled up, the parking lot was empty and they were closed! I’m guessing they took a long break when all the FSU students left (we live on the college side of town), so we had to make a change in plans, and headed across the street to eat at Relish Burgers. And it was really good!

Nana went to do some shopping after dinner, and we went to go see the Allison Christmas Spectacular! It’s out in Havana, and done by a guy who went to school with (my sister) Megan & (my cousin) Aaron. And it was so incredible! There are over 200,000 lights, that dance and blink to a specific radio station, and wow!! We actually went through it twice! We let Emmie out of her car seat, and I held her in my lap, and she absolutely loved it! She was giggling and clapping and gasping with excitement, and it was so precious.

After the Christmas light spectacular, Emmie had a quick bath, got some crazy towel-dried-hair, and then looked adorable once her hair was all combed over and looking so sweet.

She got a little upset at bedtime, especially when she ran into a door, but once her brother was holding her and watching a night-night video, she started calming down. We watched one video, read one book, and then she gave hugs and kisses to everyone after bedtime prayers. Then she was really sweet and I had no issues getting her to bed. When I asked her what she wanted to talk about, she told me about Andrew & William (her bestie twins from school), that she obviously didn’t even see today. She cracks me up!

After getting her down for bed, I fried up a pound of bacon, for the hash brown casserole I’m making for Sunday school breakfast tomorrow. I was going to put it all together tonight to just pop in the fridge in the morning, but the fridge is too full of groceries, so there would be no room for it overnight. Emmie gets us up early enough though, that it shouldn’t be a problem to put it all together in the morning.

Neither Gabe nor Ryan apparently have any decent pants, and own nothing but sweat pants, so Jeff had to make an emergency, late-night shopping trip with them to Walmart tonight, to buy something they could wear for church in the morning. So I have a little bit of quiet time again tonight, so it’s back to hot tea and Netflix on the couch for a bit, until they get back home.