Christmas Eve, Kirkland Style

We always spend Christmas Eve with my parents, and Christmas morning with Matthew's parents.  It just works out best that way, and we've come to really enjoy it.  My Mom cooks a big Christmas Eve dinner, then we all go to church together, followed by desserts and gifts back at home.  

My two greatest gifts

Flashback to last year......

This girl LOVES her Aunt Kelly and Uncle Michael!!

She's also pretty fond of her Grammy and G-Daddy.....and Albert, too!

Changed into her Christmas jammies and ready for gifts!

My sister always comes up with the most creative gift ideas!  I love this burlap cross for my front door!  

Mom got one too

Sweet Mrs. Lisa and Caroline popped in for a few seconds to drop off some Christmas prizes.  Kyndall loves the Jones gals!

Each Christmas my Mom gives everyone an ornament with a very special meaning behind it.  It usually represents some kind of milestone from the past year or some sort of new hobby we've taken up.  I always look forward to seeing what she comes up with and even more than that, I love looking at the collection on my tree each year and being reminded of all the wonderful memories of years past.  I'm so glad she started this tradition! 

This year, my ornament said "Our First Home"

Mom got Kyndall a new baby doll and had our friend Mrs. Gloria make the baby a few personalized items.  We had previously decided to name the baby Madison, since that's the county in which Jackson, TN is located.  Not very creative, but it's the best I could come up with!!

New Minnie Mouse toys from Mrs. Shanna!

Another annual gift from my Mom is a personalized calendar.  I look forward to this as much as I look forward to the ornaments each year.  Every month is dedicated to a particular family member and it's so much fun to look back at all the pictures from the previous 12 months!

I'm December, since that's when my birthday falls

I finally got a jewelry armoire!  I'm running out of space to keep all my bling!  Ha! Just kidding....

My bro-in-law, the sock model

Opening her very own Origami Owl necklace from Grammy and G-Daddy!  Great minds must think alike because Kyndall's gift to Grammy was the very same thing!  =)

So far she has three charms---A pair of ballet shoes, a princess crown and her birthstone.  She is SO proud of it!  

Kyndall didn't want to model her new monogrammed apron, so I did it for her

Matthew's ornament for this year---how appropriate since I was a hunting widow during the majority of our Christmas vacation!

Kyndall started ballet class this past year so her ornament was perfect as well!

Pink cowgirl boots!

Another great gift idea from my parents---Perfect for Kyndall's new playroom!

It's true what they say about saving your money and just giving a kid a cardboard box.  I think she had more fun hiding in this giant box than she did with any other toy she received!

Every year my parents go WAY overboard on gifts for all of us.  We all begged them to scale back this year and they agreed.....sort of. The number of gifts may have decreased, but we still made out like bandits in the form of cold hard cash.

Please don't take these next few pictures for anything but a joke.  We are in no way trying to flaunt what we've been given, but rather just having a little fun.

Thanks, Daddy!!!!

We headed back to Thomasville where we left cookies and milk for Santa, who would soon be making his stop at Nonie and Poppie's house!

She requested that we leave a carrot for the reindeer, specifically Rudolph

"Ta da!!!"  Ready for Santa!

This was the first year she really seemed to "get" the whole Santa concept.  We didn't have any trouble getting her to bed that night, because she was convinced Santa was sitting on the roof waiting for her to fall asleep so he could come inside!  She was SO excited!

Up next.....Christmas morning!