Christmas: Christmas Eves

Our Christmas Eve-Eve festivities started when Greg's aunt Debbie and cousins, Meagan (and her boyfriend Chris) and Meredith. rolled in from Amarillo. They were greeted with drinks and a variety of smoked meats. Greg's dad has become quite the master of the smoker. After we were sufficiently stuffed and drinks were refilled, it was time for the big gift exchange. Its been going on for a while in Greg's family, all the cousins (all of us 'big kids,' not the little girls) bring a gift and we exchange it White Elephant style. I'm just going to go ahead and say that I walked away with the best gift, an awesome cheese board from one of my favorite brands, C. Wonder.

The next morning, Christmas Eve, we had a big mimosa brunch with the Amarillo cousins before they hit the road. The girls live in NYC and were headed back to the East Coast. We let the little girls play in their new princess dresses before it was time to get ready for church. Wouldn't you know that little Miss Kennedy decided to take her first power nap of the trip just as it was time to get ready. Like the old saying goes, you never wake a sleeping Kennedy, so I stayed home while everyone went to candlelight service. As it turned out she woke up shortly after they left and we hustled over to make church service. Amen.

We came home, decorated cookies for Santa and read stories to the girls. They were pretty excited for Santa and Kennedy went to bed talking about the choo-choo train she just knew he would bring her in the morning.

Me, Greg, Meagan, Meredith, Ross and Jennifer

The Gifts. 

The Best Gift. Who wants to come over for a smorgasbord of cheese and charcuterie?!

Greg showing off his portrait skills with a sketch of his dad on the MagnaDoodle. 

Oh, fair maiden. 

Grammyflash, Big Poppa and the girls at church. 

The Christmas Hunters.

Three Musketeers. 

The Hunters. Christmas 2012. 

Christmas: Dance Party

How many times did you hear Gangnam Style during your Christmas holiday? I've lost count. A few times a day, when the girls were getting a little restless/stir crazy, we would put on music and have a Dance Party. On the cookie decorating night, they were all hopped up on the sugars and demanded Gangnam Style (or the horsey dance) over and over again. This is one of Kennedy's favorites at home and I think she made it her cousins new favorite as well.

Kennedy has, as she calls them, Fancy Moves. And she was showing them off to her best ability. Lots of kicking and fist pumping. But she showed us something I had never seen before, her Dance Face. Some might call it the look of pure determination, while others may refer to it as classic sorority girl duck face.

Rapunzels ready to party. 

Dance Party started as a Jumping On The Couch Party. The kind of fun you can only have at your grandparent's house. 

 Blurry pics. And she lost her pants midway through the party. Its a pants-off dance-off.

Christmas: Cookies

On Christmas Eve, Julia and I made the sugar cookie dough, cut out the cookies and baked them in preparation for decorating. When we got back from church, we set out bowls of sprinkles and frosting and put aprons on each of the girls. They loved decorating the cookies and had an even better time sampling the frosting. I was busy snapping pictures and looked over to find Kennedy with her entire fist in her mouth. It was then that I realized I hadn't heard from her in a few minutes. She was, as quickly and quietly as possible, shoving as much frosting in her mouth as she could We decorated a ton and picked the favorites to leave for Santa.

Then the game of jumping from the ottoman to the couch started. And then Gangnam Style. And then the big sugar crash of 2012.

Cookie decorating. 

 Everyone took a turn frosting and adorning with sprinkles. 

Frost. Lick off cookie. Repeat.  

Running on 100% sugar. 

Cookies for Santa

Christmas: The Cousins

To say Kennedy had fun with her cousins, Julia and Natalie, would be an understatement. The girls were essentially inseparable from the time we picked them up at the airport until they left Midland. They had fun with dance parties, cookie decorating, playing princess and running around the house. Kennedy and Natalie are a little closer in age and we can tell they are going to be troublemakers when they get older. Julia is a little mommy and we can count on her to play nicely and take care of them when the adults are in the other room. We are so glad we got to spend four days with them and can't wait for the next time we can all get together.

Airport pick-up. 

Checking out the lights. 

Christmas manis. 

Watching movies and hanging out in their matching shirts. 

The girls at church.  

The 'real' Rapunzel(s)

Bedtime stories. 

Merry Christmas. From Texas.

Our awesome card was designed by our dear friend Jill at Stamped Paper Co. And the pictures were taken by the talented Amy at AKA Photography. 

Our Little Christmas

We had our little Hunter Family Christmas the night before we left for Midland. Friday night is pretty much always Pizza Night in our house, and Kennedy was really excited about it. While I was out during the day I picked up some Christmas cupcakes from Sprinkles. We could hardly keep Kennedy away from all the presents under the tree and she was really eager to help hand them out.

We let Kennedy go first, like we could even expect her to wait any longer! She would barely tear open the corner of the paper and scream, "ooh! look what I got!!" She was equally excited to help me and Greg open our gifts from each other (fun things from Zella and Lululemon for me and some schmancy new shoes for Greg). After presents were exchanged and paper was cleaned up, we cut up the cupcakes and enjoyed our sweet treats.

She went to bed with her baby polar bear and was very excited to leave for Christmas Vacation in the morning.

Trying to sneak peeks at her gifts. 

Giving Olive a special Christmas toy. And opening her new, fun toys. 

Sweet treats. 

Big Magna Doodle, stamp set and a "real" polar bear cub.