Christmas Eve - 2016

Well, it's Christmas Eve and the sun is shining... Time to head to the beach for our Christmas Eve tradition!

You know the saying, "You can complain about it, change it, or embrace it??"

Well, I am embracing!!!

I would LOVE to have a white Christmas, I'm not going to lie. But since I'm not going to change where I live, and I don't like complaining over and over about something, I choose to embrace it!

This has been our Christmas tradition ever since Autumn was born...the actual day we go varies, based on Ron's schedule.

I mean, I feel pretty lucky that we live in such a gorgeous place.

Today, ALL the birds were here. They must have just arrived from the north - ha!!

Autumn and Caroline were busy digging a giant hole. 

Daddy and Brooklynn were starting the sandman...

Then, all the kids migrated to towards the water, like I knew they would. 

Was the water cold?? Yep. But the kind of cold where, if you stayed in it long enough (and were a kid), it wasn't so bad after a while. haha

Me and C just chillin' while the big girls played in the waves....

Florida beach snow! haha!

Finally, the sandman was finished. Ron has so much talent, doesn't he?? lol

Merry Christmas!!

Hahaha! This girl. She's such a ham.

Bye-bye Mr. Sandman. 'Til we meet again next year!

Time to clean off and head over to get pizza (the best pizza in town!

nomnomnom.

The perfect little Christmas tradition. 

Then, once C was napping, it was time to bake some cookies for Santa!

No, the cookies we made for our {cookie delivery} were NOT for Santa. lol

After C woke up, we spent some time watching some of the Santa Claus movies (with Tim Allen - they're some of my favorites!), whilst Caroline was protecting her snack container of apples from her sisters! lol

Then, it was time to make dinner!

They love when I make their pancakes into shapes. lol 

Caroline figured out what the Rudolph nose was and promptly started eating everyone's noses. haha!

Time for the next round of Christmas eve joy - hot cocoa by the fire!

We don't have a fireplace in the house, so we did a fire in our firepit out back. Just as good. The girls love doing it.

We happened to have some sparklers left over from July 4th, so we used those tonight too. 

Just an added bonus. 

 

As the big girls were finishing up outside, I took the little one in for a shower and bed. 

So, here's where the best Christmas present ever comes in.  

Caroline was IN the shower and kept telling me "potty!"  Now, she has been wanting to sit on the potty for the last 6 months, but all she does is just sit. But whatever - we indulged her. Well, tonight when I put her on the potty, SHE DID IT!!!  I was so excited. I am ONE step closer to getting out of diapers, my friends!!

Last step of the night - getting everything read for Santa.  Cookies, milk, making sure he's got the list.

We have 2 very excited girls - and 3rd one who WILL be excited once she sees presents in the morning. haha.

Cookie Delivery - 2016

So, things have been quite hectic around here lately.

But we finally had time today to make cookies.

Usually my mom and I bake cookies together, but our schedules just didn't come together this year. Oh well. That happens.

At this moment I was looking around and seeing my kitchen in such a disaster and I was halfway to a sugar coma. lol.

By the way - baking Christmas cookies means you HAVE to wear a Christmas shirt and drink from a Christmas cup... insert Elf swag.

Later that day, after I got Caroline from school, we headed off through the neighborhood to deliver cookies, which is what we do every year.

It started off all nice and easy and cute....

Then Caroline decided she wanted to walk while holding the goodie bags (they started off a cutely wrapped. lol)

and started looking more like this...

Then the handle of the wagon broke. So I had to sit there and try to fix it while in the middle of our walk. Yes, I did get it fixed, but now before a sweet neighbor walked by and offered their help. lol... just let me deal with my chaos. lol

After the wagon was fixed, Caroline decided SHE was going to be pulling the wagon from now on.

This girl sure does keep things alive. lol

One of our last stops, she thought she was going to bring the wagon IN the house. Oh, for goodness sake. lol. Screaming was ensuing. Laughter, the kind of "really?? Is this for real? lol"

And that present that we delivered looked a lot like this. lol.  Oh man. That looks BEAUTIFUL! Merry Christmas!! hahhaa

As Brooklynn was standing there holding the last one, and I TOLD her to hold the bottom of it, I turned around to talk to my friend and then all of sudden, BOOM! The last box fell to the ground. 

I wasn't quick enough to take the picture of the actual droppage, because the hawks dove in to devour the carnage. lol. 

You guys... I can't even pretend that life doesn't stress me out. But honestly, these are the memories that I will laugh at when I look back. 

I love these girls.

And thankfully, our last stop had some coquito to share for the walk home! Woohoo! That helped. ;-)

My beautiful chaos.