My Weekend According to Instagram (Christmas Edition)

Photo/editting courtesy of my cousin (smiley pj's).

 

Hello, lovely friends! Did you have a great holiday? Boy, I did. But let me just tell you- it was busy, busy, busy. "4" Christmasses in 4 days? I've been out Christmas-ed by Christmas this year. I thought I'd post more over my Christmas adventure but there simply wasn't time. Plus sometimes you have to step away from that computer and just enjoy some wonderful family time.

We had a small Christmas midday Saturday with my grandpa. It was basically just mom, dad, Little, Grandpa, and I. Mom prepared a Christmassy lunch and we ended up stocking the fridge with lots of left overs. It was super casual but we had a good time.

Little at Grandpa's for Christmas "lunch"

Saturday night was filled with packing. I prepared all the games for the Christmas with the help of Little and I think they were a huge hit even if packing the supplies meant I had 3 suitcases for one full day in Oklahoma. Hey, what's a girl to do?

Everything is sorted by game. The planner in me may have got a bit carried away but there was NO fuss getting things together come game time!

Boyfriend and I got up and left early Sunday morning. We had decided ahead of time to take our sweet time getting to Oklahoma and so we made a quick stop at Anton's for breakfast. Even though boyfriend lives in Springfield, he had never ate there but I've been raving about it for ages (we're breakfast people).  Let me just tell you that place was PACKED but the food was delicious and a fun start to our little adventure! Even with the stop, we still arrived only a few minutes after mom & dad! We made EXCELLENT timing.

Boyfriend at Antons. Mapping out the route to Oklahoma.
 

Sunday night, we all stayed at my cousins and had movie night complete with Pitch Perfect, Fibber, Doggie Doo (seriously, though? Have you seen that game?), pizza, wings, cheesesticks, and soda! We had a blast! Pitch Perfect is HILARIOUS and I keep just wanting to watch it over and over and over! Also, my 4 year old cousin is a Fibber champ. Possibly because he doesn't understand how to play. "I have 3 aliens," he says while showing you his 3 alien cards, "YOU THINK I'M FIBBING?!" No, sir, I sure don't.

Fibbers with my favorite kiddos!

The next day came far too early since I stayed up past my normal bedtime. I'm old, okay?! Darn those mornings. We all got up around and dressed in our footsie 'jamas. Let me just say, they may not be super flattering but those things are comfy to the extreme! And honestly, I thought they'd look worse but I thought the pictures turned out super cute! Little and I were twinkies!

The fam. Onesied to the MAX!
 

In my family, Christmas Eve is WHERE. IT'S. AT. It's an all day affair complete with food, dessert galore, games, and yes, presents! This year Little and I were in charge of the games and things got a little bit "creative".

The first game we started was a game of Tabboo Word. Our word was "Present". I hotglued ornaments to ribbon to make necklaces and each person got a necklace as soon as we arrived. Then we sat down and explained the rules- 1. YOU CAN'T SAY PRESENT. 2. If you say present, you have to give your necklace to whoever calls you out out on saying the word. 3. You can get back in the game if you hear someone use the tabboo word. 4. "Present" and accounted for still counted as "present" 5. saying "presIDent" really fast did NOT count. 6. At the end of the day, the person with the most ornaments won!

As the day went on we added more words to the challenge. Eventually we couldn't say "Present", "Christmas", "Gift", or "Tree". Yeah, it got real serious real fast!

Another game we played was the Christmas Tree game. We split into 3 teams and selected a member of our team to be the "tree". That person got wrapped in green crepe paper. We used ornaments and garland to decorate them. Then we voted for the best tree. Poor Boyfriend, first Christmas with the family and he's dressed in a onesie and being turned into a Christmas tree but he was such a trooper!

My team with our "tree"

I found this site online and used some of the games from it- Jingle Box and Reindeer Nose Dive. The kids found out if you jump up and down you can get all the goodies out of the box in about 4 seconds flat so Jingle Box was a bit of bust. My advice for next time- thicker box, smaller hole. Still fun to watch.

Reindeer nose dive involves covering your nose in vaseline, putting a ribbon with a pom pom on one end in your mouth, and trying to get the pom pom to stick on your nose without the use of your hands. Let me tell you, it was harder than I thought it would be!

Reindeer nose dive.

We "carol jousted" in 2 teams. One team selected a Christmas word and the teams went back and forth singing carols with that word in it until one team couldn't come up with a carol.

We also play this game every year now where we wrap a gift several times. Box inside of box inside of box, etc. We get in a big circle and roll a dice. If you roll double you get to try to unwrap the gift. The kicker is you have to wear oven mits. And you get to unwrap until someone else rolls a double. Who ever is the unwrapping when the gift is completely unwrapped wins! Have you ever tried to unwrap a gift while wearing oven mits? It is not easy!

We unwrapped gifts and had a blast! I made out like a bandit and I think everyone liked what I got them which is always nice! B got the Larry Byrd shirt (from me) that we pass down every year. She had never got it before!

We went back to Grandma's and tried to watch Pitch Perfect again but I fell asleep almost instantly. My dad was just sure the snowpocalypse was coming so we woke up far too early. B and I have started a new tradition of doing each others stockings for Christmas morning and it turned out fantastic! Greatest stocking ever! I think I did pretty well, too- maybe Santa should consider hiring me full time!

Boyfriend and I piled in the car and headed back to MO pretty early. We made crazy timing and were back in the state by noon. And of course I didnt see a single snowflake! We stopped and had Christmas with his family which was wonderful. His grandparents made lasagna (my favorite!) and sent us home with lots of leftovers! Cant wait for my lunch break now! Yummmmmm.

I think Boyfriend was tired of pictures. We have a better one but it was on his phone and he hasn't posted it!

We had an amazing weekend filled with love, family, fun, and happy chaos! Wish we could have stayed longer but there is something really refreshing about coming back from vacation and sitting on your own couch, wearing your pjs, cuddling with your puppy (who was wearing a BOW when I got home which tells me he was spoiled beyond belief while I was away!), and watching some Once. Boyfriend plugged in my new coffee pot (I didnt have one before!) and we sat around, drank some coffee, and unwound a little.



Boyfriend made me these mugs for Christmas. <3 So precious.

Of course now it's back to the daily grind in the office (maybe the slowest day we've ever had!) and to top it off my truck wouldnt start this morning! Boyfriend let me borrow his car and I had quite the adventure driving to work since his car sits so low to the ground! Haha!

Thanks to everyone who helped make our holidays extra super special! We had such an amazing time and are truly blessed to have such great families!