we are family

the day after Christmas we had began our Christmas celebration with my side of the family as they made the trip in from alabama.

with an assortment of finger foods too tasty for pictures ready for their arrival, we welcomed them in after the long ten-hour drive.  brendan was happy and a little overwhelmed at first over all the excitement, but he quickly remembered how wonderful it is to have everyone around.

we decided to open presents after we ate...ok, i decided we should go ahead and open presents.  we opened brendan's presents first.  wow.  the kid was loaded with new clothes, books, light-up toys, and more!  we are so grateful to everyone who came (and had to stay back in alabama) for thinking of him in such a sweet way.  afterward, lee and i opened our gifts...which we were very much appreciated as well...and the rest of the family opened their gifts from us, which i was really pumped about.  i think everyone was very pleased.

after a good night's rest, we shared a Christmas meal of ham and some of my mom's casseroles that she made extra of in alabama just for our meal.  i must say that my first time to bake a ham was successful, but that was largely due to the help of my mom. 

after our yummy lunch, we all loaded up in my mom's suburban and took off for college station.  tyler was the only one of my family to have ever been to college station so we drove to campus and walked around for a while.  katy met up with us, and lee pointed out some of his favorite places on campus and we ate dinner at wings-n-more (a typical college station pit-stop for us).  the main reason for the drive was to visit santa's wonderland, an awesome drive-thru Christmas light display.  seriously, if you live in texas, you need to experience this.  santa's wonderland is, by far, the coolest light display i have ever driven through.  the great part is that they also have santa town that you can enjoy if you have more time and the weather is nice.  we opted for the drive-thru version in the car so brendan would not get too cold.

during our last full day, we made an IKEA shopping trip for my mom to use her Christmas gift card and capped that off with freebirds and crave cupcakes.  a big thanks goes to grandma and papa for hanging out with brendan that night so the rest of us could go hang out with erin and zach for a little while.

we had a wonderful visit!  it was such a treat for me to host Christmas for the first time and show off our decorations here to my family for the first time.  thanks for making brendan's first Christmas so special!

brendan's 1st Christmas

we had an even more special time this year celebrating Christmas as everything we did was brendan's first time.

we decorated the tree as usual and then added a couple of new ornaments as he received them.

we made a visit to see Santa at a local toy store.

we bought new stockings to hang on the mantel.

we enjoyed the very nice Christmas eve candlelight service at our church and sent Christmas wishes to family afterward.

santa came for the first time and worked hard on Christmas eve building brendan's new jumperoo.

brendan also received the Jesus storybook bible so we enjoyed reading that version of the Christmas story to him for the first time.

we really had a wonderful Christmas, especially sharing it with our little guy this year.  can't wait to see what next year's will hold!

better together

this is the first of several Christmas posts to keep from having one insanely long one...

anytime the pilgreen clan can get together there is always laughter and good food on repeat for the duration of the visit.  these times are few and far between with everyone living in three different states and across the country from each other, but they are just as special each time.

this Christmas, we were all able to spend 4 nights together in louisiana.  each couple took a night to cook dinner as a gift to everyone else (and give emily a break from the kitchen).  the kids went bowling, saw a movie, and played at the park together.  we gave each cousin our traditional gift of a new book.  we celebrated asher's birthday the first night with cupcakes and a couple of presents.  the football was thrown, the babies were passed around, delicious food was eaten, and more memories were made.  i'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. 

before the Christmas celebrations began, brendan got to meet his mimi for the first time, which was very special for all of us.  also, be sure to make it to the last one...it's the first of all ten grandchildren together :).

deck the halls

we began and ended our time in louisiana with johnny's pizza. for those who don't know, this is literally the best pizza around. however, pizza is only a very minor detail of our christmas in louisiana. lots of nerf gun wars, wrestling, baseball, football, good food, laughs, presents, and more food were shared by all.

i must add a note that these pictures (and the ones from alabama in the previous post) would not be nearly as great as they are without the awesome new camera i received from lee for christmas. also, there are A LOT of pictures coming!

every time we get together, it is so special to watch all the cousins play together and pick up right where they left off from the time before. they even enjoyed singing happy birthday to Jesus and blowing out the candles on His cake.christmas eve was a special night filled with a candlelight service at the church where the morrows and allens attend, a delicious spread of heavy hors d'oeuvres & a hot chocolate bar at erin & zach's, a dance party, and a giant coloring book.christmas day, the kids opened their books from us and mr. joe opened his presents from everyone, as well as passing out his own gifts.we ended the stay in louisiana with eva's 1st birthday party. she was too cute in her brown tutu and birthday shirt. she was a little unsure about all the attention while opening presents but soon embraced it when she realized she could put on a show for us while eating her cake. emily did an awesome job decorating for the party!