On the twelfth day of Christmas.....

it was Christmas Day!! What a wonderful day to remember! Since we aren't doing family Christmas until next week Dudley and I exchanged gifts.

His mom gave us these pajamas this last weekend when they were in town, and since we couldn't be with them for Christmas, we took a picture for her.

Today we also played the Wii for a lot of the day. Adam and Andrea were kind enough to leave it for us to give us something to do today. Mom prepared a wonderful dinner of T-bones, baked potatoes, and salad. Then the four of us went and saw The Blind Side, and then drove downtown to look at lights.

This is the big light tree downtown Indy around Monument Circle.

Even though it was not the usual Christmas traditions, it was a wonderful day with people I love!

On the eleventh day of Christmas....

I spent the day watching Christmas movies, wrapping all my presents, and then attending our church's Christmas Eve service.

Christmas doesn't quite feel the same this year because it is the first year we aren't all together on Christmas. I know, this is part of growing up, but I have always had a hard time when it comes to change in things our family has done together. I love Christmas and having my siblings, so not having them here to watch White Christmas and sing along to with, or eat all of the Christmas cookies with is something I am going to have to get used to. I know we will all be together next week, but this is the start of new traditions I guess.

On the tenth day of Christmas.....

I made Grandma's Christmas cookies. It wasn't the same this year because I did it all by myself. This tradition was started with my Grandma Reedy. She would have the granddaughters over one day (usually a Saturday if I can remember right) and we would bake cookies to have on Christmas Eve when everyone got together. We would have to hide them or else all the boys would eat them before it got to Christmas Eve. We have always used a cookie press to make different shapes and then sprinkled them with red and green sugar. This year, however, I was unable to use the press because it wasn't wanting to work. Here is a picture of how they turned out this year:

On the ninth day of Christmas...

I finished up my shopping. I didn't have a whole lot left to do, but I did have one person (Adam) left to get because they got me their list late. I don't have any pictures for today because I don't want to give away what I got.

On the eighth day of Christmas......

I watched Little Women with my mom. This has been a movie that my mom has watched with me and my sister for sometime. I will admit....I slept through some of the end...and I am pretty sure she slept through some of the beginning :) It was the first day of vacation for both of us.

On the seventh day of Christmas.....

I got the honor of singing with my parents for a friend of ours wedding. It was a beautiful simple ceremony and reception to follow.

That day I also got to attend my parents small group White Elephant Party. Here are some pictures for it:

This is my friend's son Tait! He was playing with his grammy's phone. His Uncle Ryan would call it so it would ring and Tait would start dancing. It was too cute!

This was at the start of the game. We decided this year that no one would open the gifts until the very end so all you had to go off of was the packaging. It was fun to see who would steal based on the bag it was in. Marty stole the Victoria Secret bag from someone after his original bag was stolen from him. I don't remember if he ended up with the Victoria Secret or not! It was funny to watch him steal it though!

On the sixth day of Christmas.....

I woke up to beautiful snow.....Too bad it didn't last :(


(I know these are all really late...but we have been without Internet since Saturday...I have things for every day I just have to upload all on the same day)

On the fifth day of Christmas....

we had friends over to my parents. My mom and dad had Hugh and Nancy, Mike and Linda, Danny and Eileen, and Nicole and Tait over tonight for food and double UNO. Ever since Nicole and I were little (and our brothers and my sister and Danny and Eileen's boys) our familys have tried to get together at least once a year if possible. There have been years were it hasn't worked out but it is always a good time when it does. The kids would always play, and the parents played double UNO men vs. women. I have always enjoyed watching them play because they get so into it, and Nancy has all the score sheets saved in a file. Here is a few pictures of the night:

Look at all of Nancy's cards.....LOL

On the fourth day of Christmas....

it was Christmas shirt day in my classroom. I didn't really have anything and then we got this idea....I could wear one of the ugly sweatshirts Dudley and I used for our ugly sweater party. I ended up wearing the one Dudley originally wore, and then to top it off I wore shoes that didn't really match. I was wondering if anyone would say anything to me about it. All I got from people were some looks like they didn't know if I was serious about the shirt or not, and one lady told me she liked the shirt. LOL. Here is a picture (I have to say it isn't flattering...it makes me look huge...but honestly the sweatshirt is HUGE):

On the third day of Christmas.....

the class I work with the majority of my time wore Christmas hats. Most of the children came in with Santa hats on. A few had a head band with reindeer antlers on them. One little girl had an elf hat on, and another little boy had a Santa hat on, but it also came with an attached beard/mustache. It was so cute!

On the second day of Christmas.....

I received two gifts from a couple girls in my class:

On the first day of Christmas.....

I finished decorating the tree. About a week ago while Mom and Dad were at the church getting the stage ready for the children's musical, Dudley and I put up the tree and then I put on white lights. That's as far as I got until today because we have been so busy with the adult musical. So tonight I finished it. Here it is:

New Idea....

So I have thought of a way to stay up-to-date this month with my blog......I am going to do the 12 days of Christmas! I have some time to think of some ideas since it is just December 1...but I am going to be as creative as I can with this!


So be waiting for December 14th....that is when I am going to start my first day of Christmas!