The Carmack's: December 2012: Merry Christmas!!

I'm a sucker for Christmas Traditions. Ok, it's worse than that. I LOVE LOVE LOVE our Christmas traditions that I have grown up with and that now my husband and daughter get to be a part of every year. I admit, the Christmas traditions of my family are a bit extensive (no...NOT excessive), but it just wouldn't feel like Christmas without them.

Each year, we celebrate Christmas Eve with at LEAST 2 church services, if not more (ahh the joys of both parents working at different churches). This year we started with the family/kid service at Woodbury United Methodist Church (where I currently work) and then headed over to Christ Lutheran Church (Michael's church) for a more traditional candle light service.

Then after church, each year we head over to my Aunt Terri's where Santa has made his appearance, and all the children get to open some gifts...

And us adults get to enjoy brandy slushies (that we ONLY get on Christmas may I add - and that I totally missed out on this year),

...and shrimp dip plates (which me and my cousins DEVOUR), and a HUGE meal consisting of lobster and steak, and we finish off with amazing cookie trays after we have stuffed ourselves silly.

After getting home late, we wake up early the next morning (Christmas morning) to do family Christmas with just our little family (Me, Michael and Adelyn). Presents and stockings for the three of us...and then we head over to my parents house to enjoy Christmas morning with them and my nephew Brady. But before we even get to the presents of the morning, we start off by having fruit, cheese, and my dad's INCREDIBLE coffee cake. Seriously...this stuff is amazing. I'm pretty sure Adelyn had 3 big pieces of it...she wasn't even interested in presents...but just kept eating and saying, "more! more!" (notice the leftover crumbs on her face)

In the meanwhile, Brady started opening his gifts from Santa. What a great Christmas we all had!!...

...And Adelyn kept eating that coffee cake...

Finally, she got interested in opening a few presents herself... and she loved it!!

But of course, needed some more coffee cake when it was all over and while posing for a picture with her cousin Brady:)

Then, after opening presents from Santa and each other upstairs, we head downstairs in my parent's house where we see what might be in all of our stockings...Well..Adelyn wasn't interested in her stocking presents...but was VERY excited to feed her baby in the new carrier that she got for her (Sami of course couldn't miss out on the action either)

Not long after getting done with presents and a morning celebration at my parents house, we head over to my grandma's house each year to celebrate with the entire Simon Side of the family. We eat great food, look for the pickle on the tree, exchange gifts, and do a "white elephant" gift exchange as well. There are a ton of us, and it's a crazy day, but I wouldn't change it for the world.