"Tis our season to be overly jolly...

Between November 20th (my birthday) and Christmas, it's my favorite time of year.  The decorating, the baking, the crafting, shopping with Steve for the kids presents and shopping with my sister for Steve's presents.  "It's the most wonderful time of the year" is putting it mildly and I'm always full of happiness!  So, when we started discussing driving into California I posed the question, "What do you think if we dress up as Buddy the Elf and Jovi and surprise the kids?"  Without even blinking Steve said, "Alright!"

Fast forward to Christmas day... I couldn't wait to run down the stairs and open up presents from "Santa".  Since we were staying at my parents house Christmas Eve, my parents were subjected to my "WAKE UP! WAKE UP!  Santa CAME!"  I doubt my dad has been up at 7:15am since he retired and as he made his way down the stairs my dad groggily asked, "Kiki (my nickname) did you even sleep last night?"  So, we opened our gifts and our stocking stuffers and my parents opened up the gifts Santa gave them and we all went our separate ways.  My dad back to bed, my mom to my sisters house to help with the turkey and Steve and I started preparing for the arrival of our kids.

After I finally finished getting dressed, I walked down the stairs and when my dad took a good look at my he started laughing and laughed every time he saw me after that.  When we heard our kids outside, Steve and I decided to stand in my parents little backyard and wait.  Alix walked around the corner and almost dropped her presents.  Bailey (Alix's husband) started laughing and said, "THIS is NOT what I was expecting" and my son, Brad, stopped in his tracks, laughed out loud and said we looked awesome.

After we finished opening up the rest of the gifts and stocking stuffers, we headed to my sister's house for a little fun.  Our nieces and nephews loved it, my dad kept laughing at me and all other family members weren't surprised because they expect something like this from us every once in a while. 

It was a wonderful day all around celebrating with my family, extended family and friends.  Watching the kids open their gifts, playing Apples to Apples and Quelf were some of the highlights of the day.  Unfortunately, Steve and my brother in law had to leave which put a little damper on the festivities and after that my sister Kim and I couldn't wait to get home to be with our husbands (which was the 27th).

Christmas is now over and we are getting ready to celebrate the new year.  The decorations may be coming down right after the new year, but one thing will continue to stay ever present in my house.  The bell that I received on the Polar Express when my family and I did the train ride three years ago.  A little Christmas spirit is always present throughout the year...I hear the bell...Santa is real.