Christmas Day gatherings..

After Kobe tore into his Christmas gifts, we got ready and headed into town to pick up my step kiddos. Miss Mikayla Lynn looked so pretty in her dress my mother in law got her.. the kids were so happy to see us.. they talked a mile a minute when the got in the van. We then headed to my in laws for our Christmas gathering.. my mother in law cooked a yummy meal. I tried for the first time German Potato Salad.. oh it was yummy!! We than exchanged gifts.. we had to cut our time short because poor Mikayla had an ear ache and it was really bothering her.

We got back home after dropping the kids back at their house, and my parents came by to see what Kobe had got from Santa.

We then headed into town to have Christmas at my grandparents (forgot to snap some pics) I look forward to this get together every year.. its not the same as it used to be though.. family feuding is never fun.. especially around the holidays. I wish my son could have experienced the "old Hill family" the fun times we had when I was little.. but anywho I could go on and on about that lol.. this Christmas was soo fun I love my family and spending time together!!!

Christmas Morning, Santa came..

My son woke up at 12:40AM.. and did not go back to bed until 9:00PM the next night. Good thing Santa came early.

Kobe got a few goodies this year from Santa some included: guitar, electronic dart board, lava lamp, discman, cool head phones, CDs, games, movie etc. He had a good Christmas! I always feel I shoulda got him more or something different. He didn't get any "toys".. and he asked why not... Ugh Santa.. "maybe Santa thinks you have too many" ??? He's got a birthday comin up.. which I have the perfect gift for him but he'll get toys then.. I worry to much.. I'd buy that kid the moon if I could.. I just love him.. so on now with pics:

Christmas Eve...

One thing I don't like about this Blogger app, my pics aren't where they need to be lol oh well.

This year Christmas Eve was a tad different. My niece had to sing in the Children's Choir at Christmas eve Mass so we had to bump up the time which was fine with us. So instead of dinner on Christmas Eve we had a lunch instead. Mom made her yummy turkey and steamed broccoli/cauliflower with cheese. My sister made corn casserole, my brother's gf Kelly made "crack potatoes" and rolls. I made the desserts.. Cherry Delight, Oreo balls, iced sugar cookies, and chocolate chips cookies.. ugh I think Im a  decent cook/baker but Woah it was total fail left and right lol. I followed a recipe off Pinterest for the Cherry-D.. this chic told me to put 8oz cream cheese, 1pound of powdered sugar, and 1 container of Coolwhip. Umm holy powdered sugar Barman. I bout gagged when I tasted it. I was like umm no.. this isn't gonna work.. so I added another block of cream cheese and it was WAY better! So then onto the choc chip cookies. Nothing was wrong with them but they kinda fell through the cooling rack because they were too soft. So they were just ugly lol. My sugar cookies were flat but tasted good. Now the Oreo balls.. Grr.. I had  soo much trouble melting the chocolate.. after 2 attempts I gave up and rolled them in powdered sugar.

After lunch we exchanged gifts.. we always start with the youngest and go to the oldest.. which once again I'm smack in the middle lol. I made a lot of my gifts this year. I made mom a snow man out of a 3x4 piece of wood. And Amanda and Kelly a snow(wo)man out of a 4x4.. I think I did a decent job even though a friend of mine was over while I was making them and made fun of them lol... His opinion doesn't count though ;)

Again sorry these pics will be out of order.. here are just some from Christmas Eve..

Christmas with my guys..

As always Jason and I agree we won't buy each other gifts so we can buy our family gifts instead... Which don't get me wrong I love our family and love buying for them but I HATE the fact I don't get to buy for my husband like I want too..  we always end up buying each other a little something anyways. I know Christmas isn't about gifts and money but I love giving gifts... I could care less if I receive one single gift.. I love seeing peoples faces when they open their gifts. But any ways.. as always I got Kobe pajamas, slippers and a movie for Christmas Eve. His jammies were Ninja Turtles (I guess they don't make Christmas jammies for boys??) He got slippers that match his dads and the Smurf Movie which is soo cute.
Jason made me a shadow box for Christmas.. he's so good at making things.. I love it!
I got Jason a "River Monsters" tackle box with 136 pieces.. who knew they counted every single hook, sinker etc as 1 Sheesh.

Solliday Christmas

This year we all gathered at the nursing home that my Grandma is in to celebrate Christmas. We ordered pizzas and got to spend time with my grandparents for Christmas... It was a really good time and nice to have my moms family around!!

And the Christmas festivities begin...

We kicked off our Christmas festivities with our Christmas Parade here in town.. not the town we live in but the town we are from ;).. The parade was good this year.. Kobe enjoyed it.. he wasn't into getting candy like the other kids were.. we would have to tell him to go get some.. most of his came from the nice guy that stood next to us..

 

 

I worked at Kobe's school with the PTO during the "elf store". The Elf Store is a opportunity for kids to shop for their family and friends themselves. Prices ranged for $0.25-$10. It was so cute seeing all the kids shop. Those kids melted my heart that day..

We celebrated Jason's 30th Birthday.. I had a party at our house.. but I was too busy to take pictures :( I hate that.. but we had a great time. A few of our close friends stay all day and didn't end up leaving until 1am :) We had so much fun.. a lot of laughing was going on. We played Battle of the Sexes.. OF COURSE us females dominated that game lol. We have a rematch that needs to happen soon lol

Here are some of the pics I got .. only 2 lol. This is a new dip I made.. "skinny dip"

Here are Jason's new slippers Kobe and I got him..

The following Sunday we took the kids to Jason's work where they had cookies with Santa. Each child received a $20 gift from Santa.. it was really nice.. the kids had a good time and loved their gifts..

Every year we get together with my great Aunt and her family for what we call "Leavell's Christmas" We always have a meal and play dirty Santa.. well this year we had a cookie exchange instead of a meal. Everyone made cookies and brought them to exchange! Here are the cookies I made. They are called chocolate snowdrops.. They were okay lol I'm not sure if I liked them. I think they needed to be more chocolate-y lol..

 Here's some intense pics from Dirty Santa :)

 

Last but not least lol Camo got his hair cut!