A Christmas to Remember

After a long 12 hour drive that lasted through the night, we made it to Charlotte, North Carolina to spend the holiday with MacKay's family.  It feels so good to get out of the city for a short time and see the suburbs.  Harlan is especially excited that she gets all of the space around the house to run around in.

Christmas Eve was spent taking a few pictures {a must for MacKay's mom ;)} eating a wonderful meal, going to church, and opening Christmas Eve pajamas.

Our family, MacKay's sister and husband, and MacKay's parents

 It is a tradition is MacKay's family to get pajamas on Christmas Eve.  Everyone will open their pajamas and then wear them that night.  Harlan was very excited to get her snowman pajamas this year.

After getting into our pajamas we got out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  Last year Harlan was too young for this, so I made sure to soak up every moment with her.

Of course right as we start putting cookies on the plate Harlan starts to steal some.  We had to replenish the plate a couple times so that Santa wasn't left empty handed.

She even tried to steal the cookies we left by the chimney.  Good thing RaRa our Elf on the Shelf was there to make sure she didn't take any!

 Santa's cookies and milk and the carrots left for the reindeer

After putting Harlan down we individually bring out our presents for everyone to put under the tree.  The rest of the house closes their eyes and then "oohhs and ahhhs" when they see the gift under the tree. This is another tradition that MacKay's family has passed onto ours.  Santa also delivered Harlan's gifts that night and she must have been on his "nice" list because he left a lot of presents for her under the tree.

Christmas morning started early in our house and Harlan quickly began to pick which presents she wanted to open first.  She didn't like opening the presents as much as she liked playing with them. 

The day after Christmas we woke up to a Winter Wonderland.  It was absolutely beautiful to see everything covered in snow.  This is the second time that Harlan has seen snow, but the first time that she could actually comprehend what it was.  She didn't like it very much and made someone hold her while outside.  We tried to cheer her up by building her a snowman.

Although she didn't like the snow she loved going "sledding" around the backyard.  

Having our family snow day was such a fabulous way to end the Christmas season.  I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family to spend the most wonderful time of year with.

How did you spend your Christmas?