{"id":3734,"date":"2011-12-29T23:32:12","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T23:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/?p=3734"},"modified":"2011-12-29T23:47:03","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T23:47:03","slug":"christmas-with-the-maniacs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/christmas-with-the-maniacs\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas with the Maniacs"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love Christmas!<\/p>\n

We have MANY family traditions at Christmas time, and I love every one of them!\u00a0 I wish I had pics of them all, but I don’t!\u00a0 Here are a few fun moments from last week.<\/p>\n

For years we’ve decorated gingerbread houses<\/a> with the Chilek girls.\u00a0 It’s always a treat for the kids and the mamas!\u00a0 Preston decorated his house as quickly as he could, haphazardly placing candy in random places.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>AnnaLeigh put candy on her house…then took it off and put it in her mouth.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lilly Katherine carefully, meticulously, decorated her house with design and purpose.\u00a0 She was, of course, the last one finished and was not at all concerned that the other kids were outside as she was completing her masterpiece…despite the loud commands to “huwwy up and finish!\u00a0 You da last one!” by her little bossy<\/span> sister.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>On Christmas Eve we attend our church’s candlelight service, one of my most favorite services of the year.\u00a0 After that, we eat Mexican food with my sister’s in-laws and our whole family.\u00a0 We’ve been doing this since I was pregnant with Preston.\u00a0 By the way, this is the THIRD Christmas for me to be VERY pregnant.\u00a0 It’s almost comical how many Christmases I’m whining about wanting the baby OUT of my belly!\u00a0 It’s almost it’s own little tradition…that is stopping with this Christmas!!!!!\u00a0 :)<\/p>\n

This year we spent Christmas Eve with my family.\u00a0 All my life, we have taken a picture at the top of my parents’ staircase, and we still do…although we’re running out of steps!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Uncle Taylor, Pinky, and her most favorite little dog from Uncle Taylor and Aunt Kelly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>LK spent hours with Mimi making a special gift for me.\u00a0 She made a scrapbook…all by herself.\u00a0 She chose the pictures, the decorations, and assembled it.\u00a0 She had a blast working with Mimi and she was so excited to give me her special present.\u00a0 Once again, she is MY child!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is random, but I’m throwing this picture in for you, Elicia! :)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We celebrated Christmas at our house first.\u00a0 We always tape a sheet up to keep the kids out of the den before we wake up.\u00a0 They get to bust through it when we give them the go-ahead.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Checking out their loot.\u00a0 Umbrellas and storage cubes for the girls.\u00a0 A baseball bag and Gatorade for P.\u00a0 Pretty fancy! :)<\/p>\n

They all love checking out their stockings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>AnnaLeigh got all she ever wanted…<\/p>\n

Chapstick…which she has applied at least 5,376\u00a0 times since Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Panties, which is literally ALL she asked for.\u00a0 (Notice the extra shiny lips.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And she got a rake from Preston and Lilly Katherine.\u00a0 So exciting!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>LK got a picture to make her section of the bedroom look a little less like a baseball park.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And P got some sports items that he’s been begging for!\u00a0 He got eye-black and one of those stinkin’ sweat necklaces.\u00a0 I’m not sure what they do, but he is convinced it will make him play like Josh Hamilton. :)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>From LK…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And Sam even got a Christmas present or two…plus some love from Mimi.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Brad and I got a little Christmas morning LOVE from our sweet girls!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> We went to church with Brad’s parents, then we went to their house to continue the family fun!<\/p>\n

Brad’s parents with all the grandkids.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Brad’s brother, Andy, and his beautiful family…Claire, Garrett, Andy, Kara, and Tayler.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My kids love Andy and Kara’s kids.\u00a0 They get along so well!\u00a0 Preston basically worships Garrett.\u00a0 They have so much fun together, and my girls would give anything to be with Tayler and Claire.\u00a0 Precious, precious cousins!<\/p>\n

LK and Tayler<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Claire and Pinky<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Garrett and Preston, two very WHITE boys trying to dance.\u00a0 It was quite a scene!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Garrett doing the worm.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Preston attempting to do the same.\u00a0 My poor white-boy son is so stiff, he will probably not be rockin’ the dance floor any time soon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Speaking of dancing.\u00a0 Brad’s mom gave AnnaLeigh and Lilly Katherine dolls for Christmas and also gave them an outfit to match the doll.\u00a0 AnnaLeigh stripped down in the middle of the den to change into her purple ballerina outfit, then she danced and spun around with her new baby.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Christmas was so much fun.\u00a0 We enjoyed all the many traditions, both new and old.\u00a0 I love teaching my babies about the real meaning of Christmas.\u00a0 I love the spirit of giving.\u00a0 I love the fun times with family.\u00a0 I love the wonderful food!\u00a0 I love wrapping and unwrapping.\u00a0 I love Christmas!\u00a0 I hope your Christmas was Christ filled and joyful.<\/p>\n

Merry (late) Christmas from the maniacs and myself!<\/p>\n

-kate<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n

\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love Christmas! We have MANY family traditions at Christmas time, and I love every one of them!\u00a0 I wish I had pics of them all, but I don’t!\u00a0 Here are a few fun moments from last week. For years we’ve decorated gingerbread houses with the Chilek girls.\u00a0 It’s always a treat for the kids […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3734"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3773,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734\/revisions\/3773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therealhousewife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}