The Adventures of Add-and-Land: Christmas 2007

We have had a great Christmas month! We were able to spend lots of time with our family and friends, which is always a blessing. We had a few great Christmas parties (one with friends, one with JM's office, and one with mine - where my very sweet boss gave me probably the coolest Christmas gift ever: a ride on the Zamboni at a Nashville Predators game!!!!!), and some family events as well! My parents had a family event at their house and it was SO great to see my cousins and also my brother and new sister-in-law. Even though we all live in the Nashville area, it's still hard to get together often.

We also had a great family dinner with JM's family. I think there were about 30-35 of us there. ALWAYS a good time! Forgive me if my memory is hazy on all of our parties, but I had a killer midterm right before Christmas :)

ANYWAY - Christmas was a blast! I, of course, had to do some last minute shopping, so I spent a lot of the weekend before out and about. Addie went with me and did great! We did have to take a trip to the pediatrician (but really, what holiday would be complete without one?), as we all three had a cold and it settled in Addie's chest. She also had an ear infection, but luckily, she seemed to feel great for Christmas Eve and Day!

We had both sets of grandparents over on Christmas Eve (a tradition we started last year). We had so much fun, and I'm pretty sure Addie didn't know what to do with herself. She was literally running around the house in circles all evening. We were trying to calm her down due to her chest cold and asthma issues, but she was really going nuts! I guess it's not every day that you have SIX people who love you more than anything in the world, all in the same house at one time :) So, who can blame her?

Christmas Day was as busy as ever - we woke up at around 7 a.m. and celebrated just the three of us. Addie was obsessed with the one gift that cost us nothing. My boss was kind enough to give us her daughter's old play kitchen and that is the only thing Addie wanted any part of! In fact, she cried when we tried to get her to check out the gifts we had actually bought for her! Ha ha ha! We then went over to Gramma & Granpa's where we spent a few hours together. Addie got a new friend in the form of a four-foot-tall stuffed giraffe. Woohoo! After that, we went up to Gran & Pop's (JM's grandparents) house for more family fun time! It was as crazy as ever, as most everyone was there. It is always SO great to see everyone. I am so blessed to have married into such a great family. And speaking of great families, we then went to my parents' house where we had even MORE family time! Addie really enjoyed spending time with Mimi, PawPaw & Gigi and stealing York peppermint patties from Gigi's house.

It was very exciting to see Addie this year at Christmas. She was so cute and loved the gift wrap and bows. She also loved all her new toys! But most of all, I think she enjoyed spending time with her family (awwww...)!

So - by the time we got home, we were definitely exhausted! But of course, we can't wait til next Christmas!

John Michael showing Addie the Advent calendar (it's an ark!) at Gramma & Granpa's
(this was at the family Christmas party the Saturday before Christmas)

Christmas morning!

Addie and her new tricycle (and Cleo helping Addie out)

The beloved kitchen

Us in our matching jammies
(JM had the matching pants, but Santa had brought him these new jammie pants and he was checking them out)

Addie's not so sure about the giraffe.

Addie at the appetizer table at Gran & Pop's
(Notice that there's only one sausage ball left, and that she's holding out a cracker - she kept licking the dip off and asking for more!)