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On the 27th, we hosted the Batson Family Christmas celebration in our house. There were 28 of us in all, and a good time was had by all (well, Leah wasn’t a fan of such a large group). Here’s everyone in attendance. We used our hill to stack people up.

Breaking with tradition (pot-luck with turkey or ham), we had Red Hot & Blue barbeque. Since everyone was coming in from far away, catering seemed a better idea than pot-luck. And Jen came up with the idea of delicious barbeque instead of traditional fare. It was delicious.

These ladies escaped the crowds in the other room for some peaceful conversation with their barbeque.

And of course, the family gift exchange.

Thanks to everyone for making the trip up to see us.

Jen’s extended family gathers every Christmas for the Batson Family Christmas celebration. This moves from place to place, usually in Alabama or Georgia. But this year to our surprise, the family said they were up for making the trek to Maryland. Thanks to our new house, we are now able to host large gatherings.

The party was planned for the 27th, but with folks arriving the 26th, we invited everyone over for Ledo’s pizza (yum). Initially, this was just going to be 10 of us, but in the process of ordering the pizza, that number went to 15, then 19, then 24, then back to 19. Fortunately, we’d already started setting up for the real party so we had seats to accommodate everyone.

Opening presents is fun, but playing with those new toys is even more fun. So, once we got home, it was time to play. Molly opened up and built her GoldieBlox dunk tank. Then it was time to start tossing the ball. Nacho the dog is ready to get wet.

And, Nacho’s making a splash.

Leah received 6 Lego sets this Christmas, which sounded awesome to her. She’s a huge Lego fan, and would happily spend much of every day building.

There wasn’t too much time to play though, as extended family from Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina were due to arrive in Maryland on the 26th.

After opening presents at home, we headed to Grams’s house for breakfast and more presents. Leah’s got a big one here. What could be in it?

This girl loves her Legos. And over 600 pieces doesn’t scare her.

Leah’s not the only one. Molly loves her Legos, too.

Good things often come in small packages.

Wow! A jar of Jam!

After these two movies, we should be able to train our own dragons.

Grammy got some fancy kitchen towels, handmade by Jen.

These minion mittens had to get the award for cutest gift.

And here’s Grammy and me after all the fun was over.

When putting the girls to bed on Christmas Eve, I gave them two rules:

1. They were not allowed to go downstairs until I tell them to. No sneaking down in the middle of the night.
2. They were not allowed to wake anyone (parents, grandparents, their sister) before 7:00AM. If they woke up earlier, I suggested getting their phone or iPad and playing on it until 7:00AM.

Neither Jen or I slept well that night. It seemed like there was a lot of people up throughout the night. At 4:30AM, I heard the door to my office open, which I assumed was a girl (likely Leah) getting a phone or iPad to play on. Crazy early, but kids get excited about Christmas.

At 6:30AM, I went in the girls’ room. Leah was asleep, and Molly was playing on the iPad, so I assumed Molly was the culprit. I asked her when she had gotten up. Her response - one something. Yes, as in 1AM. I didn’t believe her. I asked if she had gone to get the iPad at 4:30AM. She said she had, because she had gotten her phone at 1:30AM and it’s battery was dead at 4:30AM, so she switched to the iPad.

So, Molly got a stern talking to about how that was way to early to wake up. I had trouble coming down too hard on her, both because it was Christmas and because she had technically followed the rules. When I suggested playing games if they woke up early, I was thinking about waking up at 6:00AM, not 1:00AM, but I didn’t say that.

Despite her lack of sleep, Molly was wired and ready to go. Leah, on the other hand, had to be woken at 7:00AM. But she soon was caught up in the excitement as well.

The girls went through their stockings quickly. Then they of course helped others with theirs. The girls are really excited about the socks Santa brought G’Mom.

After stockings, it was time for presents amongst ourselves. We got the girls these fun animal chairs to go with the table in their room.

Molly gave Leah a stuffed elephant that was so soft she had to touch it to her face.

Nice calendar, G’Mom.

Hmmmm… What could this be? We had to explain Operation to Leah, but I think she’ll like it. She did get scared the first time she tried it and touched the wall with the tweezers, but it didn’t scare her off from trying again.

Molly’s very excited about this new GoldieBlox set. What could be more fun than building your own dunk tank?

Leah gave Jen some of the most exciting gifts possible - a tailor's ham and a seam roll. What 5 year old doesn’t want to buy their mom ironing accessories?

That was just the beginning of the fun on Christmas Day. We were soon off to Grams house to keep things rolling.

As usual, our church had lots of of offerings around Christmas. This included a service on Christmas Eve Eve for those who wouldn’t be around Christmas Eve, five services on Christmas Eve, and a Christmas Day service. Two of the services on Christmas Eve were family services, led by and geared towards kids. Both Molly’s choir and Leah’s choir were involved, so the girls and I went to both of them.

Of course, fancy Christmas attire is not required for church but that doesn’t stop our girls. And fancy clothes deserve fancy earrings as well. Molly’s wanted hoop earring for some time, and Aunt EA and Uncle Scott were happy to oblige with a pair. They didn’t expect them to be so big, though. Of course, size matters not. Molly loves them.

Here’s Molly’s choir singing their special song. They also led the congregational singing.

I accompanied Molly’s choir with some fingerpicking.

Leah’s choir doesn’t use folders with music, which leaves their hands available for hand motions.

After church, we headed to Grams’s house for soup and sandwiches. Per tradition, we opened one gift on Christmas Eve.

Grammy gave both girls very nice backpacks.

After we got home, Jen presented the girls with their Christmas jammies. This year, she actually purchased the shirt, then made pants to go with it.

Here they are in their brand new jammies.

Cookies and milk for Santa, carrots for the reindeer.

We always read Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. This year, the girls got G’Mom and Grampa to read to them.

Then is was off to bed for the girls to get a good night’s sleep before the big day. Well, at least one of them got a good night’s sleep. The other... well, more on that in the next post.

Our first Christmas visitors (though not even close to our last) arrived late on the 22nd - G’Mom and Grampa. They got in too late to see the girls, but Molly and Leah were very excited to see them when they woke up on the 23rd.

Molly still had school, so G’Mom and Grampa joined Molly and me on our morning walk. Afterwards, Leah wasted no time getting Grampa to help a bit with her new Legos (though Leah didn’t really need the help).

The rest of the 23rd was spent on prep for the coming days. This included Jen and her parents recovering all our dining room chairs, which she’d been planning to do for some time. Despite that little bit of crazy, it was a calm day - very much needed before the whirlwind of the following week.

Christmas celebration began five days early, since Aunt EA and Uncle Scott were going away for Christmas. So, we had Christmas dinner and presents with them early, including Christmas crackers. Leah’s focused on pulling, while Jen looks a bit scared.

Aunt EA and Uncle Scott gave Molly three pairs of earrings, including Auburn ones that EA managed to bring herself to purchase.

Jen seems to adore her new sneakers.

What could this be… Legos?

Grandaddy turned 95, and a celebration was in order. Since the girls have school (and we don’t like to skip school) and lots of other activities, we decided to just go for the weekend. And since flights to Savannah are both expensive and only at difficult times for those of us traveling with kids, we decided to drive.

So, we got Molly from school and hit the road. We made it as far as Florence, South Carolina before stopping for the night at a hotel. Then we woke up Saturday morning and went straight to the party which started at noon. The party was just for immediate family, but Grandaddy has got a lot of immediate family.

Time to blow out the candles.

Someone thought it would be funny to use trick candles that relit themselves. He persevered and got them out eventually, though.

Grandaddy and Betty have had some rough times this year, but they’re still smiling.

The party was held at the Sail Loft at the Savannah Yacht Club. It’s very nice inside, but outside is even more fun. Water and boats are everywhere. The girls especially liked watching the boat lift put boats in and out of the water.

After the party, we stayed the night at Grandaddy’s house. At 95, he’s still fixing his great grandkids’ toys.

Then we woke up early the next morning to drive all the way back home. Thankfully, traffic wasn’t bad, so we managed to make it in a little over 12 hours. Just in time to put the girls to bed to get some sleep, as they both had to be up for school the next morning.

Like last year, we met up with other kids at our backdoor neighbors’ house before trick-or-treating. Here’s a picture of most of them before they swarmed the houses.

This year I went trick-or-treating with the girls while Jen manned our front door. We spent most of our time walking around with Jordan, Haley, Madison, and their cousins.

As always, our neighborhood is great for trick-or-treating. As you can guess, the girls came home with a lot of candy after only an hour of walking around.

These two superheroes were happy to hang out with the speedy Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles.