Better Late Than Never: Christmas Recap

Wow! I can't believe I am just getting around to posting about Christmas. We had a fabulous Christmas with both sides of our family. We started off by going to my Grandma's house on Christmas Eve Eve. My grandma turned 80 in December, so all 7 of her children and their families came to celebrate her special day as well as the birth of our Savior. My grandma is the one in glasses who does not look like she could possibly be 80 years old. It was wonderful to celebrate her life. My grandma is one of the most influential people in my life. She is an incredible woman who loves Jesus and her family with all of her heart. I also loved seeing all of my aunts and uncles and most of my cousins. Oh, I love my family and our weekend together could not have been any better. We all rented cabins at the state park near my grandma's house.
On Christmas Eve, the boys were able to open one gift each. It was a special surprise before they went to bed. They were so excited about their pillow pets! Jax kept saying "I wanted a pillow pet for years and years." I am so glad I could fulfill his lifelong dream. =)
We put out Christmas Cookies for Santa. Don't you love our bright blue tree? Our cabin didn't have a Christmas tree and Sawyer was not happy about that one bit, so I picked this one up at Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve for $6.00.
My mom and I hosted Christmas breakfast at our cabin on Christmas morning.
My cousin Cameron really liked my mom's new kitten.
Look how happy my children were to take a family picture on Christmas morning. They were not being cooperative at all. They just wanted to play with their toys.
The little reindeer managed to cheer up, though.
Here I am below with 3 of my beautiful cousins, Miranda, Meghan, and Natalie. I was so happy Nat came in from California. We don't get to see each other nearly enough. We had family in from all over, 32 of us to be exact. Natalie's dad, my Uncle Gary, came all the way from Saudi Arabia. I wish we all got together every Christmas, but it really is hard with so many people spread out all over the world.
Here I am with my big reindeer, who happened to turn 31 the day after Christmas.
We traveled the day after Christmas, Justin's birthday, to celebrate and open gifts with his family. Justin has a twin brother who lives in Tennessee, and most years they are able to celebrate their birthday together.
Christmas for the Bufkin family was at Justin's grandmother's house this year. We love all of our grandparents!
As if my boys didn't have enough gifts of their own to open, they even helped everyone else open their gifts.
Below Justin's mom is wearing her fasionAble scarf that we got her for Christmas. Purchasing these scarves helps provide sustainable income for women in Africa. We bought several gifts with a purpose this year, which I loved and want to do as much as I can from now on.
After all the gift opening and cake eating, we traveled south to my parents house for a few days. Justin didn't have to work the week after Christmas, so we thought it would be fun to get away for a couple of days. We went to the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans. Jax is a huge fan of anything that lives in the sea. He loved the sharks, but kept asking where the orcas were. Killer Whales are his favorite animal. Jax wasn't really interested in posing for a picture. He is my little monkey boy.

We left the aquarium and met some other family members for pizza at Theo's. Delicious! Then we head to city park for Celebration of the lights. The boys had fun riding rides and running around the park.

The lights were beautiful! Our Christmas Break was wonderful. Last week reality hit as we all went back to work and school. Today church services were cancelled due to bad weather. We are pretty sure everything will be closed tomorrow too. I think I am a little too excited that we all get to stay home one more day.