Christmas Eve + Christmas morning

Christmas Eve I was done with work at 2pm since we closed early. I frantically went a few places and finished some very last minute shopping, then got home around 4:30ish. Chad began prepping his shrimp & grits for dinner around 5:30ish and Aunt Courtney and Uncle Mack soon arrived.

The boys were so excited and I was super excited for a chill {somewhat} relaxing night!

so much love for Aunt Coco...

and for Uncle Mack too...

After dinner, we watched ELF and I wrapped more presents while Aunt Coco helped the boys make cookies for Santa.

Again, who's ready for SAAAAANTA???? HA!

This sums up both boys right here. They are too much.

Now, on to Christmas morning after not much sleep for mommy & daddy (bring on the coffee. Holy crap. Cade would NOT go to sleep because he was so excited) ...

All worth it after seeing Cade's face! Always priceless. He marched right in like such a big boy to see his gifts from Santa.

...and poor Charlie was just in awe watching Cade frantically go through all of his toys like a mad man.

checking it all out...

Charlie also couldn't quite figure out his ball pit...

"Oh so you eat these things?"

but they both LOVED their presents from Santa...

"Y'all, Santa brought me puffs and I LOOOOVE it!"

Not quite big enough for his cow rocker, but Santa got a good deal on it so I hope he enjoys it soon, the bigger he gets!

So I had a bit of mom guilt (don't we all...) when I was working so much and when I realized that 1. Cade really didn't ask Santa for much and 2. "Santa" didn't really buy him much. Seriously. Our plan was to take advantage of that and give him nerf guns and play do...basically. Kid would have been perfectly content and HE WAS!!!

But "Santa" saw this cool Range Rover Powerwheels on sale at Toys R Us and thought it would be the perfect surprise for big brother Cade to be able to ride along with his little brother. (He only has a John Deere tractor powerwheels and small powerwheels 4-wheeler just for himself, nothing to ride two and one of my absolute best Christmas memories was the year Courtney and I got our Barbie Jeep. We put many a miles on that thing!).

So Santa left him this long note about how he had been such a good big brother this year and that it was time to share and have a good time with his new brother. (It was a long poem Santa wrote at like 3am in the morning. Hence the reason "Santa" was so dang tired the next day, so yeah...)

BUT he did love it and Charlie was (per the usual) thinking "WHAT IN THE WORLD!?"

"They see me rollin' .... they hatin'...."

Had to do it.

This pic is hilarious too. Cade is always talking on his play phone (Chad's old flip phone) and Charlie is CONSTANTLY bugging the crap out of him wanting to get it.

"Umm...scuse' me bubba, but I need to talk to Santa too!"

then for a quick thirty minutes or so, all was calm and all was bright...

Be still my heart. Still the BEST gift under our tree!

Never a dull moment...

Trying on new shoes from Aunt Coco and Uncle Mack! So after a few hours of taking in Santa, my mom, her bf Charles, Aunt Coco and Uncle Mack came over around 10:30ish for brunch and to exchange presents. We had breakfast casserole, grits, leftover shrimp & grits, cinnamon rolls, sausage rolls ups, and more coffee :) It's a tradition we always do at either our house or mom's house and this year it was obviously so much easier to host it at ours.