Christmas 2011

2011 was our first Christmas in our new house and my first holiday season without work, which is huge. The end of the year is my busy time due to companies looking for new policies effective Jan 1st, so I relished the time at home with my little ones.

This post will pretty much be a barrage of pictures documenting our month, so I'll get to it.

We had breakfast with Santa at the Botanic Gardens early in the month so he was sure to know what to leave at out house. (I was a bit worried that Lacey was going to fall right out of his arm...)

The Littles watching one of our gazillion Christmas movies.  Notice Luke is perusing a toy catalog to point out all the things he "needs" for Santa to bring him. Lacey is tolerating her seated position for probably all of 3 seconds.

Daddy stringing lights on our teeny little tree and Luke attempting to chop it down with his axe.

He then switched to using his trimmer.

Decorating the little tree he and Lacey got to share in the playroom.

And then attempting to use his trimmer on it the way he saw the guys do to our tree when we got it.

Surprise SNOW!

We no longer live on the lake, but there is an old winery behind our house that's no longer serving the public, so it's very peaceful. I love this picture with the big trees covered in snow. 

FOUR stockings on the mantel this year!

Luke's school art work. :)

Some of my favorite ornaments from this year:

Luke made this one during a playdate at a friend's house. 

I'm still missing Lacey's 1st Christmas ornament...it has not arrived yet...


Christmas shopping tuckered this one right out!

I've been good, I promise!

Luke's school program. He's 3rd from the left in the front row. They were all adorable!

Snowy nights at Memphis Botanic Gardens.

This was so creative. They basically made a giant Light Brite. The kids thought it was great!

Lacey was snuggled warm and cuddly with Mommy.

Santa came and left sweet Lacey with a few things.

Lukers got a train table.

And a pizza cutter. He decided on Christmas Eve that he wanted Santa to bring him a pizza cutter because he had seen Daddy using one earlier in the day. Thank goodness that Santa was well prepared and just so happened to have this Melissa and Doug pizza set in his bag!

Another favorite gift was this scooter from Auntie Kate.

Luke made sure to show me that Santa had eaten the cookies he left for him. :)

My attempt to get a pic of my kids in their Christmas PJs. Luke was too hyped up to cooperate with a normal picture. Oh well. We captured the moment, I suppose.

We actually had our Christmas on Christmas Eve day. Santa knew we had other plans and so he stopped by our house a day early. We left early Christmas day to head to Texas where the rest of Allen's family was waiting for us. It was cuh-razy! The boys had a blast.

Granny Dot gave Lacey her first Madame Alexander doll. Such a sweet and beautiful gift! (Um, doll not pictured. That's Lacey that I am holding.)

We had to bribe Luke to get this picture. Pretty sure it involved chocolate of some kind.

Whenever we're in TX we always block out some time to visit with our friend Kelli and her family. The boys were so silly in the jump house!

When we got back from Texas we had Christmas at Allen's parents' house. Leslie, Allen's mom, wanted everyone to come in their Christmas PJs.

Lacey and cousin Eden with Nanna.

Luke and cousins Caden and Corban with GranPa.

All the cousins

Nanna and GranPa gave Luke tools, which he loves. This set had a jigsaw, just like GranPa's!

Our holiday season was quite full, as you can tell! Certainly different from our days in SoCal of having no family close by. As our Christmas card declares, we feel incredibly blessed by all the Lord has given us-- our sweet babies and loving family.

Merry Christmas from the Gillespies!
We wish you health, happiness and peace in the new year!