Christmas 2015

Well Christmas 2015 has come and gone, always so quickly it seems!  The morning started off right with pictures of these cuties from Norfolk:

Then I got moving early cause we have the family come over for Christmas breakfast.  My job was making pancakes and of course, I had to create a few Mickey Mouse ones, keeping the tradition alive!

We had a special guest this Christmas, Scott and Trudy brought over their new puppy, Brooklyn!  What a precious little girl she is; we all enjoyed getting to snuggle and love up on her!

Of course we had to get a family photo too before everyone was onto the next stop:

Andy, Mom and I went over to visit Ms. Nannie as well:

Then the day after Christmas, we were up early to go and visit the James.  Where we did Christmas take two:

Thanks Auntie Lala for the cash register!

Beginner Pogo Stick

Kinetic Sand two minutes after opening, all the colors mixed together already!

I'm a big deal!

And of course you gotta love a Christmas when you can play outside without many clothes on....

Yet, somehow Gaga was still very cold:

Corbin was loving his grabber toy:

And I got him this cool fort making kit, that I put together during nap time.  It makes the structure than you cover it in sheets!

Tiffany sporting her new shirt and opening a present:

Tiffany & Josh

We were able to grab a family photo even too, with most everyone smiling (Garrett is actually balling though it sorta looks like a smile in this picture);

And not to be outdone on cuteness, Mr. Holden was more adorable than ever:

On Sunday morning, Josh and I had planned to take all three kids to the zoo, but as it was two of them were being crabby, so I ended up going with the only behaved child, Holden.  My friend, Anna met up with us there to see:

giraffes

elephants

kangaroos

Humans, oh wait that's us!

he went in voluntarily, I should say

Just showing the turtle a little love!

Anna and Holden

Who you looking at?

Smile!

I just imagine this tiger thinking, hmmm all those kids through that window look mighty tasty!

Back in Richmond, CJ and I met up for lunch and a mall walk and ran into this handsome fella:

And to finish off the holidays extra bright, Allison was in town, so we were able to grab our favorite Mexican and catch up and share life together, love these girls:

I only hope 2016 will hold as many special memories as 2015 has had.  Signing off until next year....Happy New Years!

Turkey Time!

Thanksgiving!  A time of friends, family and food and boy did we get a good fill of all three over the long weekend!  Tiffany, Josh and the kids came to Richmond to celebrate Thanksgiving with us, but the preparations started way before Thursday.  

Tuesday was spent, baking cupcakes, making cranberry sauce and creating a brine for our Alton Brown Turkey.  

 I also managed to snag these adorable plates at Target and found this free printable for a utensil holder to make the table look that much more festive...

Garrett loved the plates and kept asking for his Turkey plate:

Delicious and flavorful Turkey:

While last minute preparations came underway, Josh, Maggie, Bonnie, and I stayed home, while Tiffany, CJ, Andy and Ryan took the kiddos to the playground to get them out of the house for about an hour!

Kid at heart!

They got back just in time for the full spread to be out and ready to eat:

Post dinner fun was spent watching TV...

 ..and attempting to get a family photo op

 somewhat successfully!

In true King family tradition, Bons got us ladies matching Christmas shirts:

And even more tradition happened the next day when CJ and I got up semi-early to hit up Black Friday sales:

Afteward we met up with Tiffany, Josh, and the kiddos at the Arc Park for some play time before heading home for lunch and naptime

During their nap, Auntie Lala made Banana Muffins, so when they awoke they got a nice surprise:

Thus concluding the Thanksgiving festivities.  Tiffany, Josh and the kiddos headed home Friday evening and Saturday was spent getting Christmas decorations up, then Sunday I was able to relax with a trip to Christmastown.  What have you been doing to get in the Holiday Spirit?  What was your favorite part about Thanksgiving?