Christmas with the Browns

We headed up to Columbia the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with my family.  It makes things easier to celebrate ahead of time so that we get the time that we need without the extra hustle and bustle on Christmas Day.

Normally, we celebrate with my mom's extended family the Saturday before Christmas, but my aunt Janet came down with the flu and it was best that we rescheduled.  We had it mid-January (with 80 degree weather, no less!) so I'll post about that later...  :-)

We had a nice weekend with my parents and my brother & his family.  I always love it when all 11 of us are under one roof.  Wow...never actually thought of it that way...11 people in one house!  Sounds crazy...and it is...I just wouldn't have it any other way.

Something we've done for years that I looooove - my dad fixes this AWESOME standing roast for dinner at Christmas time.  And I always call the end piece because the crunchy part is the best part.  They all make fun of me for it.  :-)

This is how most of our pictures turn out these days.

And it's not a party until someone's crying.

Seriously - who taught her how to pose like this?  Such a little diva.

 Grandmama opening her canvas of the grandkids.  She sure was surprised!  And...you should have seen us trying to take that picture.  Another post for another day.

Sydney & Spen 

Yeah...this was pretty much like nailing jell-o to the wall.

All those new toys and first they want to play in a rubbermaid tub and then Caroline wants to walk around with a bowl on her head.... 

GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!!!

Up next: Christmas with the Doyles

Elf on the Shelf: Introducing Peppermint Jerry

I guess it's about time I start blogging about Christmas, right?  To kick off the Christmas season, we decided to introduce an Elf on the Shelf to our family!  I had been thinking of naming him "Peppermint" and immediately Caroline turned her nose up at that name.  Then Wally suggested the name "Jerry" and I turned my nose up at that.  Then Caroline said "How about Peppermint Jerry???".  So, there ya go.  Weird, I know.

I set him up overnight and let her find him in the den in the morning.  She really wasn't all that excited - she takes a while to warm up.  But, we read the story and I explained some things to her and just like that he quickly became part of the family.  

And boy was he up to some silly stuff!! 

The first morning, we found Peppermint Jerry taking pictures of Mickey & Minnie with my camera!

Sleeping in Caroline's room, drinking syrup, playing with a balloon and eating some birthday cake

Playing on the MobiGo, writing love notes to Anna for her birthday, getting into M&Ms, rocking baby Jesus

Leaving magic seeds to plant for a surprise and taking a marshmallow bath

Making green milk, getting sick with the stomach bug, making snow angels and playing dress up

Getting tied up in the wrapping paper, date night with Barbie, being silly with shoes and coloring

For the big finale, PJ decided to make some streamers for Caroline's door!

I had decided that we would have PJ sneak back in for one last night after his big send off because I quickly realized that we all were going to be sad once he left.  So, he wrote Caroline a nice long letter telling her what a good girl she had been and for just a quick little minute, Santa would lift his magic and she could hug him and kiss him good-bye.  

I have to admit, I hated to pack him up this year.  I really, really enjoyed doing this for Caroline and even more so enjoyed seeing her reactions every morning when she would find him.