Gainesville for Christmas

After Christmas, we headed down to Gainesville for a few days for a visit with Jonathan’s side of the family.  Unfortunately, it rained for nearly our entire visit so we weren’t able to do many of the activities we had planned.  Fortunately, we had a good time hanging out anyways.  We always do when the whole crew invades Nana and PopPop’s house.  Rain and not many outdoor activities = not a lot of photos.  I just snapped a few when we opened each other’s Christmas gifts.









{family friend long and his daughter belen—jonathan grew up with long and i went to college with him.  he was in our wedding.}





{this is gator’s “help me find a quiet corner away from all of the crazy kids” face.}


{we brought ella’s new sewing machine down to florida so that aunt jacqui could help us get all set up on it.  i’ve never sewn a stitch on a machine in my life, so i was of no use to her.  i keep having aspirations that i’ll learn on ella’s machine, but then decide that it’s just easier to let her sew it for me.}

Visit with Lauren

After Christmas we headed down to Gainesville to visit family and friends—Nana and PopPop, Aunt Jacqui and Uncle Randy, Aunt Chrissy, Uncle Chris, Jacob, Noah, and Emilee, and a few of Jonathan’s high school friends/my college friends (they’re one in the same).  While we were in Gainesville, my good friend Lauren, who also happens to be Ella’s Godmother, brought her two cuties up from Tampa for the day to see us.  We had a great time having lunch at The Swamp (about the only restaurant—kid-friendly restaurant at least—that was still around from our college days) and then we decided to check out the actual Swamp, where the Florida Gators play.  Zoey and Reese were all decked out for the occasion.  So thankful they made the trip up to see us—Ella and I love Lauren…just still wish she lived down the road from us! 

Merry Christmas!

I love our Christmas’s at home.  We get up earlier than usual—the sun does have to be up, though—and go straight for the stockings (well, I go straight for the coffee).  Growing up, my family always had stockings overflowing with goodies, so we’ve continued that tradition and stockings for us take a good bit of time to open and check out.  After stockings, we have a nice breakfast together (usually something I’ve put together the night before that was cooking while we opened stockings).  And, then after breakfast we dive in to the Santa gifts and the presents under the tree.  We stay in our pajamas most of the day, play with our new toys, and have a nice—but by no means fancy—dinner in the early evening.  The home-run Christmas gifts this year were the pogo sticks, rainbow loom bands, and Minecraft masks from Santa and from us, for Jack, football-themed gifts (Madden for Wii, a Panthers sideline hat and t-shirt, and a few football stats books) and, for Ella, a real (as in not just for kids) sewing machine (one I hope to learn to use, too).  Jonathan had to settle for a photo of his big gift—I commissioned a cornhole set with Davidson Wildcats on one side and Florida Gators on the other from Jacqui’s neighbor in Orlando, so this had to be picked up on our trip to Florida after Christmas.  I got a Vitamix and TRX set that I am loving—so here’s to a healthy 2014!  It was a very merry Christmas indeed. 

Merriment

Our holidays were pretty quiet this year in terms of activities.  Jonathan had his kidney surgery in early December, spent a few days in the hospital and then the rest of December recovering.  So, knowing that Jonathan wouldn’t be able to lift anything heavy (like a 10-foot artificial tree—with, seriously, a 6-foot girth—boxed up on shelves hanging from the ceiling of our garage) we decided to go smaller this year and picked up a 6’ real tree—the change was fun and it took a lot less time to decorate.  We got down fewer of our boxes from the attic, too, but our house was plenty festive.  We didn’t head to any of our usual holiday sights—Gingerbread Lane, the bear orchestra in uptown, or even a play or show—but, we had a nice time making merriment at home.  The kids always say that decorating the tree is their favorite holiday tradition so we, of course, did that together (on a smaller scale, as mentioned), we made a few new ornaments (a scallop shell angel and melted crayon glass ball ornaments, though not pictured), we decorated graham cracker gingerbread houses and 2D houses, we baked cookies, we sang Christmas carols at the piano, and we enjoyed the quiet of advent.  Actually, we did get out for one show—and luckily it was more than a week after Jonathan’s surgery so was able to, gingerly, join.  Ella was in chorus for the fall semester and they had a little holiday concert.  Ella had even auditioned in solo to be able to sing in a small group for one of the songs—so proud of her moxie to sing in front of a large group.  Anyways, we had a nice holiday season, enjoying time spent together at home, caring for Jonathan and celebrating in our own quiet way.  Here are just a few photos I snapped here and there during the month of December.



{one of my favorite ornaments.}

{and why the above is one of my favorite ornaments…}

{ella’s chorus concert—front and center, she’s wearing a santa hat although you can just see the fringe.}


{graham cracker gingerbread houses—pinterest success, or at least good enough for our purposes.}






{our 2D decorated houses…jack actually ate most of his—talk about sugar overload.}