Merry Christmas!

As I said before, I love Christmas and all the things that come with Christmas. I love spending time with family for Christmas, especially since our family has grown so much. My family's tradition has always been to go to San Antonio for Christmas. We spend Christmas Eve eating tamales, menudo (which I don't eat), and KFC. The KFC tradition started with my grandpa when my cousins, sisters, and I were little. We wouldn't eat the tamales, so my grandpa would get us KFC. My uncle continues that tradition still. Aaron and I went to San Antonio yesterday. We rode down with Monica and Matt. The whole family, which has grown this year with Claire and Scarlett, got together at my aunt's house for Christmas Eve. It was so much fun, and I loved meeting Scarlett! This morning, Aaron and I flew back to Dallas to spend Christmas with his family. It was a wonderful day! I hope your Christmas was as wonderful as mine! I hope you celebrated the birth of Jesus with people that you love! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cheer

Christmas is hands down my favorite time of the year.  We have gotten to celebrate with friends and family, and Christmas hasn't even arrived yet!

On Wednesday, Aaron and I had plans to look at lights from the comfort of a limo with our sweet friends Courtney and Marc, Andrea and Chris, and Stacey and Jay.  However, Baby Dane couldn't wait to make his appearance in the world.  Courtney came to work on Tuesday morning, but left not long after to head to the hospital.  Instead of a limo and lights, we headed to the hospital on Wednesday to meet sweet Dane and take dinner to Courtney and Marc.  Dane is a sweet, precious baby, and I loved every minute of getting to meet him and hold him.  He's a little thing, and I love him!  It was definitely better than looking at lights!

On Thursday, the Everitt/BitsyBug/LPR Christmas Party was at the Bowlin's house.  Stephanie's brother, Sean, cooked for us.  Dinner was delicious!  Sean is a chef at Fearing's at the Ritz-Carlton.  He can cook!  One of the best parts of the Everitt Christmas Party is always the Secret Santa exchange.  Everyone is required to wrap the gift they are giving so that the recipient is very obvious.  It's always pretty funny, and I like to see how the person who gave to Aaron wraps his gift.  This year, Aaron's gift was wrapped in red paper with Buddy Holly glasses on it.  The glasses had tape around them.  It was too funny for two reasons.  Aaron is a little bit of a nerd, and before he got new glasses, he held his together with tape.

Yesterday Aaron and I celebrated Christmas with my mom, dad, Monica, Matt, Adelina, Reed, and Claire.  We always go to San Antonio to spend Christmas with my mom's family.  A few years ago we realized that it was better to open gifts together here instead of taking them all to San Antonio with us.  We ate tamales and opened our gifts.  I love spending this time with my family.

Merry Christmas, Sweet Claire!

 

Monica, Adelina, and I are in charge of desserts for Christmas Eve, so we'll be baking on Thursday.  This is our second year to make the desserts.  We'll be baking several different desserts, but no sugar cookies.  We burned them last year, and by the time they were ready to be decorated, we were ready to be done!  Aaron and I will be going to San Antonio on Christmas Eve, and we'll fly back to Dallas Christmas Day to spend the day with Aaron's family and celebrate Sharon's birthday!

Celebrating Gabriela and Scarlett

I love babies, and I love that so many important people in my life have recently had or will have babies in the near future.

This past weekend, my sisters and I hosted a baby shower for my cousin Gabriela, along with her sister, Carissa, and her sister-in-law, Tila.  It was wonderful to celebrate Gabriela and Scarlett, her baby girl set to make her appearance in November!

Gabriela... she's very cute pregnant!

Cousins

 Gabriela and Adelina are only a couple of months apart in age, and their little girls will only be a few months apart as well.  That is something that I love!  Adelina and Gabriela are not only cousins, but close friends.  I can't wait to see their little girls grow up as close as they did.

Adelina and Gabriela

Saturday morning, Adelina, Monica, Claire, my mom, and I loaded up and headed to San Antonio.  We stopped first at Gabriela and Dean's house so we could see Scarlett's nursery.  It is adorable, with wonderful personal touches.  It's just how I would picture it.

The shower was Sunday morning, and it was so much fun!  There was such a variety of food, and all of it tasted wonderful!  A diaper wreath welcomed guests, and a well wishing tree allowed guests to write sweet messages to Gabriela, Dean and Scarlett.

Monica made this adorable well wishing tree.

This diaper wreath was so easy and fun to make!  Plus, it makes a really cute door decoration at the hospital!

 Guests were asked to bring a book in place of a card, so Scarlett's library is off to a great start!  Gabriela received so many wonderful gifts.  Scarlett is set when she arrives!  I can't wait to meet you, Scarlett!