Christmas week in pictures.

After attempting to leave Hometown for several days, we finally escaped yesterday. We had to drive to Dallas (4 hours) and catch a flight from there. It was worth it. Someone was very happy to see us.

One of my bffs got her kids a baby bulldog for Christmas and we got to meet her on Christmas night. Theirs died a couple of years ago and the kids wanted another one sooo bad. So, meet Duchess.

Bob was smitten.

Every other year my entire extended family does a massive Christmas Eve function at my g'rents house. This year, Bob was tasked with carving the turkeys. As you can see, Pa trusted Bob with the electric knife, but stood at the ready just in case Bob couldn't handle it. Of course, he did just fine.

Since we were all together on Christmas Eve, we celebrated what would have been my 

Great Grandpa's 100th birthday.

Once all the peeps left, we exchanged gifts as our little family unit. Bob and I are starting a matching Christmas pj's tradition. This year I bought them. Next year he will.

Our stocking haul. We both got tons of crap. We're excellent crap givers. 

Bob got golf sleeves, peanut butter go cups and jelly, hand warmers, a nose hair trimmer, a red solo cup coozie, shaving cream, chapstick, mini tooth brusher things, a "Hot Stuff" spatula, a Pez dispenser (to add to his collection), candy, a "Rules for Husbands" mini book, 

and a mini inflatable unicorn horn.

I got Golf for Dummies, candy, a leg lamp, and the movie "Ted."

But this isn't crap. The leg lamp night light in my stocking... it rocks.

Now that we're back home, we decided we've had enough travel to last us a few days. Its so nice to be all snuggly and warm at home with our favorite kitty!

Merry Christmas to ME!

Since Bob and I will be traveling for Christmas, we exchanged gifts last night. We'll be together Christmas Eve and Christmas morning (in between his work trips), but we won't be here. Shipping all our gifts was just too much. We're still doing stockings on Christmas morning, but we did our big gifts Tuesday before Bob left for work again.

So. Bob did good this Christmas. Very good. I guess because I've been so good this year? As I mentioned before, I already got a Kate Spade (the New Bond Street Hadley), which is way more massive than I thought when I ordered it, and a set of World Markets dishes. Bob also got me a pretty sweet new vacuum, which I've already used and it rocks.

My big surprise gift was a diamond necklace. I mean, I put one on my list, but I never thought he'd actually buy one, especially considering all the other stuff he got me. I'm obsessed with my grandmothers every day necklace and I've been looking for one similar for years. Turns out, they don't make them like that anymore. So Bob, being so unbelievably awesome, had a duplicate one made for me! It's a baby version of my grandmothers and exactly what I wanted. I absolutely adore this new jewelry! He did so good. I'm entirely too spoiled.

Cousin's Christmas

This past weekend, we went to Bob's family's "Cousin's Christmas" in Louisiana. Since their grandmother passed away a few years ago, the first cousins get together and continue this family function she started. This is the first time Bob has been since 2008 because of deployments. We had a great time with everyone. 

Our Christmas tree at home. It's a HUGE improvement from Bob's 4.5ft tree. 

Please excuse our crooked star.

Sweet snuggles with SJ. She's just so damn cute. Her little personality is really coming out. 

She's a sassy, cute, sweet little thing!

This is the gift Carly and family gave us this year. She had a friend go by the house where Bob and I had neighboring apartments in college and take a picture. I absolutely love it! It's already on our bookshelf now, but I'm thinking it needs to go somewhere else more prominent. 

It's such a super cool, thoughtful, sentimental gift!

Bob did NOT pack for the Louisiana weather changes. Yes, he lived there for years, but failed to properly plan for the 40 degree temperature changes. We drove over to Hometown to visit with my G'rents for a few minutes and my Gpa INSISTED that Bob take some of his clothes back to Monroe with us. Here's Bob in Pa's pleated pants and pearl snap button down. Stylin'.

For Cousin's Christmas, we were responsible for a dessert. Since we flew in, I didn't exactly have a chance or opportunity to make a ton of stuff. So I quickly made some peanut butter rice crispies and we bought a massive gigantor cookie cake. So yeah. Here's Santa.

Christmas Surprise?

So every year, I pay attention. I listen all throughout the year. I keep notes in my phone. I pin to a gifts board. When Christmas comes, I give people things they have mentioned all year long. I LOVE doing this, because nine times out of ten, the people forgot they said they wanted it. Or forgot they said it to me. Either way, it's a good surprise.

However, this backfired with Bob's gifts. So very often, he says, "You can get me that." And I did. Get him that. Lots of thats. So now he's getting lots of small gifts and a couple of big ones. I've relegated a lot of them (the smaller boxed ones) to stocking stuffers. This means, though, that his stocking will NOT be held up by a measly little stocking holder. It's going to be damn heavy and damn full. And the things he isn't getting for Christmas, he's getting next month for his birthday.

I gave him my present list a few weeks ago. Just about every week, he's asked me to resend it to him because he "lost" it. So each time I've sent it, I added to it, mainly just to see if he was paying attention. He was. And so far, I've already gotten most of it (because I bought the damn stuff). I (using Bob's credit card) purchased my new Kate Spade (earlier this year during a sample sale) and bought (washed and put away) my new set of dishes last weekend (when World Market had a secret 50% off dining flash sale... woo hoo for being a "World Market Explorer"). There's a rather large vacuum cleaner shaped box beside our tree (chill, feminists... I asked for a new one). Overall, I'm reeeally excited about these gifts. No, they aren't surprises, but they're totes amazeballs!

I hope he's as excited about his gifts as I am about mine! I have a feeling he will be.