thXmas

This year will be the first time that none of us ‘Big-Kids,’ as my mom likes to call us, will be at home for Christmas. Now, for those of y’all that don’t know, Christmas is quite possibly the biggest holiday for my family, because it is my mom’s absolute favorite holiday. She usually starts her “Christmas” shopping in June or July, and quite often is finished by September. By November my mom has purchased the newest Hallmark singing snowman or bear or whatever is on the market that year, and December is filled with my mom excitedly holding it over our heads that she’s got these wonderful presents that she’s already picturing us opening!

But this year, my brothers and I will all be MIA, (just Katy and the parentals will be home) so we simply turned Thanksgiving (when we were all in town…including Josh) into Thanks-Christmas, complete with Christmas tree…and it was definitely a successful affair. We took our annual stairwell shot (also a major part of Christmas mornings), and what Christmas would be complete without a massive nerf gun battle? Josh met the whole family, and my grandma especially thought he was wonderful. On top of that, we also got to hang out with Josh’s sister and brother-in-law who also live in St. Louis. Overall a wonderful, relaxing time with old and new family.