I know, I am SO late on posting this, but I thought better late than never! We spent Christmas Eve at the Berger's house for their annual party.
We had some yummy food and watched the children act out the Christmas story/Nativity. Mattie chose to be an angel. (I think there has only been one year where she was something else!) Reddin wasn't in the play this year, but he sure tried to be!
(I love his "cheese" face, here with my sister Stephanie!)
After the party we headed over to my sister's house to do presents with her family, my brother's family and Grandma. It was fun watching Reddin and Lochlan try to figure out the whole present thing. Of course Mattie was quick to lend a hand!
(Christmas jammies for Momo and Redman!)
At home, Matt and Mattie put out food for the reindeer and left cookies for Santa on a super cute plate my sister made. 
Matt and I actually went to bed pretty much after the kids, and that was a first! Usually we are up for hours wrapping, but this year I made us wrap a couple of weeks before hand. It was lovely, especially since we knew we would be waking early to do presents before Matt headed off to work.
Yes, he had to work on Christmas and was gone for 6 days! It was stinky, but we were grateful to have him home to celebrate Christmas morning with us. The kiddos loved their presents and it was so much fun watching their excitement.
That evening we headed over to my sister's for Christmas dinner. Growing up, I spent many Christmases in Biloxi, MS at my grandparents home. We always had a roast on Christmas Day and then on Boxing Day we had an amazing meal of seafood! We decided to skip the roast and just get to the good stuff this year! We had barbecued shrimp (my grandfather's recipe), boiled shrimp and potatoes, salad, french bread and grilled lobster tail! It was all so yummy. Mattie does not care for seafood at this time in her life and I hoping she grows out of that. Reddin on the other hand really enjoyed the seafood! (He also likes spicy food, and it just melts my heart to see some of my blood in that boy!) We did the traditional English Christmas crackers and wore our silly hats, just like my Gma always made us do.
Redd REALLY loved the bottle, and I wasn't sure how it was going to be trying to break him of it. Mattie really didn't care too much about her bottle by the time she was one year old, but Reddin really enjoyed cuddle time with his bottle before his naps. My goal with both kids was to have them broken of the bottle within a week of them turning one. It was a cinch with Mo, but I was nervous about Redd. Plus, I really was scared I would be giving up cuddle time, with him giving up the bottle. I stuck with my goal though, and he was fine. I sat down with him, knowing it would be his last bottle, and I fully enjoyed watching him and contemplating the first year of his life. I couldn't believe how fast it had flown by. I am happy to report that my little guy still loves cuddle time, although its with a sippy cup now!
