Christmas with the Jacksons

Let the Christmas celebrations begin!!!!

As anyone who has familiy spread out knows, it's very difficult to be able to include everyone in Christmas celebrations due to all of the different schedules. Being married to a man in the car business that has brain surgeon hours, we have issues with him even just having a day off at any point...let alone during the Christmas season. So we start planning our Christmas festivities early on so that we are able to make the most of every single day that he has off. This year was no different.

We found the best way to make the most of our time with the Jackson side of the family would be to celebrate Christmas the Sunday before Christmas with his family. We went up on Saturday night when he got off of work, spent the night, and got up Sunday morning to celebrate. Charlotte stayed awake the during the 1 hour 45 minute ride so by the time we got there, she needed to play a few minutes then hit the hay. We didn't want a crab apple on our hands the next day. It was nice to sit around and chat and play games after she went to bed.

"Christmas Morning with the Jacksons"- On Sunday morning, everyone was able to be together for the Christmas celebration. We just did our gifts that we brought for everyone and they gave us the gifts they got us. They did their real Christmas on Christmas morning like their normal routine.

Charlotte was allll dressed up in a dress we bought her on clearance last year. She only wore it for a few pictures because she ended up getting red marks/a rash from the sequins by her neck. Good thing we had 3 Christmas outfit to choose from :)

Hanging with Granny J

Grandma showing Charlotte the Christmas tree... she's amazed by Christmas trees.

Our little family's stockings at the Jackson's house :)

Charlotte loves to take advantage of other people allowing her to do the things she's not allowed to do at home... like touch the Christmas tree :) She knows how to work the system.

Pretty pretty princess with all of the presents.

Our Jackson family :) This was the best one out of 5. Nice.

Presents!!! We love presents!!

I feel like she's pondering where she will store this gift when she gets home. She's deep in though about it.

Helping Grandma and Grandpa open their presents from us.

She was so excited to tell them she is going to be a big sister! She could barely contain herself! Here they are reading the goooood news!

After present time, we were all starvin' Marvin. So we all went up the street to Cracker Barrel to have a delicious brunch. For most of us, the food was fabulous and hit the spot... well for me, it hit the spot for awhile... you know how pregnancy is.

Like father, like son.

Sisters

"How many of these can I get in my mouth at one time?"

"Is there something on my nose?"

Per usual, Charlotte becomes SLIGHTLY antsy during restaurant visits, so I drugged her up and put her in a rocking chair outside... kidding, I just noticed how she looks out of it in this pic. The lovely thing about Cracker Barrel is the fact that they have the rocking chairs outside. We took FULL advantage of sitting and rocking together.

I am pretty sure Grandpa likes Charlotte.

The whole clan

Sitting out front with daddy next to a sign he made in college. She hates the feeling of grass on her legs. :)

She was so excited for the little shopping cart Uncle Austin got her! Look at her go :)

Since she got a bit fussy during presents earlier in the morning, Charlotte opened her stocking after we ate. She was sharing her gifts withe Berkley.

One last thing before we left for the drive home, we needed to check out Grandma and Grandpa's chickens in the backyard. Charlotte wasn't too sure what to think of them. She wasn't too excited about getting close to them. 

It was a fabulous Christmas had by all. We were happy to share the news of the pregnancy of baby #2 with them... even though I was only 6 wks and 3 days pregnant. We were so thankful that Adam, Austin and Amelia had clear schedules and could join us for the morning.

And let the celebrations continue...