Christmas Eve {2012}

I'm including our few photos celebrating Christmas at my in-laws before we all got very sick. I also have several more photos I took via Instagram, so check them out!

On the 19th, Phil and I made it to Tulsa to celebrate Christmas with his parents. The plan was to wake up early the next day and drive to Kansas City to take the train to Chicago on the 21st. Well, I explained what happened to those plans. However, we had a nice time before the sickies invaded :)

{Jillian with one of her favorite gifts: talking tea set!}

{I wonder what else is under here!}

We made it to Minnesota on the 23rd around 2:30 in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the day just decompressing after our trip through Iowa. It was just so great finally being at our destination. Operation White Christmas Plan B was a success :)

On Christmas Eve, we had a nice breakfast, than headed to the mall. We wanted to get a picture of Jillian with Santa! She did ok in his lap until I walked out of her sight for a second. Even then, she didn't cry too much. Our picture of her has her pointing and not smiling, but she wasn't crying :) Then we had to look for wrapping paper so we could wrap all our gifts. Of course, we had to stop at the carousel in the middle of the mall. We've been waiting a while to take her and were happy to finally do it!

{Jillian wasn't too sure at first...}

{but then she started to have a little fun :)}

{And yes, that is her bow in my hair. She ripped it out as we set her down and I put it my hair for safe keeping}

{Whee! It went faster than I expected}

We had a quick lunch at home, then mom and I made dough for the Christmas cookies. {We ended up not actually baking the cookies until Christmas day, but that was ok with us :)} My mom's church has a Christmas Eve service at 4:30 and mom had to pick up some brisket at Famous Dave's before the service. I offered to go with her so she wouldn't be alone. Phil and I sang with their choir and we also sang solos :) It was a nice service and great to be together!

{Our family, minus my brother and his girlfriend}

On the way home, my dad and I had to stop at Target for a few minor things. Once we got home, we decorated the tree and hung the stockings. I took a video of my dad reading the Cajun Night Before Christmas to Jillian, {a family tradition}, but she was ready for her bottle and bed. My dad worried he should have read the Texas Night Before Christmas instead ;) We just explained that she does that with her favorite stories if she's tired enough.

{Helping Daddy hang ornaments} 

{All of our stockings! Jillian's was the red one :)}

And I wanted a shot of the three of us in our Christmas pjs! I've waited years to do a photo like this.

{<3}