I love the holiday season!! I'm almost a year behind in my blog so that means that the holiday season is just about to start again! And 2019 will bring us a new family member in the middle of holiday busyness. It'll be interesting and I'm definitely looking forward to it! But this blog post is not about 2019, it's about our 2018 Holiday season. I would have had it done a lot sooner, but I lost all my progress about half way through writing this post. I didn't have it saved anywhere. It was a glitch in the website. I'm not sure why blogger decided to replace this post with the contents of another one of my blog drafts. Oh well! I'll stop whining and get started! It was our sweetest and most enjoyable holiday season to date. It just keeps getting more fun each year as the kids get older since there is more for them to remember and look forward to. They can really start to appreciate our family traditions.
 |
| Working together! |
 |
| Enamored with the lights |
 |
| Ta-da! |
Our first family tradition is putting up the Christmas tree together at some point in November. Jane will ask all year long to put the Christmas tree back up. ;) Normally the first time she remembers to ask in November is the day we put it up. This year I think it was the second week of November when she asked for the first time. I got the tree down from the attic, put on some classic Christmas music and we got to work! Jane was so proud of the tree when we had it all done because other than the lights she pretty much did it all! It was the first time I didn't rearrange the ornaments after they were done. I only gave a little direction when one branch seemed a little full. Atlas was able to actually help instead of just slowing the process down. Jane rearranged a few of the ornaments he put up. Xan was just happy to stare at the lights while we put everything up. :) She's such a content baby.
 |
| Matchy Matchy! |
 |
| I love it when we get to match. <3 |
 |
| All finished! |
Once the Christmas tree is finished we get started on the outdoor lights! My personal favorite. :) It takes me a few weeks to get it all up since I've got three kiddos to keep up with in the front yard while I work on it. Some people might say, "Get your husband to do it!" To that I say, "No!" I enjoy it way too much and he does not at all. I will let him stay inside with the kids on the weekends when I'm working on it. Jane was a pretty good helper for me this year though! Xan would only last so long outside since she felt like she wasn't part of it. Atlas was still too young to help but at least he didn't try to undo the lights I had already done this year. ;) If I start in the early part of November I'll usually have it ready when December starts. I don't turn them on before them anyway except for one or twice for the kids. I wouldn't want to irritate my neighbors by having them up too early.
We kick off the family holiday gatherings with the Kearley Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving day. I always remember it as the biggest gathering of the year. My grandmother's birthday was November 26th. Sometimes her birthday would end up falling on Thanksgiving day. So it was the holiday that most of the family made the most effort to make. Almost everyone lived close by too when I was young. So it was easy to get everyone together most years growing up. Over the years the Kearley Thanksgiving has gotten smaller and smaller. I think this year seemed especially small since it was the first Thanksgiving without my Grandmother. She had a big presence and always had something to say. I miss her. But it is part of life and I'm grateful for all the 29 Thanksgivings I got to spend with her. <3
It was a lovely Thanksgiving. My mom always makes a delicious meal with everyone's Thanksgiving favorites. Scott and Anna stayed for the long weekend at my parents and I stayed overnight with my parents a couple nights too so we could soak up as much family time as possible. I think it was the first time that the birthday buddies, Xan and Ellis got to really interact for the first time. It was so sweet. I love getting to watch the cousins grow up together! Another reason this Thanksgiving was so special is because Scott and Anna told us the cousin crew was growing!! They revealed to us that baby Daugherty #2 was on the way by changing Ellis into her big sister shirt and waiting to see who caught it first. As soon as I got a clear view of the shirt I jumped up and ran to give them hugs!! I'm so excited for more cousins! <3
For as long as I can remember we've had the Daugherty Thanksgiving gathering on the Friday after Thanksgiving day. As the years have gone on the gatherings have kept growing! The Daugherty family keeps expanding by spouses(everyone is married now so that's as much as we can grow in that way) and children. This Thanksgiving was our biggest one yet! Practically the entire Daugherty side of the family was there. This was the first year my grandmother decided that hosting was becoming a little too much for her so my Aunt stepped in and graciously hosted us all at her house and we all had a great time!
As you can see Xan was happy to steal all the cuddles and love. ;) The food was delicious, the kids enjoyed playing together and we all had fun listening to the playlist we all helped create. Everyone had to put in their favorite three songs and we all had fun guessing who's choice it was when a new song came on.
Great Mama had Thanksgiving themed cookies for all the great grandkids to decorate! Jane had a great time doing her best to make the cookies look just like she wanted. Atlas mostly wanted to eat the cookies. ;) It was a wonderful Thanksgiving season! I enjoyed every minute of it.
As soon as Thanksgiving is over Christmas is already in full swing! I wait until Thanksgiving is over to start turning the lights on outside every night. The kids loved going out as many times as I would let them after dark to run around in the front yard and enjoy the lights. :) I would normally let them go out after we got back from Gymnastics each week for a few minutes. Honestly I loved being out there on a nice night as well. I had to grab a rocking chair Christmas tree picture of Xan for her first Christmas ornament. She was very obliging and gave me some great smiles. Marmee and Pappaw are happy to let Jane and Atlas decorate their tree for them and Jane really loves to do a second tree. I have great memories of decorating my grandparents tree as well. <3
On our monthly trip to the Woodlands playground we were pleasantly surprised when we found a huge Christmas tree set up in front of the church. The kids loved it! The ball ornaments were as big as their heads! They posed so sweetly for me in front of the tree holding hands. I had to grab a selfie with my little girlie too.
 |
| Jane and another little boy. Atlas wouldn't dress up for me. |
 |
| Xan is always popular with the little girls |
 |
| The whole group |
Our home school group holds a Christmas party for the little guys and it's so much fun! I think this year was the best one yet. They had a manger scene set up for the kids to dress up like Mary and Joseph and it was the cutest!! They also had a couple of crafts to do and games to play and pot luck of lots of yummy snacks. At the end we did a book gift exchange and the kids loved to watching the books we brought get unwrapped and to unwrap a fresh book for themselves. We love our HEART group! <3
Jane asked to see Santa for the first time last year. Our library was offering a free picture with Santa so I figured why not! When we got there Jane wouldn't even stand near him. I had to stand there with her just so we could get a picture, but after we had our picture with him and left the building Jane was so excited and said "Santa is real!" It was pretty cute. This year both Atlas and Jane said they wanted to see Santa. Because of our experience last year, I didn't want to pay for it or stand in a long line to get a picture. I was driving by our community center I saw they had a sign out that said pictures with Santa and had the time and date. I decided to check it out and hoped for the best. Man, was it better than I even imagined it could be! We got there on time and only had to wait 5 minutes to get our picture. Atlas ran right in with a huge smile on his face and Jane was also super excited. They both went right up to him and sat down and did everything the photographer said. Xan was completely content to let Santa hold her. I was blown away. It only took us two minutes to get the perfect picture. This year's Santa picture to going to be hard to beat! Then when we walked outside they asked if I wanted to get a little family picture real quick and it ended up being great too! I really hope they offer it again next year. We will most definitely be taking advantage of it again if so.
Psalm 133:1
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
