Jesus' Birthday Party!

We had such a fun Christmas this year. Reilly is at a great age to really experience the magic of Christmas. She was very proud of the fact that she could tell you the whole Christmas story (the story of Jesus' birth). even now, a whole week after Christmas, every book she "reads", she ends up interjecting the Christmas story events! I was blown away that she actually let me videotape her giving her spin on the events as they happened. (as soon as I can get Blogger to upload the video, I'll post it! UGH!)

For the first time in almost 20 years, we did NOT celebrate Christmas Eve the way we've done all this time. Instead, we went to church with Grandpa and Nanny, came home to a great dinner, opened a few presents, and had Jesus' birthday cake with ice-cream. I must add a tiny detail that is quite ironic and pretty funny. My favorite kind of chocolate cake is "Devils Food cake"...b/c it's so moist and just yummy. Well, as I was planning on what we would have for Jesus' birthday cake, I thought surely He would haven liked the same kind of cake I do, so a "Devils Food Cake" is exactly what I made...for Jesus. Does that sound wrong or bad to you?? Maybe an "Angel food Cake" would have been a better choice?? Oh well. Maybe next year:)

We woke up Christmas morning and let Reilly in on the Santa secret. It was really the first time we ever told her about Santa leaving presents during the night. Don't really know if she got it, but I do know that after she came down and saw the presents that were out for her, she picked up her new "cell phone" and called Santa to tell him thank-you!! The most favorite gift, and the one that she hardly lets out of her sight, was a Dora purse with a pink cell phone and an EIGHT-pack of flavored chapstick!!! She even held the purse with both hands all the way to the beach!! We had a yummy french toast breakfast and then loaded up the car and headed to Ocean Isle Beach to be with my family at my grandparents' house. Memama of course made an over-the-top, awesome Christmas dinner. It was a bit sad and akward not having Mymike there for the first time, but it was very special to have almost our whole extended family together, in one house, with Memama. Here are lots of pics to recap all the happenings!



oh, the new purse!
"my very own cell phone?!!!"
Big boy chair and a FOOTBALL!
Princess Scooter

chapstick that gets applied once every....46 seconds. seriously.....
FOUR generations!

a very special 12 Days.

This year we introduced a super special, super fun new family tradition. (We may have borrowed the idea from some friends, but who cares!) Starting on Dec. 13th, we introduced a paper chain with 12 links on it. Each day, Reilly got to tear off a link and on the inside was written a special activity for us to do as a family. As we went through our 12 Days of Christmas celebration, I learned SO much about the traditional Christmas song! First of all, they really did used to celebrate Jesus' birth for 12 days by giving gifts for the duration. Secondly, I learned that there is an underlying, "hidden" meaning to each of the parts of the real song. This is so cool that I will give you the link so you can check it out for yourself: http://www.davidmacd.com/catholic/12_days_of_christmass.htm

So, for this year's "Turners 12 Days of Christmas", here were the activities that unfolded:

Day 1 - Reilly opened her very own Little People Nativity Set

Day 2 - work as a family to build a Gingerbread house

Day 3 - watch a special Mikey Mouse Christmas show

Day 4 - special date night with Daddy, including dinner, peppermint milkshakes, and shopping for mommy and Braxton

Day 5 - deliver gifts to a friend in need

Day 6 - bake Christmas cookies and decorate then together

Day 7 - share our cookies by delivering them to some friends

Day 8 - more cookie decorating with friends, surprise visit from Santa, Christmas with DeeDee, Poppi, Uncle Brandon, and Aunt Angel

Day 9 - Birkdale Christmas: singing bears, Tree, dinner and then HOT CHOCOLATE (for the first time!) by the fire with Christmas music

Day 10 - date night shopping with mommy

Day 11 - Popcorn in the car for a Christmas light tour around the neighborhood

Day 12 - Jesus' Birthday Party-- cake and ice cream!!

We snagged a few pics throughout our 12 day celebration....

MERRY CHRISTmas!!

Ok, my new favorite thing is matching Christmas jammies!! Some may think it's cheesy, or ridiculous, but I think it's AWESOME! So, be sure, matching Christmas jammies will have a permanent place in our annual Christmas traditions from this day forward!! :)

YES I DID.....

This morning we had Reilly's first ever "preschool program". The Christmas "concert" was today and I must admit, I was a bit nervous about how our "willful" 2yr. old would react to being on stage in front of 50+ mommies and daddies! I was so proud! She definitely had a serious, scanning-the-crowd-for-my-mommy-and-daddy look, but not only did she STAY on the stage (my overall fear that she would run off!), she actually sang and danced some! The 2yr. olds are always so cute--just standing up there with blank stares, hardly doing the singing and motions that they have surely practiced and rehearsed so many times. But, we did it! Our first preschool program down. Wow, can't believe it's Christmas already!