After our busy year of moving, packing, unpacking, remodeling, and living in three different states, we were so grateful to be able to celebrate Christmas together in Destin this year!
Barrett helped to decorate the big tree in our living room. I bought all unbreakable ornaments this year, and then I kept all my fancy, pretty, or memorable ornaments up at the top. Barrett was really great about helping me take the ornaments out of the box and then pointing to where he wanted them to be on the tree! It was the prettiest tree I have ever had :)
Thanks to Jerry, my Texas tree was STUNNING this year!! She has sent me SO many Texas ornaments that this tree is truly awesome!
We added an official stocking for Barrett this year, too - a Texas cowboy snowman!
Attempt #1 at visiting with Santa:
The Santa at Bass Pro Shops was very nice and had a really cool set up, but Barrett was not impressed.
There were LOTS of events going on in Destin for Christmas! This is a picture of Barrett at the Christmas parade down highway 98. It was a huge parade, with lots of floats and entertainment. Every group that went by passed out candy, cups, frisbees, stuffed animals, beads, etc. At one point, a group of senior citizens walked by, and every person in the group gave Barrett a string of beads. He was really excited and wore them the rest of the morning! We also went to the Destin boat parade (no pictures because I was too busy making sure Barrett didn't fall off the docks into the ocean...). It was pretty cool, though - anyone who wanted to enter their boat could decorate it with lights and then cruise around the harbor for all of us to look at. It was a popular event, and we had a good time! We also went to the Christmas tree lighting at the community center and enjoyed the hot chocolate, cookies, and various entertainments provided by the children of Destin.
We also made a special trip to the beach to see Santa and his sleigh being pulled by dolphins!
So. Awesome.
Rudolphin was leading the pack!
My parents came to visit the week before Christmas, and we had a great time celebrating with them! We went to the Bubba Gump restaurant one morning for breakfast with Santa - here we are posing with Shrimp Louie. It was a great buffet, and the staff was providing lots of fun activities for the kids (we opted out of the face painting this year, but the rest of the activities were great! Travis even won a Forrest Gump trivia game for the adults!)
Decorating cookies with Daddy
Attempt #2 at visiting with Santa:
Barrett wanted nothing to do with him, even when Santa tried to bribe him with golfballs. Barrett just grabbed the golfballs and ran, so this was the best picture we could get.
Decorating a Christmas ornament with Mommy
Grandma, Grandpa, and Barrett with Santa
After a beautiful Christmas musical service at church, we came home and opened presents with Grandma and Grandpa. Barrett really enjoyed ripping the paper off the gifts, although he didn't really understand what was going on. He was happy to rip the paper off, open the box, and then move on to the next present! Here, he is opening his present from Jerry and Grandad - a really cool car garage with lots of talking cars. He absolutely loves it and plays with it every day!!
A new basketball net from Grandma and Grandpa...
...which he has enjoyed throughly since we took it out of the box and set it up!
Trying to figure out how to ride the horse that Grandma got for him
(Still a work in progress, but give the kid a few months and he will have it down!)
Attempt #3 at visiting with Santa:
Santa came to visit our base playgroup and gave each kid a present (that Mommy had wrapped and brought with us...). Barrett, again, was not impressed and wanted nothing to do with him!! His gift was also pulled out of the bag first, so he set the tone for lots of crying babies in Santa's lap that morning...
After watching all the other kids go, we finally convinced Barrett to at least get close to Santa by himself. Here he is, trying to give Santa back the toy that he got from him. I figured three tries was enough, so I stopped torturing Barrett with Santa visits after this one :)
We were sad to see Grandma and Grandpa leave,
but we were excited for Travis' family coming after Christmas!
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