Christmas Eve - Reid style

As I was going back through my pictures from Christmas and Christmas Eve, I was a little sad, because my pictures just don't fully show how wonderful our Christmas was!  It seems like this whole week has been full of the little things...extra hugs, sweet smiles, and unforeseen blessings.

Christmas Eve Eve, I was able to get away and spend some time with G.  It was just really great.  Hard to believe this is their second Christmas away from home.  I can't stand how much I love this girl.  ;-)

 We did a little gift exchange and because we are ghetto insane, we gave each other the same gift.  This was the year of the wallet.  Ha!  Both of us needed and wanted a new wallet, so we got the same one.  We can do that because we live in two separate states. ;-)  Love our sparkly wallets!!!

You guys...
Every once in a while, your child can throw you a look and you would give them anything in the world.  This sweet baby girl adores her big brother.  YES, she drives him crazy.  YES, she tortures him.  YES, she takes his toys, sometimes breaks them, and he wants to shoot her.  But, she loves him.  And, this look kills me.  Her hand on his head.  Presh.  {Eric sent me this pic while I was out with G.}

It was finally Christmas Eve.  My kids were off the wall excited.  OFF THE WALL.  This year was a first -- we were having my in-laws over for breakfast!  Levi helped me get ready.  He made the reindeer donuts for us.  Adorable!  I think he did a fantastic job!!

We also had biscuits and gravy, egg casserole, monkey bread and fruit.  It was incredibly yummy if I do say so myself!  After breakfast, we headed downstairs to let the kids open their gifts.  Maggie became quite attached to her uncle Alan.  She was glued to his side.  So sweet!

Love these girls!  I cannot believe how old my nieces are!!  Eric and I started dating when Emilee (left) was in preschool.  That is insanity.

Levi and his cousins are like the Three Musketeers   They don't see each other a lot, but they always have a blast together.

My father-in-law flew solo this year.  Eric's mom had the stomach bug and had to miss Christmas!  I felt sooo bad for her!  :-(

Us.  It has been such a long two years, but all I'm feeling this Christmas is just extremely blessed.

I love this picture of Mags.  If you asked her what she wanted from Santa, she would squeal "A baby doll!"  Her face right here -- pure joy because she got a baby doll.

I think even better than exchanging gifts was just having time together.  The boys ran off, leaving their gifts behind and played for three hours.  The adults fixed hot tea and coffee, wrapped up in blankets and visited until we all started to fall asleep. ;-)  Such a great family day.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve

I hope that you each make time over the next two days to sit and be thankful for our Savior.  We have a God that loved us enough to send His SON as a baby into this broken world.  A world where he would die a cruel death, and be the ultimate sacrifice for us so that through salvation in Jesus, we could be made perfect one day in the eyes of God.  

Merry Christmas Eve-Eve !!!

Operation BAKE

Another year of the Annual Miller Baking Day has come and gone and I must say it was a success!  My mom, my sister, my sister-in-law and I all got together bright and early {and by bright and early, I mean around 8:45 am} and started to fill my mom's kitchen with the wonderful smells of CINNAMON OIL.  Oh my gosh.  If you've never had cinnamon oil burning the hair in your nose, well, you are missing out! ;-)  

We love going to my mom's kitchen because it is big, it has double ovens and a large stove, and because it is kid-free {oops, was that out loud?}.  Mostly, though, we love going there because she schedules her cleaning lady for the day after we bake.  Nice!

I've come to love our little tradition!  Not only do we get to spend some fun, grown up time together during the busy holiday season, but we get to knock out a bunch of gifts!  We make up tins for friends, neighbors, Sunday School teachers, bus drivers, school teachers, and I usually make a large tray for Eric's employees.

I've come to realize that I am no Martha Stewart.  I'm usually bubbly and chipper for about the first hour and forty-five minutes and then I am done.  Like, I wanna just sit down and surf my phone for the rest of the time.  But, my mom is a slave driver and we don't get to sit down.  Until lunch time.  She can be mean like that.

Of course, we popped out Grandmother's old candy thermometer for making the cinnamon.  I STILL giggle every time we use it because I have to watch for the little mercury stick to get to the "Hard Crack" point.

But, the results are wonderful.  Scrumptious!  I could seriously eat a whole slab of hard cinnamon in one hour flat.  And, I felt all grown up this year -- I didn't have to have my mom's help!  I made it on my own.

The finished products --
Not too shabby!

Check out one of the new additions this year...Santa's hats!  So cute.  Bugles dipped in red chocolate, then dipped in sprinkles and a marshmallow.  Adorbs!

Operation BAKE = Success!  Love my family!!

my toy soldier

Saturday evening was the Annual Murphy Christmas Party.  This party is something I look forward to all year long.  I really don't have the words to describe how wonderful it is!  Melanie does a beautiful job hosting and I just love her to pieces!!  Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures this year.  I was too busy visiting, laughing, eating, and enjoying myself! ;-)  So, I would love to point you over to Gretchen's post about the party.  She sums it up great right here!

On Sunday, we ended up taking Levi to the urgent care and he tested positive for the flu.  I was actually shocked, because the only symptom he showed was a cough.  I was afraid that his cough was going into pneumonia.  They did a chest x-ray {which he said was way cool!} and his lungs were clear.  I think he got a little extra special treatment because the doctor there is on the SWAT team with my dad.  ;-)  He put Levi and Maggie both on Tamiflu and seriously, it's like Levi was never really sick.  I'm so thankful!  I kept him home with me on Monday, but did allow him to go to his Christmas program at school Monday night.

Little Miss "I wanna see Bubby!" was anxiously waiting for her toy soldier to appear.

But, before we spotted Levi, Maggie screamed, "There's SANTA!"  Ha!  So cute.

The music teacher did a fantastic job with the program, especially the costumes!

Then the toy soldiers marched in.  I wanted to stand up and scream, but I thought that might be a little inappropriate.  ;-)  Levi said being a toy soldier was hard work because they had to learn how to march.  Not walk, MARCH.

They also had to learn how to do expert sword drills.

Lord have mercy, he looks like a little munchkin Marine.  Pass the tissues.

So very proud of my little toy soldier!!  He sang all his parts so proudly and afterwards he told me, "Mom, I just did the best job I could."  Gush.  Love that boy.

A shout out for my mom on her birthday!

Over the years, our birthday celebrations have changed a little.  Instead of getting together and going out for a quiet birthday dinner, we've had to come up with some more kid-friendly ideas.  When you get 14 of us together including six children, we can get quite noisy! ;-)  

On Sunday, we all got together to celebrate my mom.

Let me tell you a little bit about her.  Retired teacher of first graders.  Mother to three, grandmother to six.  Wife to a retired machinist and police officer.  Teacher of Sunday School.  Choir member.  Cappuccino drinker.  Beach lover.  Hard core shopper.  Lover of luxury, yet compassionate giver.  Child of God, lover of Jesus.  My mom is awesome.

This year, we wanted to try something new.  Being the fun and creative person I am {insert sarcasm}, I suggested that we all meet at a place in Columbus called The Commons.  They have a huge indoor play area for kids of all ages.

I'm pretty sure it was a hit!  I was really sad because Levi had come down with the flu, so he and Eric stayed home.  But, the rest of us put on our happy faces and settled in for some family time!

{Travis missed the memo about putting on his happy face.}

I do have to admit that it doesn't take much effort for us to have fun together.

Heck, we even caught this guy turning that frown upside down a time or two! ;-)

Let me tell you about this little princess.  She is glued to my hip.  All.the.time.  You see the bottom of this picture?  That's my hip.  Yes, all the time!

Aunt Jenny thought she would be fun and force take her down the slide!

That only produced tears.  Ha!

And, true to his form, Uncle Travis terrorized her for a while.  That produced screams.

The other kids could care less about their ol' parents.  They took off climbing to the top of the climby thing and made Aunt Tracey a nervous wreck.  Griffin...

Emmy...

And, Bailey...

And, buddies Emmy and Casey wore themselves out on the slide!

Eventually Maggie even joined in on the fun, too. ;-)

Silly girls!

While we do love to let the kids play and wear off energy, we also like to eat!  Next on the agenda was dinner and dessert at Zaharako's.

Zaharako's is an adorable old fashioned ice cream parlor.  Eric and I ate there two years ago and we fell in love with it!

We were blessed to have a private room in the back.  {Or should I say that the other diners were blessed?! Ha!}

The parlor was covered with Christmas decorations and I just loved it!

We settled in for some wonderful food and, as always, some light entertainment from the kids!

I can honestly say that I adore my family.  When we are all together, it's just easy.  Fun.  And, sure, we probably annoy each other, but we don't care!  We love each other anyway.

And, yes, folks...we caught my dad smiling twice in one evening!  You saw it here!  ;-)  We all know that my dad is a quiet man.  A man of few words.  But, when it comes to his family -- especially his grand kids -- he is passionate.  And he smiles...a lot!  You can't really celebrate my mom without celebrating my dad.  They are a package deal!  He loves and takes care of her in the most precious ways.  They are truly a great, godly model for their children.  I could not love them more.  Period.

After dinner, we were ready for some yummy desserts.  Sundaes, special ice cream cups with sprinkles, and large brownie sundaes for two...whatever we chose, it was wonderful!

I'm so glad that we had this evening together to celebrate my mom.  {This picture here made me miss my little Levi. :-(  I really wish that he'd been well enough to join us!}

MOM - I hope you know how deeply we love you.  You inspire us.  You love us unconditionally.  You challenge us.  You show us grace and you are always a good example to us.

My prayer is that we will leave a legacy behind that will make you proud.

Happy Birthday to the best Mom and Grammy ever!  We love you so much!!