Holiday Time in the Big O

The weekend before Christmas, we headed out to Odessa with my mom and sister to see my family. It's weird now that Mom doesn't live there, but we stayed with Aunt Abby and Uncle Justin and had a great time. My dad (Q's Pawpaw) was there too, so we got some good quality family time in.

 

Of course the box is more entertaining than the toy inside.

 

Friday night we went over to my Aunt Sandra and Uncle Randy's house and we got to see my Pawpaw and Sherri, cousins Aron, Tommy and Paige and we had a great time catching up. Quinn took to Paige since she loves other little kids and they played a lot. The best part of the night was watching Quinn try to avoid the cow skin rug on the floor. I guess she thought it was an animal and didn't want to step on it, so she stayed away and even slammed on her breaks when she was running and playing so she could avoid the rug. She also got to see some "friends" hanging on the wall since my Uncle Randy is an avid hunter. Quinn just waved and said hi.

Saturday we got to spend some time with my mom, Emily, Justin and Abby. My Great Aunt Judi graciously let us have Christmas at her house. We opened gifts and of course, Q loved her new book. She also loved seeing all the Santas around her house but she wasn't getting near the 4-foot creepy looking Santa. Smart girl.

Nannie Mae taught Q how to hold her "purse" so now she puts it on her arm and says "bye bye." 

After that we headed over to my Aunt Kerri's to spend time with my Dad, Kerri and her family and Mimi and Tom. We opened our gifts from them and Quinn was so excited to get some fun new toys and clothes. My dad got her two convertible car seats, so that was my favorite gift. He actually gave them to us before we left for our trip so Quinn could have one for the 6-hour drive. Oh, and we decided to go against recommendations and turn Quinn around. I think they recommend waiting until they are two years old, but she HATES being in the car and facing forward has helped w/ the fits tremendously. I think she's safer when we can drive w/ our sanity!!

Q couldn't get over my aunt's family brand on the floor. She was saying "twinkle twinkle."

Mimi got Q this huge animal of some sort. It's bigger than she is and we named it Dot.

Once again, carrying her purse.

We headed back to Austin on Sunday so we could spend Christmas Eve and Day at home. That's my new rule. I want Quinn to wake up at home on Christmas morning and for us to have our own special Christmas morning time. Christmas traditions are a huge part of my childhood and I hope to start some fun ones for our family too!