Amy, Robert and Bryson: Christmas Eve

This year we did Christmas Eve a little different. Robert's mom had to work on Christmas so we did his family's Christmas on Christmas Eve afternoon. We had some yummy spaghetti from Joe's Italian and of course their delicious strawberry cake. Bryson got so many fun things and so did me and Robert. I got a beautiful pair of diamond hoop earrings from Robert's mom and he got an X-Box Kinect. I haven't worn earrings in a really long time so I was surprised that my holes hadn't closed up, but those earrings totally inspired me to wear earrings more. Robert loves his Kinect. We haven't bought any Kinect games yet but we have played around with the one that came with it. After gifts, we played gift card dirty Santa. It was a lot of fun. Robert ended up a Stix gift card and I got a Target gift card. Unfortunately our camera battery died so we didn't get many pictures but here are the few we did get.

After spending time with Robert's family, we went home to get ready for our traditional IHOP dinner. As soon as we were about to walk out the door we heard the firetruck. Santa rides around Helena on the firetruck and will come down all the streets in neighborhoods and throw candy to the kids. We were lucky enough to see him last year but Bryson was too young to know what was going on and the sirens scared him. We were really hoping to see him this year, so we bundled up Bryson and waited outside for him. His friends from across the street came over too. After about an hour or so, and no Santa in sight, we decided to go ahead and eat dinner. We decided to stop and look at a few Christmas lights first. We found a house in Helena that has lights set to music on the radio. We just wanted to do a quick drive-by but people had pulled over and parked their cars. We stopped for a quick look then headed to IHOP. Bryson fell asleep on the way and of course we drove past Santa on the firetruck. I tried so hard to wake him up so he could see him, but he was out cold. This made the first half of our dinner very interesting. He screamed and pitched a fit in the restaurant until he got his pancakes and eggs. I ordered the egg nog pancakes and they were amazing. Robert got some massive omelet that he shared with Bryson. We ended up having a wonderful dinner. After dinner we put Bryson in his pj's and headed to The Preserve to look at lights. Bryson stayed awake for the majority of the neighborhood but fell asleep on the way home. We were able to slip him into bed without him waking up. Once he was asleep, Santa had to get to work. He brought Bryson so many cute things. Me and Robert always exchange gifts Christmas Eve night so once Santa was finished, we swapped gifts. I bought him an autographed Auburn National Championship book, the DVD set Defining Moments of Auburn Football, an 8x10 autographed picture of Michael Dyer (sadly he's not on the team anymore), and an 8x10 autographed picture of Cam Newton and Gene Chizik. Robert bought me a Kindle Fire and I love it! It was the only thing I wanted for Christmas so I'm so happy I got it.