The Queen's Chronicles - Christmas Memories 2016

Christmas is always my favorite time of year! The people, the food, the memories and of course the presents! I’m wrapping up our Christmas memories in todays Queen’s Chronicles so hold tight it’s a long one.

Our office lunch was the beginning of the week long splurge as I devoured my main course and this cheesecake topped with apple pie!!

We hooked up for some McJanac fun with our friends the McBerty’s for our annual ringing of the bell.

Typically the Salvation Army request a two our commitment so it has worked nicely to split with our besties and have the boys take a shift and the girls take a shift. The girls typically are a little more festive with some singing and typically they bring in the cash!

In 2016 Jordan and I really tried to have a monthly date night but with our fall birthday marathon we had not hooked up in months. We splurged and had a fun dinner at a fancy restaurant.

The last little push! I had quite a few packages waiting for me and had been leaving treats and bottles of water for our delivery guys.

I did share a special Christmas memory from 1999 which also included the recipe for my Meme’s cookies!

Which we officially made 10 batches of the week leading up to Christmas! We delivered lots of these goodies to friends and family and may or may not have eaten our share.

Happiness is homemade and I shared a couple more of our favorite recipes like these amazing pecan tarts.

Christmas haircuts were on the agenda for both Carly Jo and Dillon as well as eye appointments. Had Santa known the dough that would be dropped on new glasses there may have been fewer packages! eek!

I spent a few hours helping this guy finish up his Christmas list. He may have opened every duck call in Gander Mountain to blow it.

On the 23rd we had dinner at a favorite Mexican food restaurant complete with mariachis and then began a new family tradition. We headed to Target and everyone, including Keith & I, had $20 to spend purchasing one item for each others stockings. Y’all, I cannot take credit for this as a friend with older children does this but it was so much fun! I think we spent 30 minutes opening our stockings one by one and finding out who picked what and why. My favorite? Dillon got me a wooden D because “he’s my favorite child”. Next year there will be a prize for the person who comes closet to $20 without busting! Three of us busted but Carly Jo would have gotten the prize this year and I was super impressed with her shopping!

Christmas eve is always spent with the Janac side of the family. All who can join together for some food and fun.

I actually was able to snap a picture with Keith’s dad and stepmom which I do not always remember to do!

Fifteen of the twenty-three cousins were present which did include the youngest, Jubilee Joy, who is 5 weeks old. Dillon is like the little baby whisperer and I’m always happy he’s willing to comply when we toss a newborn his way.

William loved Dillon and thought he was hilarious; especially since Dillon was feeding him fruit rollups.

I seriously cannot believe this girl is going to be the big 4-0 in just a few weeks! I met Heather when she was 20 and then Keith and I introduced her to his cousin and we all got married just a few weeks apart. Nothing like turning a bestie into kinfolk!

My favorite night when all is calm and all is bright! Well, kind of….Dutch was not impressed when Santa arrived at midnight and I was a little afraid the entire house had been awakened.

Christmas morning and we really, really tried to take a picture! First fail, well, we are missing someone in this shot!

The out takes just got better and better. Pesto is only yawning in the 1st picture but seeing Riley’s reaction in picture two makes it appear otherwise. He was actually just complaining that his butt hurt sitting on the ground. In the last picture Jordan is clearly annoyed with the entire process!

Best we could do this year! I love this crazy bunch!

On to Kielman Christmas and it was like 80 degrees. You would think the little kids would be the issue but as you can clearly see it was the big kids, two of MY big kids, who were causing us to take

At least there was some cooperation for a quick picture with Nana.

Christmas 2016…thats a wrap! Looking forward to one more week of downtime before the kids head back to school and I head back to work. I’d like to say there will be something productive accomplished but it’s very, very doubtful.

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas and wishing you the best in 2017!