Christmas Day 2011

Christmas Day this year was a little different than usual. This year, my Dad actually got 4 tickets to the Mavericks first basketball game of the season. The one where they were going to hang their championship banner from last season and play the Miami Heat...who they beat last season! Pretty awesome. He orginially got the tickets for me and my 3 siblings to go. But, I gave my ticket to my Dad because I didn't want to miss most of Christmas Day with Badi and the boys. I'm glad I decided against it, it was worth it to be with my little family of 4. :)

So, because the game was at 1pm - we had to squeeze in gifts at our house first thing in the morning, then rush to my parents house for a big Christmas breakfast, then gifts with everyone over there before they all left for the game at 11am! Whew! It was a whirlwind morning, but, a lot of fun! After Christmas at my parents, we headed right over to Badi's cousin Leyla's house for lunch and family time with his side of the family. We also took my Mom with us so she wouldn't be home alone while everyone was at the game. :)

Before we left for my parents, we went to see what Santa left for Jacob and Noah...

Jacob got his train set! Badi set it up for him later that night since we were in a big hurry. (good thing, too, it took him like 2 hours!! poor guy!)

Noah's big gift from Santa was an activity cube!

I had to take a picture of our tree this year because the amount of gifts under it was unreal. I told my parents we may need to start drawing names next year, haha. :)

Badi got me the sweetest sign. He actually got into my pinterest account and looked around at things I was pinning. He found something similar to this sign and contacted the lady and had one made for me. It says "there's these boys that stole my heart, they call me mom." I LOVE it!!

Another absolute favorite....the first thing he ever bought me was a diamond heart necklace for our first Valentine's Day. I have no idea how, but, I lost it a few years ago. I was absolutely crushed. I used to wear it every day. He bought me a replacement this year. :)

I got Badi some boring clothes. Then after all the gifts were done. On the way out of the door, I told him he had one last surprise gift. He opened a small bag that had one of Jacob's matchbox racecars in it. I told him that his gift was he was going to have the chance to go to Texas Motor Speedway and actually DRIVE one of the cars on the race track! It's actually a 3 hour NASCAR experience. We're not really into NASCAR, but, I knew he would be so excited to have the chance to drive one of the racecars!!!! Here's the link. Even better, I called his cousin's wife and she ordered one for her husband so they can go together. He was so excited. :)

Then we headed over to my parents house. We thought our tree was filled with gifts, then we saw their tree. WOAH!

I didn't take as many pictures of gifts because we were trying not to take 3 hours to open everything and I was taking video and helping the kids. But, here are some of the highlights and some of my favorite things! Noah got a personalized/recorded book from my sister. It's a Thomas the Train book with my sister reading it to him. I LOVE it. And, on the last page, she says "we love you, Noah Bear!" Then, all of my family members say their name and in unison say "we love you Noah". I definitely started crying. :)

This was the year of the Keurig! Badi bought me one. He told my brother about a good deal he found. So, my brother bought one for his girlfriend, Amy. Then, we saw the deal was still going...so we bought one for my parents. Ha. K-cups for everyone!!!! :) We love it!

Jenny wanted her own cookie press to make Spritz cookies! YUM! :)

This was one of the things I was most excited about. I framed the actual Dallas Morning News paper from this past June with the Dallas Mavericks Champions headline and matted everything myself for both of my brothers. They loved it! Jimmy is even wearing his jersey in this picture before he heads to the game, ha. :)

Jacob got about 6 new Thomas & Friends trains for his train set. He started opening them immediately!

We got Quelf - the board game, Kinect for our XBox, clothes, Badi - tools, me - jewelry. Awesome, awesome gifts!

My Dad has been looking for a nice VA Tech polo forever, every time we visit VA. I finally ordered one for him from the Hokie Planet store. He was excited. :)

I made custom photo 2012 calendars for my Mom and sister with all of our family birthdays, anniversaries, etc printed in.

Then, after gifts were over...my parents said they had one last gift for Jacob (and Noah later, ha). We left the room and came back in and saw this. Jacob flipped. His very own Lightning McQueen car to drive outside. Soooo cool!

He had to try it out immediately. Surprisingly, it actually goes pretty fast!

Love my siblings so much!!!

Group shot, minus Badi taking the pic.

Mimi and Pops with their grandkids. :)

Lastly, here's a few photos from Leyla's house for lunch. We had such a great day!

Noah and his cousin, Martin. They were born only 5 hours apart..but, Martin was 1am so they have different birthdays! :)

The whole group!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!! We missed everyone in Virginia so much!!