Christmas time, the best time of the year!! And having our first married Christmas has been the best Christmas yet by far! We are finally together for real for Christmas!
So Christmas for us basically started December 8th and went through the 28th (We like to spread holidays out in our family).
So starting the weekend of December 8th, Cody and I finished buying family gifts, each other's gifts, and started wrapping them all. We kept our presents for each other under the tree for weeks to build anticipation ;).
I was surprised at how well my honey can wrap gifts and how much tape you can possibly fit on one present #went through 3 rolls lol
While caught up in the excitement of wrapping presents I started to smell something funny. I knew I was in the process of cooking Cody supper but I looked over in the toaster oven and saw black and popped the toast out and quickly made another lol. Does it look burned to you? I don't know it might still have been ok....?🙊🙈
So for the week of the 12th I went to Walmart and bought cookie supplies and decorative boxes for Cody and I's Christmas gift for our family. Since this is our first year being married, we wanted to give back to our family for all the support and help each of them have given us this past year of planning and helping us set up our little place. I don't know what we honestly would do without family. So as our Christmas gift to them (which we hope to continue for our tradition every year as our own small family) we gave them a box full of four different types of cookies:
Peanut butter kiss cookies which are our favorite.
Sugar cookies with icing in between and rolled in sprinkles.
Red velvet crinkle cookies (another family favorite)
And my unique recipe of marble swirl cookie of half chocolate chip cookies and the other half brownie cookies.
The night before we left for our Nana's Christmas to kick off the festivities, we made rounds to all of our family members in Chattanooga, visited, and dropped off the cookies.
So the next afternoon we picked up our cousin Nathan and made the drive to Gatlinburg. On the way there as we entered the back roads of Pigeon Forge we passed the most breathtaking church with the gorgeous sunset setting behind it.
Besides Nana, we were the first ones to arrive at the casbin and toured the three story cabin quickly claiming our room (ours had a door directly to the porch and the hot tub, perfect for us!). It was so neat, the married grandkids got an entire floor to ourselves. The top floor had two bedrooms overlooking the living room, the main floor had two bedrooms and a nice living room, and the bottom floor had a pool table, separate living area, porch/hot tub, and two bedrooms. Within the next two hours everyone poured in and we were having an absolute blast together catching up and helping Nana cook dinner. And of course we used this time to set up our first annual prank for the older adults ;). Before most of us got here, me, Cody, and Nathan went around the cabin hiding pictures of Nicholas Cage pictures (such as below) all around the cabin. We plastered it on the inside of the toilet lids, inside the shower wall behind the curtains, underneath the covers in their beds, and inside the microwave to scare the poop out of people! It was epic. BEYOND EPIC. Easily the best prank year yet and it had just begun. So all through the weekend we heard loud gasps as each picture was found (oh and by the way the pictures were the size of a standard copy paper sheet of paper :):)) The first few found were found in the toilet and under the sheets. We designed it slowly that way so the surprises could last all weekend. *evil laugh
So night time rolled around and we all got in our pj's and I came up with one of the best surprises, my shirt. Everyone loved it so much. Cody found this at Walmart and had to get it for me for our Dyar Christmas because I've never seen a family Christmas more like the Griswolds than ours!
We then iced our cookies which is one of my favorite things about Nana's Christmas. I always make two of the colors and try my best to make civil beautiful cookies now that I'm older, but one always sneaks in like that camel. It is a camel that stepped on a land mine and the blood splattered everywhere on it. I promise I'm not graphic, it is tradition for us and you should see everyone else's ones! I was just proud I only did one this year!
This is Cody's cookies and he is still learning how to do the family graphic cookies so he did a scuba diver Santa. We are working on that ;) Still really creative though!
So after cookies, the older adults started going to bed one couple at a time until it was just us grandkids left at 3:30am. We used this window of opportunity wisely because we knew our uncle Wade wakes up an hour later and we started operation prank #2. So we gathered around the pool table with a bunch of gag gifts strategizing which older adult gives these gifts to the other. See, our prank is us gathering random gag gifts to give to the older adults from other older adults such as: From Nana to Jody, From David to Wade. And when our Nana passes them out, the person "giving" the gift will start to silently panic inside thinking oh my goodness I didn't give a gift but I don't want to take it back because it looks bad to do, and I'll just go along with it just in case someone else got it for me to give that person. So they sit there silently anxious to see and own up to their 'gift' while the person receiving the gift silently panics because they didn't give that person a gift and feel really bad. So if you can follow that, it really is genius. So for the next hour we wrapped these fake gifts and practiced forging their handwritings and placed the 8 gifts under the tree among the rest of the gifts. They fit right in and no one suspected a thing. The reason that aspect worked because when we all came to the cabin, we always put our own gifts under the tree for people so it didn't look suspicious. So we went to sleep with so much excitement and anticipation and woke up at 8am.
So after our yummy sausage balls breakfast, Nana sat us all around like usual and started passing out the presents. The first phase was for Nana not to be suspicious or recognize the forged
"To and From's" handwriting and it worked! Nana didn't even hesitate! So the gifts were successfully passed out to their new "owners" and we started opening gifts. The first gag gift opened was my aunt Jody opening her gift from "Nana". It was a necklace box with hand sanitizer inside. Aunt Jody was immediately confused and looked at Nana and asked what the story was behind this hand sanitizer and Nana was like, I didn't give you that. Then Jody was like, but it has your name on it. And we were dying laughing inside but tried to hide our composure. So she just set it down confused as Nanas attention was pulled to something esle. Luckily there was so much chaos that no one noticed the odd exchange. The next fake gift opened was my uncle Wade opening a gift from my dad. His expression was priceless. He told me later that he was a little panicked because he and dad agreed not to do anything for each other that year, but the most surprised look was when he opened the army men first followed by the silly putty. It literally took him 5 minutes to decide dad really didn't give it to him. Luckily dad was across the room so he couldn't confront him or ask him what the heck it meant lol. The next gift was for my sweet daddy from sweet Jody. Man she is such a giver. She apparently wrapped up Nana's car keys and gave them as a gift to dad. Wow an entire car! And Nana's to be exact! Such a sweet gift. LOLOLOLOLOL. You should have seen the look of pure shock and surprise on Nana's face when she realized her car was a gift to dad hehehehe. I mean, the best "present" yet 😂😂😂😂😂. The next "gift" was to Tonya from Nana. It was a Dora the explorer puzzle. Tonya was so sweet and thanked Nana for the gift (but couldn't figured out why Dora, ironically she loves puzzles and Nana has actually given her puzzles in the past) and since Nana was so busy she didn't look at what she was holding and said you're welcome and went on. (Don't worry, 30 minutes later we told her it wasn't from Nana). The last "gift" from Nana was to Jody. It was a ring box with a Hershey kiss inside. And poor Nana since she was so caught up in the gifts and everyone opening the real gifts she never really picked up on the prank and when she opened the Hershey kiss from Jody she just looked at her super confused then thought we had gotten a hold of it and switched it and we all had a good laugh. See that is what I'm talking about loving pranks so much, but they are harmless and so much fun. They bring people closer together. That is the key. Well maybe they were all harmless besides us giving Nana's car away. 😂 (of course dad really didn't take it). So that started off our day just incredibly exciting and with lots of good laughs. And on a serious note we LOVED all the sweet thoughtful real gifts Nana got us. My favorite gift is the stadium chair she gave me so I can sit in for all of Cody's games!! I can use that for the rest of my life so many times a year.
So after presents, we all cleaned up and headed to our event, the Dixie Stampede!! We loved it so so much and ate our weight in chicken! The riders were so tallented and the show was so amazing! It really put us in the Christmas mood!
Pictures and videos weren't allowed but I managed to snap this photo before the show started. The Dixie Stampede was truly amazing and I highly recommend it to everyone!
Big group pic of the Dyar clan!
After the Dixie Stampede we went back to the cabin and played games and told stories until the wee hours of the night!
The next morning we all ate at our favorite resturant, Applebarn! I was so tasty and amazing! They always have birds inside the restuant an I just couldn't help but stare at these cute little lovebirds! They never left each other's side!
We all went our separate ways after breakfast, some going back to Chattanooga, some going back to the cabin, and our car visiting the Christmas store!! Cody and I (along with Nathan) were on a hunt for an angel to top our tree! We didn't even have a star so of course our preference was an angel so we scourged around the huge huge store, tying our hands to not want to buy everything lol and found our perfect angel! We then went back to the cabin to find everyone packing up which was odd because we were scheduled to leave the next morning. Apparently there was a predicted snowstorm coming and we were on a steep hill. In order for the working folk to make it back in time the next day and for our safety, with heavy hearts left a day early. Me, Cody, and Morgan stayed at Nana's house from Monday until Wednesday to spend time with our dad before he headed back to Atlanta since we only see him a few times a year. On Thursday we went home, unpacked and repacked for Gigi's Christmas, and after, went to Cody's papaw's assisted living homes Christmas party which was really sweet. After the party we left for Knoxville again that night.
We arrived at Gigi's house and were greeted with a big wet kiss from Sasha! Sweet doggie! We all trickled in as dinner time approached and ate stew and got into our matching pjs. We played family games, watched the adults open their presents, and went to bed at 4:00am. My family doesn't sleep y'all and I love it! Poor Sasha was so confused! She probably thought she missed bed time and it was the next day because she stayed up late with us all and she has a strict strict bed time of 9:00pm and has never in her 9 months of life gone over that time. So she was walking around all 15 of us very baffled.
The next morning we wake up at 8:00am to Sasha jumping on all of our beds! She beat us downstairs as all of us grandkids lined up on the stairs waiting for Gigi to let us down to the living room. We started with stockings and moved to the couch for the other presents. Gigi and Granddad are so sweet and always work so hard to think of us grandkids and what we need. Cody and I got our long wanted nightstands from them!! They are so beautiful and are a chocolate brown color! They are my favorite gift from them!!
Hey even Sasha got nice gifts! This is so priceless! She got her very own UT football jersey and even wore it for us! She ran around the house like a little football player! She fit right in!
And hey when push comes to shove and you've had a little too much fun, you might become a little sick from all the excitement. Poor Sasha (she was ok!)
Our matching pjs! The girls had matching ones and the guys did. It was so cool to be the married grandkid at Christmas! Times are changing!
This was the chaos of all the leftover trash from the present boxes and all of us 10 grandkids. The best part of this picture is Sasha! If you look really close you can see her with a panicked, what's going on face right in the middle of everything lololol.
I love the socks!! It seems like I always need socks lol.
So after we opened presents, we ate our morning rice breakfast Gigi made and left to the Raborns Christmas around 2:30pm.
As we traveled the trips back and forth between Gatlingurg, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, my little riding buddy Max (from the Grinch who stole Christmas) of course had to come along to double as a soft buddy, a comfy pillow, and a holder of my headband :).
We got to Cody's parents house around 7:00pm after our churches Christmas Eve performance which was amazing by the way (and Cody's first time going to church on Christmas Eve (I know, how did they not do that growing up, it was my family and I's favorite!)). We started off the night eating a big feast my mother-in-law made and then opened gifts and played a game and left early unfortunately................yeah.
Cody and I were exhausted and a little grumpy from lack of sleep and over stimulation of family and travel. Don't get me wrong, we wouldn't have it any other way but this was our first time home in over a week and our first time alone in the same room in over a week. So we settled down in our little 'home' and enjoyed each other's company and started our own traditions we wanted to implement for our little family for the years to come. Oh and I of course had to document my Christmas Eve outfit! I loved the Christmas leggings so so much! So me! (pic above)
So now at this point we were relaxed and ready for just our very own fun Christmas stuff just the two of us! I tell you, there is nothing better than married Christmas!! So late on Christmas Eve night, we started our thing. We got into our comfy pjs (and my fluffy new slippers which I love!) and watched The Christmas Story, "You'll shoot your eye out kid!" while we made our gingerbread house! Neither of our families have ever had the tradition of gingerbread houses so I though that would be a wonderful thing for us to start and have our future kids do!!
We then went to bed and woke up early because we were too excited about each other opening our gifts for one another!
(Closer picture of baby Cody!)
So we opened each other's presents and loved everything we got for each other! It was so much fun! Cody was so thoughtful with his gifts and we finally got to use our stockings!! For breakfast we had sausage balls that Nana left for us and we played with our presents and put them together (I got Cody a stationary bike that he had been wanting), and played football plays with Cody's new football game he got in the picture above! I love how he can now visually teach me his favorite plays so I can be the best coaches wife I can be!
One of the awesome gifts Cody got me was floam! It is a squishy slime that I love to play with! It came in like a painters pallet thing with different colors and glitter. (I am such a kid ;))
One of my favorite things is the clothes Cody ordered for me! (I made him a list because I like clothes!) I loved the shirt and the lace part in the front so much! Below is the cutout back and the cool lace features of the tank top underneath! We finished the day off seeing a movie and making brownies for dinner and watching Criminal Minds.
The next morning was my mom's Christmas at her house! It was so much fun!!! Cody and I got over there at 9:00am and all ate sausage balls with mom, Nana, and Morgan and then opened our presents. I made mom a huge Shutterfly picture book of my graduation, wedding showers, bridesmaids luncheon, rehearsal dinner, and the wedding. She loves pictures so much so she loved it which made me really happy because she is almost impossible to shop for. Mom made this Christmas so amazing and welcomed Cody into our little mix! It was so special. Mom takes so much time and energy to surprise us with the things she gets us and really goes the extra mile to listen carefully throughout the year to what we have been needing and wanting. Because of that we got really neat things including that really pretty hot pink rip stick that I had secretly been wanting for over 3 years. I am a stunt junkie and crave learning anything challenging like that or things like unicycles (which I can ride expertly!). Later that day, we all ate lunch together, bonded over family games, made hamburgers, and left around 10:30 at night. It was a blast!
A few days later we went to my uncle Wades house to watch the vols music city bowl game. *grumble growl, I'm trying to be positive about it because we should have been in a much bigger bowl game. But we had a blast together spending time with dad and having soup Jody made for all of us and playing board games! The Dyars are fun to be around! Even cousin Nathan was there! It's always a party when hes around!
And of course, I had to wear one of my favorite gifts from Cody, my UT alumni tshirt. Uncle Wade was so jealous lol. But I love it so much and it means so much to me! I can't wait to wear it to a game next season!! I was the most shocked person ever when I opened it up because I had looked so long for one online and couldn't find one! He is a sweetheart!
With so much love,
Kayla and Cody Raborn
1-22-17