A Florida Christmas

This year was the first time in my entire life that we weren't with extended family on Christmas.  We decided not to travel and just have a quiet Christmas with the four of us.  My brother was at Disney World and my mom was in Ohio with my sisters.  I really did miss seeing all the kids, but we still had fun celebrating with just our little family.  One awesome thing about being in Florida for Christmas is the amazing weather.  We were able to go see lights and go to Busch Gardens for Christmas Town and all of it without freezing!  On Christmas Eve we went to the candle light service at our church, which I always love, and for dinner afterwards we were going to go to Skyline to make us feel like we were having a bit of Ohio, but it ended up being closed so we ended up at Rumba which is one of my favorites.  They have a great patio and it was so weird to think that we were eating Christmas Eve dinner outside with palm trees!  We let the kids open a bunch of gifts from family when we got home. 

Christmas morning came early and didn't disappoint.  My boy was so excited to get Cozmo, the little robot he'd been wanting.  He was running around the house screaming from excitement.  His reactions to gifts are the best.  You can always tell if he likes something or not.  My girl got all new bedding and pillows to re-do her room.  She'd been wanting a more grown up style for a while and I knew that's what I wanted to get her and my husband kept questioning it since he really didn't get that bedding was a fun gift for a girl.  She loved it though and her new room looks beautiful!  She also got converse shoes, a Hollister hoodie and an Echo dot.  Yep, she's officially not a kid anymore with no toys for Christmas.
  
A couple days after Christmas my brother came to town after their "year of Disney" as we took to calling it, was over.  It was so fun to have them here and we got some beach time in and lots of sleepovers with the kids and fishing for the guys.  I hope they can come back next Christmas too!

Here are some of the many pics I took over the season!

We loved Busch Gardens at Christmas!  The lights were awesome and they had a really awesome show with the wise men telling the true story of Christmas.  That's fake snow in the top right pic.

Opening gifts.

Our tree had so many lights out this year and we added strands when we first put it up and then more went out so we just left it.  I still love our tree though and don't want a new one so we'll have to see if we can figure something out for next year.  So much for having a pre-lit tree.   Oh, and I just thought it was funny when I walked by our advent calendar one day after Christmas and noticed that one of my children had done an OCD version this year.

Horrible photo quality on all of these, but had to include them anyway.  Love my boy's face when he saw Cozmo.  We have a video too and it's so cute!

Love her new bedding!  It's so pretty!

I'm not usually one for robot type toys since they are usually forgotten about after the first few days, but Cozmo is really cute and he still plays with him.

I had to include these photos because they both make me laugh.  My boy wearing his Christmas socks he got from co-op with his flip flops and shorts in true Florida style. And my nephew posing with his emoji twin that his little sister bought him. We now call it the Ben emoji.  I love it!  :)

We got to see Grammy for a couple days before Christmas when she unexpectedly helped my brother drive to Disney because my sister-in-law threw out her back.  Grammy flew back to Ohio a couple days later but I'm glad we got to see her and find that fun beach sandman one day.  The other pics are from after Christmas when the cousins were in town.  My girl made that dog face out of seaweed.  She's so creative.

More beach shots.  My boy loves going to the beach when he has his cousin/bestie to play with there.

Gorgeous sunset.  Sometimes I still can't believe we live here!