Tender Tennessee Christmas

It may just be the sappiest Lee Greenwood song ever written, but whenever I think about Christmas in Tennessee, this is the soundtrack in my head.  "Tender Tennessee Christmas."  We were excited to start our Tennessee Christmas celebrations, so we got an early start the day after Christmas.  Keep in mind, we had returned from Colorado late on the 22nd, prepared for and celebrated Christmas and then quickly packed up for a visit to Tennessee.  To say that my house was a disaster would be an understatement!  We repacked all of our bags and headed down for some fun with cousins!  First stop was Grandmother Chamber's house. We don't often visit her house because she has a lot of fragile collectibles right at child level, but I know she enjoys having us there.  I was on pins and needles, though, with five children set loose in that house!!  The kids were good, but they're KIDS and they don't always do what you would expect.  Added to that, Grandmother gave each child a light up bouncy ball!  It was a nightmare!!  Regardless, Grandmother enjoyed her visit and her gifts and we had a great time seeing her and linking up with Ava and Myla and Nan and Poppa.

Cousins, together at last.  Our kids have SO MUCH FUN together!  It's really just nonstop hilarity and fun with these guys and Grandmother is just as much of a young person as they are.  Do you like her hat??

These guys were ready for some big fun!  Nan and Poppa give almost free rein when it comes to juice boxes, chocolate milk, fruit snacks and popcorn and there's all KINDS of fun toys at their house.  It's a kid's paradise!!  We took one last photo with Grandmother.  See those balls?  Now imagine all five of them flying in different directions at the same time!!

That evening, we celebrated Christmas with a delicious meal and PRESENTS!  I think gifts are one of the only things that could have induced this crew to pose for us!

Myla is a MESS!!  She was so excited about all her Christmas gifts and especially enjoyed her dress up clothes.  I think she was a bride for the majority of the visit!  Tristan and Bennett both received these laser guns.  We had epic space battles all around Nan and Poppa's house!

Nan knows what to give her little science lovin' grandchild!  A real anatomy book!  She LOVES it.  It's a bit graphic when it comes to the reproductive system, including some photos that are bound to provoke questions one of these days, but I guess it's a good way to introduce that subject!  Brent got an Edison High School Football hat, the school that he played football for in high school.  With that hat on, he could pass for a high school football player!

Brent's mom made this awesome t-shirt quilt for him out of t-shirts from high school and college.  It's really neat to go back and look at all his shirts.  The kids love this quilt and fought over who would have it in bed with them, but we've settled on keeping it in the living room for our family movie nights.  Ava was more impressed with her Cinderella doll we got for her.

We had a wonderful time giving and receiving our gifts from Nan and Poppa.  For some reason, I never got all my kids photographed with them.  You'd think with the thousands of photos that Amy and I take between the two of us we would have thought of it!

The rest of our visit consisted of countless hours of painting, coloring, Ipad, imagination, popcorn, movies, horse feeding, golf cart riding and lots of eating.  I can't get over how well my kids get along with their cousins.  My kids might fight like cats and dogs amongst themselves, but we add in Ava and Myla and we have relatively few altercations.  Incredible!  Love these girls!

The kids usually all bunk out in Nan and Poppa's room, but they had to catch an early flight on the day we left, so we set up beds for the kids in the family room.  All four big kids slept together and did really well in the same "bed."  I have a feeling they'll be requesting this sleepover next time we visit!

On our way out of town, we visited with Grandpoppa.  It's really different being at Grandpoppa's house at Christmas since Grandmother died.  She always had lots of Christmas decorations up and the place felt festive.  Grandpoppa had a few things up, no doubt put up by Brent's aunts. It just doesn't feel the same.  He was happy to have some very energetic visitors, though, and the kids happily depleted his chocolate supply before departing!  All in all, it was a good visit and we treasured our Tennessee Christmases!