Weekend Recap - Christmas Round 1

Happy Monday friends! How are you? How was your weekend? What did you do? Attend Christmas parties, or family gatherings, travel out of town to see lights? We had a fabulous and busy weekend and one I can't wait to share with all of you. Friday night consisted of our normal get things caught up around the house, have a glass of wine and enjoy the rest of the evening just relaxing.  Saturday morning I got up at 6 a.m., grabbed my closest Starbucks favorite latte and headed off to the mall so that I could be one of the early birds there at 7 a.m. when they opened.  Though there were others who had the same ideas as I did, there wasn't a lot of people there really at 7 a.m.  I was able to get a little bit accomplished that morning at the mall, but not as much as I had hoped, so off to other stores I went. Needless to say, I shopped from 7 a.m. until about 1 p.m. but was able to get everything completely finished finally! Whew, talk about a long day!

Then after getting home, I began all of my wrapping, as my son was at work and we were celebrating Christmas Sunday together with he and his girlfriend. Once everything for them and my husband was wrapped, I got cleaned up and Mr. A and I were off to the movies to see this:

 

It was pretty good, but I think Mr. A was a tad disappointed, however.  But, I am not giving away any spoilers so I won't mention anything more other than it was definitely worth seeing.  After the movie, we got home and did a few other things to prepare for Sunday and off to bed to relax, we went. Sunday morning we got up and started at everything again, except this time I had to finish wrapping my daughter's gifts and get those ready to haul to Missouri this Thursday afternoon. Once that was completed and my son was up and his girlfriend were here, we began dinner and then started opening gifts.  We had a wonderful time and each got some really nice things. Here are a few from our gift exchange:

Mr. A being his usual silly self

My boys were opening their gift certificates here that I got them to the Gun Range

They were excited as it will be a perfect father/son fun time 

Our son is a junior at U of H and pretty much wanted any and all things U of H related this year, so he was really easy to buy for

 Mike and his girlfriend, Stephanie - he gave her some sort of "sand" that you play with (you can buy it at Brookstone, just FYI - it was pretty neat stuff)

I got Mr. A a truck bed cover for his new truck, and just some other things in general that he wanted/needed.  A few of my spoils this year from Mr. A, our son and his girlfriend:

My son and his girlfriend got me this really cool case that opens up (what I say is like a tackle box) but it is a makeup/accessorie box for traveling and it's really big and SO SO NEAT.  The kids also got me a wonderful banana nut bread candle and other little stuff to go with it.  Hubby got me the Bath and Body Works along with a Michael's gift card and a Bed, Bath and Beyond gift card, along with a few other small items and stocking stuffers.

However, the big gift he got me this year is this gorgeous Jane Seymour open hearts necklace in Diamonds and Sapphires.  Ya'll this picture doesn't even come close to doing it justice. IT.IS.GORGEOUS and I lurve it! :)  He did good, didn't he?! I can't wait to wear it to work today. 

After the gift exchange, we had a nice dinner, took a few obligatory photos by the tree:

 

 

 

and then waited for it to get dark. Once it got dark, we headed off for our annual looking at Christmas Lights activity.  Here are a few from the drive by's:

These two houses were side by side and literally went all out.  They had everything you could imagine in their yards and it was connected by a big archway.  Mr. A said they had at least $5,000 worth of stuff in their yard.  They won some big award for their yard decor too.  This first photo is of the original rudolph cast and rudolph's nose lights up and glows, though you can't really tell it here in this photo:

This was a neighbor's down the road:

Another really neat one:

And this house won the most religious of 2015 - it was really beautiful in person:

And this one was one of my favorite "simple" ones. It was really pretty too:

After that, we headed back home and relaxed the rest of the night watching Christmas movies and enjoying the down time.  It was a very busy weekend to say the least, but one filled with fun, love and laughter with family and friends.  How was your weekend? Can't wait to hear all about it! 

Today I'm linking up with B Loved Boston for the weekend link up party, so come play along! :)

Thanks for stopping by to say hello and please let me know you were here so I can come read all about your weekend as well. Have a great day peeps and cheers to a short work week! :)

Lots of love and hugs,