A Florida Christmas

We were so excited to head down to Florida to spend this Christmas with my family! If you remember correctly, last Christmas (2012) we drove all the way from New Haven, Connecticut to Byron, Georgia (basically a 19 hour drive) to surprise Matthew's family. Well, this year, the journey was much shorter to get to our family. We're living in Byron now, and Pensacola (where my brothers live) is just a short six hour drive. So much easier!

Cookie time! Dad and I are usually in charge of the rolling and baking. Sophia helped a little too!

But everyone loves to help decorate!

Mimi and Fifi!

'Lijah Boy!

Daddy and Fifi.

The girls.

Uncle Aaron and Sophia. In case you're wondering, Cy took a lot of these pictures, which is why he isn't in them!

Sophia posing by the tree on Christmas Eve.

Yeah...seven is an awkward age...

We unintentionally wore matching shirts.

Matthew gave Elijah a lesson on the guitar. 

We opened a few gifts on Christmas Eve, he was quite thrilled with this one!

So was his daddy when he opened up his present. It was a banjo, which he knew he was getting, he was just being silly.

This boy loves musical instruments, so he was happy.

Building Lego with Uncle Cy. Umm, they did this a lot!

Christmas morning!

Stocking time, someone was a little groggy!

Presents!

They couldn't wait to dig in! But first we had to drag some uncles out of bed.

Bringing Uncle Cy a present.

More musical instruments (this one is just a toy, though.)

Posing sweetly before she tore the paper off!

Of course I had to start putting together Cinderella's castle immediately.

So, Matthew got me snorkeling gear and my mom got me awesome running shirts!

And last but not least, my dad and I both ran in a four mile race a few days after Christmas and won our respective age groups. Merry Christmas to us!