Christmas with the Kingsleys

I know it's January, but you haven't yet heard of our Christmas with the Kingsley fam (that's my side of the family, in case you didn't know me then.) It was good to be home for Christmas, down there in the hot Louisiana weather, running around last minute buying gifts, falling asleep on the couch like us Kingsleys do, eating lots of candy and getting fruit in our stockings, and getting to laugh at things only my family laughs at.

It's funny how you grow up thinking every other family is just like your own. And then one day, maybe when you spend Christmas at someone else's house you realize that everyone does it a little different. Even if you still prefer your own.

Us Kingsleys we start in our rooms, all waiting around until we are all up, not dressed and ready, but in our pajamas and ready to run down the stairs like little kids. Yelling down the stairs to make sure it's okay before we come down to all the Christmas morning. Well... except this year, when apparently they ran down before me, lol.

We first get the candy. My mom always buys what I would call 'too much' candy, and then after I eat all of it I realize that I wish she would have bought more, lol. Used to the candy was in our stockings or spilling out of our stockings, but now it's usually in a big pile. Fun to rummage through.

And then there are the actual stockings. they are old, very old. I do believe they are made out of my grandmother or great grandmother's quilt. Once the quilt had too many holes they made them into stockings. I love them. Aren't they beautiful? They're always filled with fruit, some years someone forgets to eat the banana and then we have a mess, but most years we (or mom) gets the fruit out fast enough. Some people get actual large gifts in their stockings like giftcards and DVDs, I don't know about all that... seems sort of silly. I like a stocking with candy and fruit, and then the occasional socks or hairbrush or two.

Then there are the presents and the gift giving and the gift opening. Usually the tree is larger, but since Dad got his new recliner a few a years ago the big tree goes in the dining room, lol. So we used this one for the gift opening.

This was one of things I realized we did so differently. See we go one by one. Mom selects each gift from the tree in particular order and hands them out one at a time. Mom picks out a gift, hands it to the recipient, they open it (ripping the paper, or tearing each piece of tape like some of us), and they hold it up and we all ooo and aaahh and take pictures and then we move on to the next gift. It's fun to get to see everyone's faces. We don't do any of that all-at-once kind of thing, although I hear it works really well for some people...

This year seemed like extra fun buying Mom and Dad's gifts. You know, because us 'kids' are now old enough to sometimes figure out what they would like and buy them things without borrowing money from them to buy their gifts, lol. Christmas morning is just for gifts from them to us, from us to them, and then gifts for Grandma who's attended Christmas morning with us for a few years now... we love having her there!

So this year I saw my mom pointing out some LSU painted ornaments online. So I made her a few...

Breakfast is it's own deal entirely. We usually open gifts before breakfast, but some of us can't wait that long. So this year my brother Jared made some yummy pumpkin bread. Doesn't it look yummy?

This is my dad. In his recliner. Saying, "you aren't taking a picture of me are you?" I told him I was just trying out my new lens and his feet would only be in the picture that the rest of him would be 'fuzzy.' I like him.

Then for lunch we go with the cousins, the ones on my mom's side of the family. We've been doing it that way forever: Dad's side of the family for Christmas Eve, Mom's side for Christmas Day lunch. Lucky most all of the fam lives in the same town. Luckier for us, my mom's brother and his family live next door... like stepping stones between the two houses, no need to knock, next door.

So we headed over to their place for lunch. And my sister agreed to pose for me...

I like her too... sometimes we are the same...

So we had a great lunch, usually something out of the ordinary. Like gumbo or chowder or shrimp stroganoff this year. Usually something that's not turkey oddly enough, usually something with rise (we are in Louisiana), and always with my other aunt's homemade bread.

Then the gifts. The cousins draw names and exchange gifts. We've been doing this forever too. Kyle drew Jared's name... Jared asked for "wacky dress socks." This is Jared opening his socks...

They were super hero socks. Yep, socks with capes...

After all the hooting and hollering over the capes we did a few more gifts, like the annual gifts from Uncle Keith. He's gotten us some great stuff over the years, used to go to the Nike store and buy 8 of one thing in 8 increasing sizes and it fit us all perfectly. He's good like that. Now his gifts always have meaning to them, I like that too.

Then the games. Someone usually brings a new board game or card game and we spend the rest of the afternoon playing games and laughing at each other.  This year we broke out an older version of Phase Ten.

Retro cards, right? I'm not sure who ever won, we had to leave to come back to Texas before the tenth phase was ever reached.

Good times at Kingsley Christmas. Catching up, being lazy, running around, eating Christmas Eve lunch at Sam's Club because their pizza is sooo good and we were already out taking family pictures...

Merry late Christmas. I hope yours was wonderful too. Oh and that one was me jumping over a short brick wall of a fountain to get to the camera. Didn't know the timer was on for one more shot.  We'll have the final picture soon, don't worry.

Merry New Year. Yep, our tree's still up...