Christmas Hustle and Bustle

      I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas! I know Cole and I have so far! 

              The weekend before Christmas we had a few of our close friends and my brother visit for a festive weekend in Clemson! Friday night we made tacos, and enjoyed a good old fashioned bonfire. Saturday we went bowling, enjoyed an early Christmas dinner (complete with tasty grilled steaks!), partook in our traditional Christmas cookie decorating and had a gift exchange! Sunday everyone said goodbye and headed back to Columbia. It was truly a great weekend. I am so glad we were able to enjoy some time during the holidays with some of our closest friends. The weekend seriously couldn't have been better!

Some of the Christmas Cookie Masterpieces

               Cole worked Christmas Eve, so I spent the day baking tasty treats to give as gifts. I made homemade Peanut Butter Cookies, Cranberry White Chocolate Bread, Forgotten (divinity) Cookies, Chocolate dipped pretzels, and hot chocolate mix! Cole helped with a few of them when he got home. I seriously enjoyed baking all of it so much. I will share the recipes on the blog soon! If I do say so myself, my peanut butter cookies are AWESOME! We made sure to get to bed early so we could get up and moving Christmas morning.
   
                Christmas Day was super, super busy! Cole and I left Clemson at seven in the morning, it was soooo early! When we got into Columbia our first stop was Cole's grandparents house, to catch up and spend some time with them. It was so great to see them, Cole used to live beside them so it has been an adjustment to not see them all the time. We headed to my parents house next. My favorite Christmas day tradition at my parents house is opening our stockings and eating our traditional Christmas quiche breakfast, so I insisted that we go spend the morning with them. I love, love, love Christmas breakfast, and of course it didn't disappoint this year! After we enjoyed breakfast, and opened our stockings and gifts with my family we went to Cole's parents house. It was great to spend some time with his brother, his parents and the rest of his family! Cole and his brother played Cole's new Call of Duty game, and we snacked (Cole scarfed down a ton of ham...because his parents cook a mean ham!), caught up and hung out with everyone. I made the pups holiday collars for Cole's mom, and they loved them!

The collars I made the pups

Dakota Loved hers!

She also loves her Dad! 

                We went back to my parents house for dinner with my parents and my brother. Finally we headed to Cole's Grandpa's house to drop in and say Merry Christmas and chit chat a bit before we headed back to Clemson with my brother in tow. We didn't get back to Clemson until after midnight, so we hit the sack and got up early the next day to take my brother to the airport so he could fly back to Pittsburgh.

My lovely parents, in front of their tree

Sibling Picture! (Two of my favorite men in my life)

The Essels - minus my sis! (missed you Ash)

My sweet boy - Next Christmas we will be "The Conners!"

 Our Christmases are always so so so busy, however I am so thankful we have the opportunity to visit and enjoy time with all of our family during the holidays. We are so blessed to have such a loving a supportive family, including our amazing friends!