Gingerbread Houses, Bucks, and Cookies with Santa

Whew! We have been busy and it's only going to get crazier. But I love it! It is so fun to watch Jackson and how this holiday season causes his imagination to soar a little greater, his excitement to grow a little bigger, and how Christmas traditions become a little more important to his sweet little 4 year old heart.  Austin is smack-dab in the middle of the holiday fun, as well.  He just would rather watch what his big brother is doing and eat all the candy :).  So with all the said, here is a recap of all our Christmas doings..........

We made a Gingerbread House

 It was the cute little kit from Walmart that cost about $9.  Easy steps, nice clean packaging with tons of candy.  We failed to let the royal icing set-up for 15 minutes like we were supposed to before decorating so that made for some interesting building strategies. BUT, I was determined to have fun (as you can see on my face) , dang-it!

 Big guy got after decorating, little guy got after eating the decorations!

 Making progress with peppermints..........

 And VIOLA! The finished product........... Look at the droopy heart gumdrop windows- Haha! It was a good attempt!

In other news, look who tied his shoe for the first time?! At Chili's nonetheless on Friday night!  So we celebrated with the Muppet's movie, popcorn, and Goobers.

 And Nick finally got his wall-hanger he has been searching for! 

 He was so proud of his 8 point, 202 pound deer.........

 Our little men were especially proud of their Daddy. I guess we will never go hungry again...

Can y'all imagine having to really hunt for your dinner? Like hunting for the season was what your family depended on to actually eat dinner each night. Wow, talk about pressure.  Thank goodness for Super-1 meat case.  This will help us out, though :)

Then guess what we did? We loaded that bad boy in the back of my Yukon.  Sacrifice, y'all.  Check out my hot pink chair and the roll of toilet paper. HAHA! Oh my gosh, could it be true? A redneck is being born? Nope...just a hunter's wife who is ready to get home.  I seriously was praying we would not have a moment like the scene in Tommy Boy where the deer in their backseat mysteriously awakens and tears their car to bits. Thanks goodness, he was indeed dead and we made it to the processing plant in one piece.

 So from big bucks to Sunday afternoons with Santa, we took the boys to have cookies with Santa at the Prudhomme House right off of Front Street.  It's a beautiful historic plantation home.

 And you gotta love meltdown-photos with Santa. Austin wants absolutely nothing to do with him and Jackson thankfully can't get enough of him. Oh well, there is always next year!

 So, we made reindeer food with the cute little Christmas Festival pageant princesses.....

 And made bracelet bling........

 And ended the visit with acrobatic attempts on really old historic Oak trees.....

I am so happy to report all our Christmas presents are wrapped 2 weeks before Christmas! This has never happened before. 

Merry Christmas, y'all.