Boerne Celebrations

December 2014

From Louisiana, we headed west down I-10 to Boerne on the day before Christmas Eve. We arrived just in time for dinner - an uneventful trip other than the tick that Tommy found and managed to disengage from the base of poor Olivia's neck. There weren't any ill effects of the bite, but it scared Mommy and Daddy quite a bit and there was a lot of googling the proper way to remove a tick. Ha!

Jack was excited to have some Minecraft buddies!

I loved seeing Olivia play with this Sesame Street playhouse - it was one of my favorite toys to play with at my Grandma Rose and Granddaddy's house when I was little!

On Christmas Eve, we all made sugar cookies and decorated them. Great Grandma Dot was our star baker and everyone else helped out:

It took a lot of focus to decorate those cookies!

But everyone was proud of their creations!

Santa called again this year to be sure the kids had been good and let them know he would be stopping by later that night (love my Uncle Roy!):

It's a Bitler family tradition to have a heavy appetizer meal on Christmas Eve. Look at this delicious spread!!

The kids got dressed in their matching PJs and tried our best to take some cute pictures. Here they are - it is a good thing that they are cute because they won't sit still at all!

 

Doesn't our little stinker look sweet!?

 We all watched Elf together...

And drank hot chocolate after getting Santa's treats ready...

And then, of course, Grandma read The Night Before Christmas. They all love their stories from Grandma!

We woke up the next morning to a very happy tree (and some stockings that were WAY too full!

Everyone opened stockings first:

 

 

And then moved on to what Santa had left under the tree. Jack loved his Minecraft sword and bow and arrow set:

And his Ninja Turtle:

While the Doc McStuffins doctor coat and bag and puzzle were Christmas morning favorites for Livi:

Of course, even with all of the new presents, there was still time for some Minecraft ;)

The boys moved outside in the afternoon for some fun with swords and bows and arrows. Jack took a few minutes just to contemplate the day:

But soon moved onto more exciting endeavors - shooting the new bow and arrow:

This is one of my favorite photos ever. Tough guys!

Livi, Grandpa and Riley enjoyed the beautiful weather, too.

We had a delicious Christmas dinner, complete with fiery Christmas pudding for dessert and Christmas crackers to pull. Don't we all look cute in our Christmas cracker hats?!

 The next day, we took a drive down to San Antonio for a fun boat ride on the Riverwalk:

 

Jack needed a haircut, but isn't he cute?!

Livi was enthralled:

 The Riverwalk was so pretty with all of the lights hanging from the trees:

After the boat ride, we walked along the Riverwalk for a while. It was really crowded, so keeping up with 4 kids was a challenge, but we managed not to lose any!

 We made it all the way to the Alamo. They had this pretty tree lit up right in front:

 Sisters!

Brother and sister - the next generation!

Sadly, we had to leave the next morning, but we did manage to get this family photo, including the whole crew!

The time passed way to quickly, but we had such a nice time in Boerne this Christmas. Memories that will last a lifetime!