Christmas at Nana and Baboo's 2011

This year we celebrated Christmas at Nana and Baboo's house with a breakfast on December 27th.  The cousins woke up and played for a while.  They all hung out near the Christmas tree.  It was so cute to see them all anxious to open their presents.  We had to keep Walker away from the gifts because he would open them all.  Nate helped with that by keeping him busy and entertaining our wild man.  

Nate is such a sweetheart to Walker.  He takes such good care of his little cousin and loves to hug on him.  Walker just adores Nate and Luke.  I love pictures like these of the cousins having fun hanging out and just being together.  It melts my heart.  We do not see our Georgia cousins nearly enough.  We are going to try and see them more this year.

We couldn't contain the little ones for long.  They were ready to get the party started.  So before we had breakfast, we shared and opened gifts.  MK got 2 really cool pop up books from Nana and Baboo.  She loves the Princess pop up book and looks at it all of the time.

Luke and Nate seemed to really like their dragon pop up books too.

Walker got a bard book because he is too young for a pop up book.  He would tear it up!

MK got the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls and Walker got a fun boat with fish and a ride on toy.

All the girls got Hello Kitty blankets and umbrellas.  These were huge hits with all 3 of them.  Stella had to make sure her umbrella worked.

The adults exchanged gifts while the kids looked at all of their new things.  We all got some wonderful things!  My favorite gift was our renewal for a family membership to the Audobon zoo and aquarium.  Thank you Nana, Baboo, Walt, and Sarah for all of our gifts!

The Skupien clan opening presents........

It looks like Christmas morning!  This was the first year that we opened gifts in the morning and we all enjoyed it.  It may be our new Skupien tradition.  Charlie was helping Walker put together his train made of blocks and MK was observing everyone and everything.

After all the presents were open and the trash picked up, Baboo made a big breakfast and we all sat down together to eat.  I am so happy that we do this with our family.  These times around the table all together are so special.  We are definitely creating good memories and traditions for our children.  The children don't sit long but they sit long but the adults do.  I love being able to sit in my pj's, drink a cup of coffee, and catch up with family.  It's the best way to start a day!

And while we were visiting over coffee, trouble and trouble were sharing a cereal snack.  You have to watch when Stella and Walker are together.  They make for a fun but explosive combination!

Nothing better than girl cousins!  I love and adore my cousins and I am so thankful that MK will grow up loving and adoring hers too.  Charlie and MK also shared a cereal snack.

Walker was introduced to rock music and headphones by his big boy cousins on this trip.  I asked Luke what were they letting Walker listen to and Luke said, "you don't want to know!"  

Walker was hooked.  

He'd find their Nintendo DS and put on those headphones every chance he got.  I think he just liked being like the big boys.

And apparently he liked the rock music too!

Jeremy and I took the kids downtown in Ocean Springs around lunchtime.  We just wanted to get some fresh air and walk around.  I love to window shop downtown.

We found this little boat (in Louisiana we'd call it a pirogue) all decorated for Christmas.  It was so fitting for the Mississippi Gulf Coast so I made the kids pose for a picture.

We had such a nice Christmas in Ocean Springs this year.  It was so much fun being able to be with family and especially being able to spend the night.  We still have one more party to go......then our marathon will be over.  Merry Christmas from the Mississippi Gulf Coast!