My Christmas break from school was filled with so much fun! Here is a bit of a recap of all that happened over the two weeks.
After we had a Christmas party with all the kids we had a staff party. We have the BEST PTF group ever! Seriously! They provided an amazing home cooked lunch for us to enjoy before we headed off to break.
Later that week, we invited the worship band from church over for chili and games.
Todd helped me make lots of sweets for them including oreo balls, haystacks, and pretzel chocolate chip cookies.
Anyone else obsessed with the Red Lobster biscuit mix? So easy and so delicious!
The chili recipe I use is sooooo easy! The only thing I do differently from the website is I only use a half cup of water because I prefer thicker chili.
One of my fellow teachers and I took all the girls from school out to eat at Macado’s and to see the trees at Hotel Roanoke.
Not all the girls were able to come, but we had fun with all the ones that did! 🙂
The trees at the Hotel Roanoke all always AMAZING! And the best part is, it is free to go and look at!
This was my favorite, obviously because it’s Disney, but also because the display had so much detail!
On Christmas Eve we went to the candlelight service at our church and then got some pictures taken afterwards.
Then it was CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!
Christmas was packed full of fun!
Todd and I woke up early to open presents and make breakfast.
Todd is always a good present giver, but this year he did extra good.
I was so psyched about these red Hunter boots. Mine are in the color military red.
This isn’t the best picture to see the detail, but Todd also got me a bracelet with our wedding date in roman numerals on it.
We then headed off to church for a Christmas concert. 🙂
And we took some time for a few more pictures 😉
Also, I just have to share that the red sweater I am wearing is from Walmart! I couldn’t find it on their website, but full price it was 14 dollars! It was cozy and a bit oversized, which is what I am always looking for! Walmart is stepping up their game in clothing, so next time you are there, check it out!
Then we were off to my Dad’s house and then my Mom’s neither of which place I took any pictures, but we still had lots of fun opening presents and spending time together!
Next day we were off to Florida to visit Todd’s sister and brother-in-law. It was a long drive down, lots of traffic, but it was totally worth it!
We stopped on our way to their house in Orlando and ate at Hash House a go go. The pancakes there are huge!
Then we went to this thing called ICE at the Gaylord Palms Hotel in Orlando.
You go on a tour in a very cold room where everything is made of ice! This years theme was Charlie Brown.
They also had slides made completely out of ice that you could go down as many times as you wanted!
The coolest part though for me was at the end. They had the scene of the birth of Christ all made out of clear ice. This picture does not do it justice! In person it was breath taking!
We then finally made it to Justin and Lindsey’s new house. We played lots of games there, including lots of Catan!
We then had Christmas part 2. Todd’s grandparents made everyone aprons out of old jeans, which was a really cool thoughtful gift!
We also made macaroons. This was a first for all of us, and I think we did pretty well for our first attempt. However, they were a bit overwhelmingly sweet. We followed this recipe.
We also celebrated Todd’s Dad’s birthday while we were there at Sweet Tomatoes. I had never been to one before and I really enjoyed it. It’s sort of like a cross between Panera and Cici’s.
We also went shopping with our Christmas money. Florida has so many stores that we don’t, so it was a real treat! I fell in love with this floral shawl from Forever 21. To me it looked like something from Anthropologie, but for a fraction of the price. I looked for it online and couldn’t find it! 🙁
We then headed home and prepared to go back to work! This Christmas was a great way to end 2016!