Monday, December 30, 2013

christmas eve 2013.

i feel like if i start this post off with "i love christmas" that would be way too cliche. so i won't. i'll start from the beginning.

however, if you don't want a mini play-by-play, stop reading here. 

lee's christmas started early. the other week when we went to cajun queen and had those bells two hearted ales, i spilled the beans that i had gotten him panthers vs. saints tickets as a part of his christmas. damn those 7% beers! regardless, it was a good thing so we could prep for sunday. 

...except we ended up not prepping at all. both of us forgot the "you can't buy beer before sunday at noon" rule and neither of us brought a poncho even though the weather was screaming RAIN at us from our iphones. luckily our pals had enough pregaming material to hold us over. oh and we all chipped in on tailgating food including the below:

{thank goodness for packed coolers.}

{guacamole salsa}

{tacos & food spread}

the stadium was roaring. a lot was riding on this game and this panthers win was one we needed. however, panther nation was there to bring the boom-boom-boom-boom. 

{cloudy sunday}


{crowd}


{there are no bad seats in the bank of america stadium. these were ours.} 

around halftime is when the bottom let out. luckily that's the time lee and i took a mini football break to go meet up with two of my friends, corey & her fiance, adam. we spent a majority of the monsoon under the panthers upper deck catching up on their upcoming wedding festivities and life the past couple of months. 

however, i couldn't stay away from football for long so we headed back out. although the rain never did let up, it wasn't half as bad from when we escaped it. the panthers clenched the win near the end of the game and the stadium 
e x p l o d e d. 
it was phenomenal. we were happy.

{the crew}

{soaked}

{allyson; chris; me; lee}

a few short days later was christmas eve. i headed home for the night to roxboro with lee after work and my mom helped me craft together another present i decided to do for him. one side, nc state and the other side green bay packers, i combined together his two favorites for a nine foot blanket. YOU READ RIGHT. nine feet. the thing is massive and he loved it. here's how i did it: 

{3 yards of state fleece and 3 yards of packers fleece lined up together.}

{cut one inch slits into both pieces of fabric all around the blanket. ps: this will take forever.}

{two separate pieces that you tie together - double knotted}

{like so. do this around the perimeter of the blanket. the corners are tricky!}

{finished! it was too big to get in one picture.}

the rest of the presents were opened and ended up with a sea of wrapping paper and awesome gifts. 




my parents gave me an ipad, a new north face, some infinity scarves {i picked out}, money and a few other odds and ends. lee opened up a self cleaning razor, money and a sweet breaking bad t shirt. my parents racked up jewelry and things for the house and my brother raked in some sweet carhart overalls, cologne and other dude stuff. 

we were so blessed this christmas with fellowship and food. 

speaking of food.....




{family; mom was taking the pic}

my mom went all out with ham, turkey, spaghetti casserole, brown sugar bacon wrapped hotdogs, pigs in a blanket, cheese biscuits, mac and cheese, pepper jelly and homemade tomato basil soup. 

after dinner, we participated in one of our family traditions since the past couple of years: my dad's envelope game {sorry there's not a cooler title}


this year he had seven envelopes - one for how many people were present {daddy, mama, me, lee, andy, alli and grandaddy}. out of the seven - four had $1 bills, a $5, a $10, and the big money - a $20. every year he comes up with mini games for us to compete to see who gets to pic the first envelope. we played this "left right" game for three rounds which was dependent on luck only. alli won the first, my dad the second and i won the third. since there were four people left, sorry! it was. lee, andy, my mom and granddaddy battled it out and picked their respective envelopes at random. granddaddy lost and picked the final envelope. 

{please note our ghetto purple and green pieces because we lost them as a kid}

{dolla dolla bills, y'all}

ohhhh cool! all four kids randomly happened to win the $1.00 bills. my mom won the $5 & daddy won the $10. granddaddy won the $20!!! the one man who needed it the least. we all had a great laugh that he came in the absolute last place of all the mini games but ended up getting the big winner envelope. 


{so sweet. opening his $20}

the winner got to wear this god awful wig my dad has. no idea why he has it and i'm not even sure i wanna know. 

ps: my 83 year old granddaddy is awesome. 


check out the next post for the walker family traditions on christmas day! 

xo,
-A