December Update

And just like that, Christmas is over and the year is coming to an end. December was a fun, but busy month. There were a lot of parties, dinners, Secret Santas and surprises. This time of year is always such a great reminder of why we celebrate Christmas - the birth of Jesus and the fulfilled life we have through a relationship with him.

Christmas Eve service before our annual dinner date

This month's update won't be in order because I want to start off with Christmas photos first! Since we have been married, we are lucky to celebrate with our families not once or twice but FIVE times. We hosted brunch at our house on Christmas Day with my family, the next day we had lunch at Crissy & Dev's for McKay Christmas and came back to Heath's dad's house for family Christmas and the next day we had family Christmas at Heath's moms house and then dinner at Grandpa & Grandma's for Bollenbach Christmas. We are SO thankful we get to celebrate with all of our family every year!

Gingerbread house decorating

I forgot to take brunch photos, but here is a picture of our tree before my family came over!

We had Christmas Eve lunch in Arlington so my brother could celebrate with us (he had to work on Christmas Day)

Ashley :)

From Christmas brunch in Grapevine to 3 hours in the car to the Thunder game in OKC

Crissy & Dev's beautiful home!

When your cousin is a baker, you have more sweets than food - check her out here!

When all the grandkids have been so good this year, Granny upgrades the stocking to sacks LOL

 

Dirty Santa!

Granny's scavenger hunt is one of the best parts of McKay Christmas. It's so fun trying to find the clues all around the house!

Back at Nana & Poppy's (Jennifer & Tim) for family Christmas. This is our nephew Bryson and niece Remi!

Now in Kingfisher!

Heath's mom makes her own stockings and they are so cute!

KP & our nephew Maverick

Now at Grandpa & Grandma's

Can't wait to meet our niece Blakely!

December was an eventful month for Young Life too. Grapevine Colleyville leaders went on a surprise leader night that was SO. MUCH. FUN. These friends are the best and I've enjoyed getting to know them the last few years.

We also went to our first WyldLife Bus Tour with some of our middle school friends! This was an ALL NIGHT bus tour with surprise stops and I can't believe we all stayed awake the entire time :) A week after, we had our last club of the year.

December brought lots of parties... starting with our community group Christmas party and annual white elephant/dirty santa gift exchange. As we've gotten closer through the years, I don't think we are afraid to steal anymore :) Some of us also volunteered at the church's Meal Marathon making rice packages for families in Haiti. I love serving with these friends!

I also hosted my quarterly girls dinner for Christmas, also known as my Forever Friends :) We started doing Secret Santa last year so we did it again this year too. I love traditions!

I took my first day trip (in and out on the same day) to Denver so I saw some snow for a bit and of course I had time with some girlfriends.

Ornament Exchange

Manicure time

#andersonmckaymonthlydatenight

Chief turned 6 months on the 11th so because we are "those" dog owners, we took him to the dog park for the first time (because I'm also one of "those" dog moms who sheltered him until then ha!) and he got his first body cut at the groomers.

Totally my dog. Already tired.

I came home one day and he was like this hahaha

Groomed but so tired from playing with his best friend Abe! (my friend brought her puppy over)

I can't believe it's been a whole year of monthly updates! I'm glad I started updating the blog this way because it really does help us keep things in a timeline and a fun way for us to remember how the year went. It's also going to be SO easy for me to do my Year in Review post this week with favorite moments of each month :)


Until next time,