The Bush's: Bush Family Christmas

Robbie's sister wanted to host Christmas for the family this year, so we packed up Thursday after work and headed north to Chattanooga. I'm not going to lie, I was a little worried. We were going to have 11 people (8 adults, 1 teenager, 1 kid & 1 toddler) sharing 2 bathrooms, not to mention 3 inside/outside dogs. Amazingly, everything worked out great and went smoother than I could imagine! Great planning by Andrea & Johnathan!

Even the dog situation went better than I could have ever hoped for. It is not much of a secret that I am just not a dog person. My heart just doesn't go pitter-patter when I see a dog, and their size (and them being around food I will eat) just makes me nervous. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that has rubbed off on my kids. They don't mind dogs, they just like them from afar. Hollon especially gets very uneasy if a dog gets near her. I mean, we see my in-laws old, slow, overweight, so sweet pug every week and she freaks out like he is going to attack her each time. She will warm up to him, and then freak out unexpectedly. So I didn't have high hopes for how she would do around 3 dogs (one being very large) and I was going to feel horrible if they had to stay outside the entire time because of my kids. Hollon had already met the smallest newest dog, Sam in Auburn and at Thanksgiving. Both times, she was less than impressed and wanted him nowhere near her. I worried about it way more than I should have, because she did the typical kid thing....

She did the exact opposite of what I expected.

She LOVED the dogs. From the moment we arrived until us walking out the door. All 3 of them. Even Brutus, the large one. I was so proud of her. She played with them, didn't freak out when they got near her, she even kept trying to kiss them! And the dogs were so good around her (one of my hugest fears).

(NOTE: No! This does not mean we are getting a dog. Let's not get crazy.)

I think Hollon liked Sam because she could boss him around.

GG Kathy gifted Hollon this precious outfit last year for Christmas

Aunt Andrea let Hollon feed the dogs their dog treats.

Hollon tried to eat them herself.

Granddad Jake & Brutus

We exchanged gifts with Andrea's family and Granddad Jake & GG Kathy that night.

Aunt Andrea got Hollon a baby carriage that was the perfect size to carry Sam around in

Friday, we had breakfast with the family and then headed out to see some of our friends in town and visiting from out of town. First up, we saw one of Robbie's best friend from high school, Danny. He & his wife Lindy were in town from Seattle. Danny's family (parents & sister) still live in Chattanooga. So we went over to his sister's house (his sister is like a little sister to Robbie and his mom is a 2nd mom to him) to visit. Danny's sister had the cutest activities planned. First up, was decorating gingerbread houses. (Hers actually stuck together unlike our cheap-o ones.) She has 2 kids (Elizabeth {5} and Charlie {3}) so Jake & Hollon had a lot of fun playing with them.

Once again, Hollon just wanted to eat the gingerbread and not really decorate it

How precious is this setup?!?!

If Uncle Danny leaves his job at Amazon, he has a second calling as a cake decorator

After the gingerbread houses, the kids went outside to burn off some energy

Hollon was in love. They had a slide & a swing.

Back inside playing. Charlie has lots of Paw Patrol toys and Elizabeth has lots of baby dolls, so Hollon was in Heaven. Like, so obsessed, she cried when we had to leave.

Jake wanted to jump in their picture

Over 20 years of friendship

After hanging with the Jacobs, we headed over to the Sticklands. These were our best friends when we lived in Chattanooga. We were excited to see them this holiday season.