Sunday, December 30, 2018

Christmas 2018

For the first few years after having LL, we did Christmas a little differently every year trying to find something that works.  For the last few years, we've really gotten into a good groove.  We have found a pretty good system that creates a good balance of being home and also seeing all of our family.  This was also our first Christmas in our new house!  I remember last Christmas in our old house - we had already started to process of prepping it to put it on the market, and I remember thinking that I hoped that we would be in a new house by the next Christmas.  I honestly didn't think it would happen, but God has been so good to us this year and it was amazing to celebrate in our new house!  Here's a look at how we celebrated this year:

Christmas Eve
I say this every year, but Christmas Eve is my favorite part of the whole holiday season!  We do just a little bit of early celebrating, but the anticipation is just so high!  I love it!  I always try to get a picture of our "final" tree - fully decorated and with every single present wrapped underneath!


Our 2018 Christmas card!

Gigi and Popppy always come over late afternoon to do our Christmas celebration with them, and the kids (and adults) get to open a few presents.

We always have a big Christmas Eve dinner (that I didn't get a picture of), and then we do baths and make cookies for Santa!

Some years Santa gets home-made cookies...and some years he doesn't.  He was perfectly fine with his break-and-bake sugar cookies this year!



Cooper helped with one batch and LL helped with the other.

They're ready!


When the cookies are ready, we sit down with our snack to watch The Grinch!

Our favorite Christmas movie and snuggles all around!


We're ready for Santa!


I literally say it all the time, but we so love living in a neighborhood!  Within the span of about 30 minutes, two of our very elderly neighbors dropped off some goodies for us!  It was so sweet, and it made us so incredibly happy!  We dropped off some home-made goodies the week before, so I hope it made them feel the same way.

We went outside to sprinkle our reindeer food that the kids made at the breakfast with Santa.

I loved this - LL drew a picture of Jesus in the manger for Santa!


Dreaming Christmas dreams!


Christmas Day
Last year, we had one kid up at 3, one kid up at 4, and we held them off until 5.  This year, they both slept until 6 - so Matt and I are counting that as a win!

Santa came!  Cooper asked for a two-wheeler bike, and LL asked for a gymnastics bar!

After we do Santa presents, we have to look for the pickle!  The person who finds it gets to open the first present.  This year, Cooper found it!

The first present he picked!



Matt took the kids shopping for me and they came home with some little boxes from a local jewelry store - that's not too shabby!

We opened presents until about 7 and then took a break for breakfast.  It's our tradition to make reindeer pancakes!



After our breakfast break, it was time to open more presents.

So this turned out to be a big joke (and an amazing present).  My mom is one of those people who is super hard to buy for.  She and my step-dad have a dog that they are super in love with and treat like their baby.  I got both of them a pair of socks with her picture on it (not a generic dog of the same breed, but her actual picture).  I was so so so pumped about it and knew that they would love it (and they did).  I kept joking with Matt that I was "winning Christmas" because I had the best gift.  Well.  Matt knew how excited I was, so he got me a pair of the same socks with Lola's picture on it.  It seriously was the most hilarious thing, and Matt ended up winning Christmas instead!


After we finished opening presents, we had time to get showers, get ready, and play for a little while before Oma and Opa came over.  They came around 10:30 to celebrate with us and eat a big Christmas lunch.

We all had some rest time that afternoon before our last round of Christmas.  Aspyn got this raccoon toy for Christmas, and she loves it so much.  We're a week out, and she carries her "baby" around everywhere and still sleeps with it a good bit of the time.

Later that afternoon, we went to Grammy and Pop's house for our last round of Christmas!


When your 80 year old grandmother gets a weighted blanket and cover for Christmas, you help her get it all put together so that she doesn't have to try to do it on her own!


Here's a little video of our Christmas (it shows my mom opening her socks and Cooper finding the pickle!)

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