Christmas

We had a busy but great holiday with the kiddos. We watched our church's Christmas drama presentations on the 23rd with our dear cousins. Christmas Eve was spent at home - me, baking for the next day, and preparing food for our Christmas brunch with my parents.

It was nice to continue some "old" traditions and start some new ones. N really enjoyed helping me decorate the house, and especially putting up ornaments on the tree. It's so fun to see her delight as she recalled specific memories triggered by the different ornaments. Ever since we were married we got an ornament to represent a special event/memory from that year. Once we added kids, I got an ornament for each kiddo, so that when they get older and have their own tree, they'll have an ornament for every year as they grew up. For N, her first ornament is a picture of her in utero. Her latest one from this year was a fairy from the Nutcracker performance we saw. More on that later!

The kids enjoyed putting up the different parts of our nativity advent. They loved playing with our Little People Nativity. They especially loved the moment when the Christmas lights turned on each day (we the lights on automatic timer). Somehow T-Max would always seem to catch the moment they would switch on, and yell, "Nights, umma, nights! Hooray!" (He says "nights" instead of lights!). They loved eating pretzel yummies (only made at Christmas time!). We enjoyed listening to Christmas music every day. N's favorites so far as Point of Grace Christmas, Avalon Christmas and The Nutcracker.

We started a new tradition with the kids of watching "The Nativity" and sleeping downstairs in the living room. Jude Dude slept upstairs, and we ended up just putting T-Max down too since he had been up late the night before and proved that a late night makes for a cranky next day. We wanted him to be bright and cheery for Christmas Day, so he slept in his own bed. But we hope to include him in this tradition next year! N LOVED it! She was SO hyper and ecstatic, jumping on the mattresses and squealing in delight. I think she also loved the idea of sleeping with mommy and daddy and having us all to herself.

Christmas morning we had brunch with my parents. I've made the same menu for the past 2 or 3 years. Cranberry orange scones, baked sausage omelet (minus the sausage this year), baked home fries, sausage, and fruit graced our table.

After brunch, the kids opened their gifts. N was most excited about her princess scooter that she's been wanting for a while. And T-Max was so funny because he was done at the first gift. Part of my parents gift to him were some new characters from the Disney Cars movie, and after he opened those, he was barely interested in anything after that.

Later on Christmas Day, we went to my cousin's house to celebrate with my mom's extended family; something we've done for the past couple of years now. Lots of yummy food, and even more gifts for the kiddos. They were SO blessed, just as in years passed!