We have a total of 6 different Christmas celebrations/events/places to go over the course of three days, the 24th-26th. We are always exhausted by the end, but enjoy every second with all of our families!
1. Christmas Eve brunch at my parents with my uncle's family. We actually managed to get all of the cousins smiling in one picture!
2. Christmas Eve night is at our house with my immediate family and grandparents-we have the traditional crackers, lots of food, and a made-up game that D always does an awesome job with, and late night rockbound and serious laughter. And Baileys. And lots of wine. And lots of fun. This is one of my favorite parts of our Christmas celebrations!
I grew up not really doing the whole Santa Claus thing so it has been a big debate for me to figure out how I wanted to combine the fun that is the mystery of Santa without having Santa and his presents overshadow what Christmas is really all about. After much thought, we came to the conclusion that Santa would bring gifts in our kids stockings, and all of the other gifts would be from us- we don't need Santa getting all the glory for the good gifts! We also told the kids the story of Saint Nicholas (thank you Veggietales St. Nick movie) and they picked out gifts from the World Vision gift catalog to give to children who need them around the world. On Christmas Eve night we did write Santa a letter and left him some treats. The letter asked Santa to make sure that the gifts we sent got to the kids who need them. Santa wrote a letter back letting the boys know that the gifts made it to the kids, and thanking them for loving other people like Jesus does. And he made sure to tell the boys that he left them a few treats in their stockings too.
It's nothing dramatic, but will hopefully be a tradition of stockings, giving gifts to others, and hopefully not having to lie too much to the kids in the process:)
3. Christmas Morning! We aren't quite at the wake up super early to see what Santa brought/mom and dad bought phase yet (thankfully!) but the kids were SO excited to start opening their gifts. They thought it was very cool that Santa would leave them gifts in their stockings. They were most excited about the snow markers and toy cameras ($5 total at target for those rare finds!).
We attempt to make sure that there aren't too many presents, but every year it still seems like there's a ton by the time they get their gifts from everyone! They need to detox on the gift receiving after three days of presents:)
These trucks were their big present...safe to say, they were their faves. I actually attempted to vary the presents this year so that there were some books, games, crafts, toys, clothing items, and random stuff. (i'm writing this so i remember to do that again next year!)
4. Christmas Morning #2. It's still a little weird not to wake up at my parents house on Christmas morning (this is only the third year we've woken up at our own house!), but we love going over there still in PJ's after we open gifts at our house to MORE gifts and brunch at their house. To me, Christmas will always be opening gifts at my parents on Christmas morning. I'm sure at some point if/when there are more families/kids and people move that will change, but I'm holding on to that for as long as possible:)
The kids were so patient as they indulged us in our "one person goes at a time and we all take turns opening a gift" routine:)
Mom surprised Dad with snowshoes- a totally random gift that he was so pumped about-of course we have had no snow so far!
And we surprised Mom with new show shoes too! Now it just needs to snow!
There were plenty of helpers to unwrap the gifts!
We are such traditionalists...our usual spots!
This was all Chris wanted for Christmas...he couldn't wait to open it:)
5. After an attempt at decent naps (there are quite a few very late nights during the holiday weeks!) we went to Christmas dinner at my Aunt's house with my family and my grandparents. My cousins are so great at playing with our kids-kinda like how we used to play with them! It was pretty nice out so the kids had to get out on the trampoline to burn some energy for awhile!
These two! Ashley was born the day after we got married, and she just loves playing with Brayden. I'm so grateful that they have so much love (and attention/free babysitting!) for our kids.
And the ones who started it all! Love my Grandparents!!
My hysterical Dad, and even more presents!
This was my favorite moment of the night. No one in our family is really musical, or really cares to be, but my grandmother can play the piano and has always had a piano at her house. We haven't done Christmas dinner at her house for the past few years so we haven't been near a piano on Christmas, but we used to sing a few very off-key Christmas carols. They sold their house this year and reallocated a lot of their things to their kids houses. My aunt has the Piano now. Grandma was all excited that we could sing a few carols. We did, sounded terrible, but these two little boys (especially Brayden) sat there and "played" with her the whole time, and actually sat and played nicely. Brayden was so enamored and just kept staring at Grandma. He has such a special love for them. I'm so grateful that they get to grow up with their great-grandparents too, because I have such wonderful memories of having my great-grandma as a big part of my life up through middle school!
Winding down the night with some new toys:)
The cousins winding down at the end of the night.
Our one and only family shot from all of the Christmas events!
