From the look of our house on the 26th, it's clear that Christmas was a lot fun! After the last guest had left on Christmas night, Joe and I turned a blind eye to the mess surrounding us and plopped onto the couch. The next morning, after returning home from dropping the kids at school, and in the bright winter sunlight, our house resembled it's look following a couple wild NYE parties pre-kids. Dirty and disheveled. Mostly from toys and wrapping paper, though, which are definitely easier to clean up than confetti and champagne.
We had such a fun time hosting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - and now we are worn out! As I always say, the photos I have are not that great, but you'll get to see a bit of our Holiday through them. Given our focus on keeping up with the kid's excitement and hosting, photos were even more limited this year.
A BIG thank you to Diane & John who always host a wonderful Christmas Eve at their house, but took a break from it this year to ensure Diane continues to heal. Due to a bad accident back in October, Diane, as a pedestrian, was hit by a car and unfortunately broke her back. Thankfully she is not critically injured. We were happy to host them and the rest of our families for this year's Christmas celebrations.
Otto, Grace, Lyla & Max
Grams & Wren
Me and my little girl. XOXO.
Max, Wren & Otto
Gifts A Plenty
Anyone who knows my family knows that we love to give gifts at Christmas. We wrap everything, too, joking that the gift we wrapped cost less than the wrapping paper itself. And we open gifts on Christmas morning, unwrapping each gift individually. This works really, really well for adults and when the quantity of gifts is within reason. See where I'm going with this...Grams and Auntie Jamie were wild for Christmas and went wild buying wonderful gifts. So unwrapping took us all day.
Had it only been Max in the room we could have been done very quickly because that almost 5 year old boy of mine is FAST. He knows how to rip and tear and LOVES presents this year. My almost 3 year old got a computer from Santa 1st thing when he woke up and didn't want to be bothered with opening any other presents.
Wren was hit and miss. Sometimes she ripped paper, sometimes she chewed boxes, sometimes she played with a new toy. Mostly she was having fun snuggling in the new canopy (see below) from Santa.
But somehow (with much help from Max) we managed to work our way through hundreds of gifts. We were all absolutely spoiled. Max's favorite gift was his pirate ship from Grams and remote control car from Aunt Liz. A close second to Otto's favorite computer were all of the kitchen appliances from Auntie Jamie. Wren loved a new little "thumbkin" game from Auntie Cristy, Uncle Sean & cousin Lily (seriously, this is going to be my 1st Birthday go-to gift of choice).
I received so many wonderful presents. There were surprises from everyone, which was such fun! Not to name names, but Joe outdid himself with such thoughtful gifts. First (but really it happened to be the last gift I opened), he got me a new sewing machine. In hindsight I have no idea how I didn't figure out that it was a sewing machine when I (1) saw the wrapped box a week ago, (2) placed it under the tree, (3) sewed numerous things on my old, smoking machine over the past couple weeks or (4) lifted the box again to unwrap it. I pretty much burnt out the motor on my previous machine while sewing a ton (over half a miles worth!!!) of ruffled crepe paper streamers for Wren's birthday. My machine started smoking and emitting a burnt smell. I gave it a break for a month and have been using it sparingly since. What a treat! I know it's going to run so smoothly and quietly. Cannot wait to break it in. Must create my "to-sew" list for the coming year.
Joe also surprised me with a canvas painting from an artist we saw displayed at the boy's school. A pretty, colorful painting to brighten our house when all the Christmas decorations come down.
He also remembered that I wanted a Faribault Woolen Mills throw blanket for ensuring our living room stays cozy after the tree comes down, too.
And best gift of all...Joe and I are taking a day to ourselves while all the kids are in daycare tomorrow. It's been way, way, way too long.
Overflow parking. Another tree with gifts under it. I put up about five trees around my house, and each one of them ended up having gifts placed beneath it.
Crafty Christmas
What would a Holiday be without some crafty projects and gift-making? At the beginning of December I asked the boys what they wanted to make for their cousins and Max said Pinatas. Festive and original! I suggested we turn them into santa pinatas...
Every year Joe and I get the kids a Christmas tree ornament, but this year I didn't come across any "must have" ones that felt like each of the kids. But while I was fabric shopping with the boys for decorating their rooms, we came across fabric with different Christmas illustrations on it. Max saw it and said I could cut out the pictures and sew them like little pillow ornaments. And so we have a snowman for Otto, Santa for Max and a penguin for Wren...
Max and I had fun painting the insides of glass ball ornaments. Here's one we made for Grams (and Max is staring at a new toy he just unwrapped, totally uninterested in the ornament:)
And then there's a little baby doll cradle that Joe and I worked to refurbish for Wren. It was intended for her 1st Birthday, but we didn't have it done in time. Two months later, we've finished the sanding off of a Cabbage Patch Kids sticker, painting and screwing the pieces back together. Now for me to sew Wren's dolls a little memory quilt made from the scraps of Wren's clothes from her memory quilt...
Even Santa got into the DIY mode and made the kids a tent/canopy/fort that hangs from the ceiling.
The Pickle
For another year or so the hunt to find the pickle ornament is a one man race. Max against himself. Otto and Wren were not interested (I even purposefully put the pickle right at Wren's height, next to her favorite ornament on the tree to try and stage a win for the underdog).
After several minutes of searching (the camping lights Grams gave the kids came in handy to illuminate the part of the tree Max was inspecting) and some hints, Max found the pickle and got a prize of another hand-made ornament by me.
Oh Otto
Oh how I love Otto and his singing and guitar playing. He was practicing Christmas Eve morning and then delighted us all by breaking into a little "Twinkle Twinkle" riff as Christmas Eve was coming to a close. So sweet and sincere.
One more thing about Otto. He was my one who woke for a few days at 5am leading into Christmas, and, sleepily asking upon waking, if Santa had come yet or if it was Christmas yet. And then, after hearing my response, would lament that it was toooooo loooong until Santa and Christmas. When I finally picked him up from school on Christmas Eve (cursed blessing....a few hours of (jewish) school on Christmas Eve morning so I could get the house in order) and he asked "Are we going to Christmas now?" I joyfully told him "Yes, we are going to Christmas now" (just as soon as we swing by the Doctor to get some meds prescribed for your strep throat).
Christmas Card
It's been three or four years since I've done a family photo Christmas card. I've been trying to do something a little different that captures our Holiday spirit for the year, including a silhouette while I was pregnant, hand print and finger print cards, etc. This year I thought of sharing some of our family traditions - longstanding and newer. Wanted to add this image to the post since this blog is essentially my scrapbook and I'm sure I'll misplace the extra copies of the card in a pile someplace...
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