Christmas felt pretty darn special this year. It was our first holiday celebrating in our new home (glad Santa was able to figure out that we moved!) and it was also the last Christmas we will be spending as a family of four. Lots of emotions and excitement across the board. Joe also magically had three days off in a row, so we got to spend Dec 23, 24, and 25 together at home. I mean, if that’s not a Christmas miracle, what is??? Here are a few pics from the holiday:
On Christmas Eve day, we took the girls sledding. More accurately, Joe took them sledding and I took photos, replaced wet mittens and socks, and became the target of several snowballs. (Pregnant ladies don’t get a whole lot of sympathy around here!) After sledding, we warmed up by the fireplace at home. I made the girls pigs in a blanket which they (and Joe) were crazy about. In the afternoon we took the girls to the movie theater to see Sing. From there, the evening progressed to bath, story time, setting out cookies and reindeer food, and bedtime. I think we only had one serious meltdown from Rosie that day (she wanted to eat the cookies left for Santa and was NOT happy when we denied her request). Fortunately, due to some fairly decent planning and teamwork, Joe and I were able to be in bed around 10 pm that night which isn’t bad at all for parents on Christmas eve!
Cece came downstairs on Christmas morning first and was SO patient to wait one more hour before opening presents since we wanted Rosie to wake up on her own. (We fed Cece fancy pancakes and breakfast pizza first which helped with the wait) Although sometimes Rosie wakes up like an angry bear, Christmas morning, as you can see, was different!
“How come Santa brought me more than I ordered?” asked Cece. Well, because you were a pretty darn good kid I think! As you can see, we had a fantastic time opening gifts from each other and Santa that morning. (Although I may have to speak to Santa about leaving cans of silly string in the girls stockings…) We drank coffee, listened to Christmas music, I packed for my trip to Chicago, and stayed quite cozy the whole day.
The biggest hits were the Shopkins house and the Pom Pom Wow decoration station. (It’s kind of like a bedazzler… except with pom poms.) At the end of the day, everything had pom poms on it including Cece’s lunch box, my to-do list, both of their suitcases, etc. I think my favorite part of the day was honestly where the girls shared and played nicely together.
If there’s one thing I’ve asked myself over and over this year, it’s got to be “Is this real life?” It’s been my go-to phrase and my most repeated hashtag. Even though things are rarely picture perfect(Santa visits, anyone?), not every part of the holidays is magical (I might have used every colorful word I know while wrapping presents…), and there’s always just one more (or eight more) gifts to find at the last minute, the holidays were more than I could have asked for this year. The best moments seemed to happen when I let go of the outcomes I had visualized, put down my phone, quit obsessing over details, and appreciated everything as it was, no matter how mismatched and incomplete I had previously thought it to be. And as absolutely corny as it sounds, just being together (all 4 of us plus bun in the oven) is really the best gift and blessing of all.
I hope you were able to spend your holiday with those whom you love and that you were able to feel joy and happiness amidst all that crazy holiday hustle and bustle!