"One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly." -- Andy Rooney
Someone once expressed the sentiment to me that we all think that being a child at Christmas is one of the best things out there... until you have kids at Christmas. Seeing all that Christmas has to offer through the eyes of a child is truly magical. Whether it's watching them learn the true meaning of Christmas by hearing the Christmas story, meeting Santa Claus, or seeing all the lights, Christmas is a time of magic. This year was no exception for us. Everyone knows we love the Christmas season. We do our best to make sure that the children are able to make memories and we can do it right along with them. We started our advent activities just before December 1 and continued them through the actual holiday but our true fun started on Christmas Eve.
We woke up at our usual 7am and Kenzie found Kenny the elf fairly quickly. He came bearing gifts. This is a tradition that was started in my family many, many years ago. Santa always brought new pjs on Christmas Eve for the family to wear that night. It was one that my mom continued until we had children (and she technically still buys pjs for all of us to this day... they just aren't from Santa any longer), and once we had children, we decided to carry on the tradition. I think this is truly the first year that Kenzie "gets" this whole Santa thing. At least to the extent that children ever understand. I have answered questions such as "How does Santa get in our house if we don't have a chimney?" "Will he come if I am not alseep?" and "Will the reindeer eat the food in our yard?" (By the way, the answers were, "Santa magic.", "No!", and "Of course but probably not all of it because we also gave food to our neighbors and they put it down too, plus other people put it down and they might not be too hungry.") We opened our pjs before breakfast and everyone loved theirs. In case anyone is curious, Steven does mine and I do his so they are a surprise to us, as well.
After the excitement, Steven went and picked up McDonald's breakfast for us. Kenzie and Will LOVE hashbrowns from there and the sausage mcmuffin. Cheap dates. Anyway, we had breakfast and then started our biggest job of the day, making Christmas cookies. I must admit, while I love making cookies and I wouldn't trade the family time for anything, I despise the flour. I hate messes and it gets EVERYWHERE. I ignored it though and we had a great time. I am always in charge of rolling and cutting and Kenzie and Steven handle sprinkling. Kenzie is a very heavy sprinkler. We went through almost 4 large containers of sprinkles with 2 batches of cookies. Will didn't participate this year but next year I am sure he will be right there sprinkling with the best of them.
Our neighbors came over during this time to exchange gifts and the girls all played together for a bit (with Will who basically just follows them around). After cookies, we sprinkled the reindeer food on the lawn. Will wasn't amused and just crawled around while Kenzie put out the food for Santa's reindeer.
Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for church. Whew. Getting two children and two adults ready for church service and trying to get everyone dressed in fancy clothes but not ruin our clothes (by doing things such as having kids dressed too early while we dressed or us having to give baths while dressed up) is no small feat. I had to seriously write down what we were going to do in what order to make sure we all got ready on time. It was a like a well oiled machine though, and we were able to get some pictures taken before we left for church.
I LOVE our Christmas Eve church service. We have a communion service that is mostly singing and we take communion. It is a low-key service to worship together and celebrate the birth of Jesus as our greatest gift at Christmas. The kids did remarkably well. Will was much better behaved than Kenzie. 3-year-olds lack patience and Kenzie is an active child. While she wasn't bad, she was active. She went up to the front on her own when the Christmas story was read to the children. She took her first communion. Then, she held her own candle (with help from Daddy) during Silent Night. Will chilled with Daddy then wandered around cruising around furniture during communion like it was nothing. Never said a word.
Our service only lasts about 45 minutes (perfect for small children) and then we went to our traditional Buca Di Beppo for dinner. We got there once (sometimes twice if we do an anniversary dinner... usually with kids in tow) a year. We had a great dinner. Both kids ate a ton. Will might have eaten as much as I did and nobody got super messy somehow. I think they use such light sauce that it saved us.
After dinner we came home and got the kids into their new Santa pjs before reading The Night Before Christmas and putting out cookies for Santa. Kenzie and Will might have eaten one of Santa's cookies. Though, we might have told them it was okay. I think Santa was still stuffed from his heavy Italian dinner Mrs. Claus must have made him before he left the North Pole.
Then, the fun started. Kenzie took what seemed liked FOREVER to go to sleep. She kept calling us in there for things. At one point she insisted Santa must be here because she heard jingle bells. It was torture. We didn't want to start building/wrapping last minute things until she was sleeping. Finally, almost 45 minutes after putting her hyped up self in bed, she was asleep. Then, we got to play Santa. So much fun (but a lot of work)!
On Christmas morning, Will was up at 6 or so. I got up with him and Steven laid down in the living room... but didn't really sleep (he went to the living room by the way so Will could romp around our room and not get to Santa's gifts earlier than Kenzie). Finally, at 7:15 we decided we needed to call it and wake Kenzie up. We had plans with family later in the day and needed to get a move on. So, we sent in Will to wake her up. She got right up and then we all went down the hall and saw what Santa brought. The kids LOVED it. Kenzie tried to claim the basketball hoop before realizing there was a dollhouse. We opened stocking gifts then had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We then opened the rest of our gifts from Santa and from each other. Rather, I should say Kenzie opened the gifts. Almost all of them. She wanted to help everyone. Good thing Will doesn't really care. Next year might be interesting when they both want to open them all. We made an all our mess, but had a blast.
We cleaned up a bit and prepped for family to show up. Steven's parents, my parents, and my bro and his fiance came for Christmas dinner. First, we had appetizer type food and then spent over an hour opening gifts. The kids were certainly spoiled and my mom decided to wrap every single gift for them individually so they would have plenty to open. Hence the reason it took so long. We have made the request to consolidate gifts next year. Haha! Nana wanted them to have fun... but it took so long!
It was time for dinner shortly after all that and we sat down to smoked chicken, baked beans, potato salad, and mac and cheese. We went a different direction with Christmas dinner this year... and I thought it was AWESOME! Much more low key and way easier. I am all for making the huge Thanksgiving dinner but Christmas is more about family than eating for me so I liked this better.
After dinner we got together for our annual Christmas photo. We were missing Julie, Eric, and Evie this year, but they were back in Atlanta making awesome family memories so we will let it slide. We did manage to get both Jack and my parents' dog, Gus, in the picture in their matching ugly sweaters so there is a plus. We did this picture with little issue this year. I think they are all so used to us asking to take a picture that everyone has resigned themselves to the fact that it will happen whether they like it or not and it only took us a couple of minutes. Getting the dogs set up took longer than getting the actual photo this year.
It was an awesome holiday. The kids had a blast playing with all their toys this year and were hyped up by bed time. We had such a good day, that I totally forgot to get a family picture of the four of us on Christmas Day. Oh well. There is always next year. Haha!
We hope everyone had a great Christmas and many new memories were made.
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
Someone once expressed the sentiment to me that we all think that being a child at Christmas is one of the best things out there... until you have kids at Christmas. Seeing all that Christmas has to offer through the eyes of a child is truly magical. Whether it's watching them learn the true meaning of Christmas by hearing the Christmas story, meeting Santa Claus, or seeing all the lights, Christmas is a time of magic. This year was no exception for us. Everyone knows we love the Christmas season. We do our best to make sure that the children are able to make memories and we can do it right along with them. We started our advent activities just before December 1 and continued them through the actual holiday but our true fun started on Christmas Eve.
We woke up at our usual 7am and Kenzie found Kenny the elf fairly quickly. He came bearing gifts. This is a tradition that was started in my family many, many years ago. Santa always brought new pjs on Christmas Eve for the family to wear that night. It was one that my mom continued until we had children (and she technically still buys pjs for all of us to this day... they just aren't from Santa any longer), and once we had children, we decided to carry on the tradition. I think this is truly the first year that Kenzie "gets" this whole Santa thing. At least to the extent that children ever understand. I have answered questions such as "How does Santa get in our house if we don't have a chimney?" "Will he come if I am not alseep?" and "Will the reindeer eat the food in our yard?" (By the way, the answers were, "Santa magic.", "No!", and "Of course but probably not all of it because we also gave food to our neighbors and they put it down too, plus other people put it down and they might not be too hungry.") We opened our pjs before breakfast and everyone loved theirs. In case anyone is curious, Steven does mine and I do his so they are a surprise to us, as well.
After the excitement, Steven went and picked up McDonald's breakfast for us. Kenzie and Will LOVE hashbrowns from there and the sausage mcmuffin. Cheap dates. Anyway, we had breakfast and then started our biggest job of the day, making Christmas cookies. I must admit, while I love making cookies and I wouldn't trade the family time for anything, I despise the flour. I hate messes and it gets EVERYWHERE. I ignored it though and we had a great time. I am always in charge of rolling and cutting and Kenzie and Steven handle sprinkling. Kenzie is a very heavy sprinkler. We went through almost 4 large containers of sprinkles with 2 batches of cookies. Will didn't participate this year but next year I am sure he will be right there sprinkling with the best of them.
Our neighbors came over during this time to exchange gifts and the girls all played together for a bit (with Will who basically just follows them around). After cookies, we sprinkled the reindeer food on the lawn. Will wasn't amused and just crawled around while Kenzie put out the food for Santa's reindeer.
Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for church. Whew. Getting two children and two adults ready for church service and trying to get everyone dressed in fancy clothes but not ruin our clothes (by doing things such as having kids dressed too early while we dressed or us having to give baths while dressed up) is no small feat. I had to seriously write down what we were going to do in what order to make sure we all got ready on time. It was a like a well oiled machine though, and we were able to get some pictures taken before we left for church.
I LOVE our Christmas Eve church service. We have a communion service that is mostly singing and we take communion. It is a low-key service to worship together and celebrate the birth of Jesus as our greatest gift at Christmas. The kids did remarkably well. Will was much better behaved than Kenzie. 3-year-olds lack patience and Kenzie is an active child. While she wasn't bad, she was active. She went up to the front on her own when the Christmas story was read to the children. She took her first communion. Then, she held her own candle (with help from Daddy) during Silent Night. Will chilled with Daddy then wandered around cruising around furniture during communion like it was nothing. Never said a word.
Our service only lasts about 45 minutes (perfect for small children) and then we went to our traditional Buca Di Beppo for dinner. We got there once (sometimes twice if we do an anniversary dinner... usually with kids in tow) a year. We had a great dinner. Both kids ate a ton. Will might have eaten as much as I did and nobody got super messy somehow. I think they use such light sauce that it saved us.
After dinner we came home and got the kids into their new Santa pjs before reading The Night Before Christmas and putting out cookies for Santa. Kenzie and Will might have eaten one of Santa's cookies. Though, we might have told them it was okay. I think Santa was still stuffed from his heavy Italian dinner Mrs. Claus must have made him before he left the North Pole.
Then, the fun started. Kenzie took what seemed liked FOREVER to go to sleep. She kept calling us in there for things. At one point she insisted Santa must be here because she heard jingle bells. It was torture. We didn't want to start building/wrapping last minute things until she was sleeping. Finally, almost 45 minutes after putting her hyped up self in bed, she was asleep. Then, we got to play Santa. So much fun (but a lot of work)!
On Christmas morning, Will was up at 6 or so. I got up with him and Steven laid down in the living room... but didn't really sleep (he went to the living room by the way so Will could romp around our room and not get to Santa's gifts earlier than Kenzie). Finally, at 7:15 we decided we needed to call it and wake Kenzie up. We had plans with family later in the day and needed to get a move on. So, we sent in Will to wake her up. She got right up and then we all went down the hall and saw what Santa brought. The kids LOVED it. Kenzie tried to claim the basketball hoop before realizing there was a dollhouse. We opened stocking gifts then had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We then opened the rest of our gifts from Santa and from each other. Rather, I should say Kenzie opened the gifts. Almost all of them. She wanted to help everyone. Good thing Will doesn't really care. Next year might be interesting when they both want to open them all. We made an all our mess, but had a blast.
We cleaned up a bit and prepped for family to show up. Steven's parents, my parents, and my bro and his fiance came for Christmas dinner. First, we had appetizer type food and then spent over an hour opening gifts. The kids were certainly spoiled and my mom decided to wrap every single gift for them individually so they would have plenty to open. Hence the reason it took so long. We have made the request to consolidate gifts next year. Haha! Nana wanted them to have fun... but it took so long!
It was time for dinner shortly after all that and we sat down to smoked chicken, baked beans, potato salad, and mac and cheese. We went a different direction with Christmas dinner this year... and I thought it was AWESOME! Much more low key and way easier. I am all for making the huge Thanksgiving dinner but Christmas is more about family than eating for me so I liked this better.
After dinner we got together for our annual Christmas photo. We were missing Julie, Eric, and Evie this year, but they were back in Atlanta making awesome family memories so we will let it slide. We did manage to get both Jack and my parents' dog, Gus, in the picture in their matching ugly sweaters so there is a plus. We did this picture with little issue this year. I think they are all so used to us asking to take a picture that everyone has resigned themselves to the fact that it will happen whether they like it or not and it only took us a couple of minutes. Getting the dogs set up took longer than getting the actual photo this year.
It was an awesome holiday. The kids had a blast playing with all their toys this year and were hyped up by bed time. We had such a good day, that I totally forgot to get a family picture of the four of us on Christmas Day. Oh well. There is always next year. Haha!
We hope everyone had a great Christmas and many new memories were made.
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
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