Christmas Recap

Christmas, Christmas time WAS here. A time for joy, a time for cheer...We had a delightful Christmas, for real. I was a little nervous about how everything would work out. My dad fracks oil, so his hours are unpredictable as well as his location. We weren't sure he'd still be in town for the holidays at all and HE WAS! He was even on nights so he could be home during the day. A little Christmas gift from Above for my family, for sure. :) Here's how our weekend went...

Saturday...Christmas Eve!
10:00 am: Rory and Trace's godfather, Jason, and his wife Cary stopped down with presents for the kids as well as my sister and her boyfriend, Phil who had just gotten in from DC. Everyone visited while I made cookies, chopped a thousand veggies for two days worth of dishes and made pasta salad.

3:00 pm: We headed to my parents' house so the kids could open presents before my dad left for work. This was fantastic! I liked doing the kids presents on Christmas Eve. It was just quiet time with my parents, my sister and Phil. Not overwhelming, not rushed. Delightful! I hope we do that every year. My parents SPOILED my kids, as always. Pictures to come, of course.

4:30 pm: The rest of the family arrived. We had our traditional Polish Christmas Eve meal of perogies and ham. MMMMM!

7:00 pm: Our Church's family service. I failed to get pictures of the kids in the Christmas finest, but my Aunt did and I'll steal them from her FB soon. :) The kids were so well behaved! I couldn't believe it! Rory only cried for like 30 seconds and Trace didn't cry at all. Phew! Then it was home and time for bed.

Christmas Day...

5:30 am: I wake up and head to my mom's. We open presents there, my mom, dad, sister, Phil and myself. My dad had just gotten home from work at 5 so we woke up early to spend Christmas morning with him. Totally worth it. My parents got me a CRICUT!!! I've been so jealous of my mom's for a couple years now and now I have my own! Pinterest projects coming 'atcha. :)

7:30 am: I'm back home and Dave is awake. We open presents with each other. Dave got me my Naked Palette which I've been using every day since Christmas, thank you very much. :)

8:00 am: Rory and Fizz wake up! We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus then did our Santa presents. Mom and Dad presents were next. Our house by this point looked like ToysRUs exploded in my living room. Tissue paper, wrapping paper, boxes, plastic, blocks, books, dolls...you name it, it was strewn across my floor! :)

9:30 am: My mom, Chelsea and Phil come down to hang out and have muffins.

No naps were had on Christmas, because we had to be at my Aunt's for dinner at 1. But wait was there a meltdown? NOPE! PHEW!

I froze my Cousin Connor's gift card from Dave and me in a huge block of ice. It was hilarious to watch his face when he got a cold gift bag. Hilarious! Aunt Barb and Uncle Tom gave Dave and I a beautiful book of pictures she's taken of our family since our wedding. I'll take pictures of the pages and share them sometime. Maybe for our anniversary!

1:30: Time for Christmas lunch! My family has a cookout every year on Christmas. Burgers, sausage, pasta salad, chips, that kind of food. Non-traditional for typical families but we love it! Easy, relaxed and delish. :)

3:30 pm: Time to head to Dave's parents. His older sister Laura, her husband Mike and their 2 kids are home, as well as Matt (his younger brother) and his girlfriend Jen and Tony, Dave's older brother, his wife Grace and their son Caleb. Lots of commotion. I was so nervous for Rory and Trace's behavior. It was a no nap day, with lots of commotion and running around. We made it through though! We ate at 5:30 and hung out until around 7. Both kids were dead asleep in the car within 10 minutes.

10:00 pm. Kids are fast asleep and I'm dead asleep. Thank goodness.

A lovely, hectic, crazy Christmas. My kids were CHAMPS though. They've been dragged back and forth, here and there for the last 4 days and still are on their best behavior. I'll pay it for next week probably but that's a-okay. We made it!