Here is our annual Christmas post! I'll try to touch on everything we did throughout the month along with my thoughts (mostly for me).
We did our annual visit to Santa one early Sunday after church. It is such a fun outing, one I hope we never get too old for. Scott did have to wait for about an hour in line while we played, plus a bit more waiting once we were inside Santa's village. Our Santa is so good, we just love him!
The girls just loved having the tree up and playing around it while it was lit up each evening. Every year I get so stressed out by comparing myself to others who have their trees up before Thanksgiving. My goal is to have it up by the first weekend in December, but even then it takes a while for me to get it all settled. This is a note to myself: even if the tree is not up right away, there is still plenty of time to enjoy it the whole month!
I made my own planters with greenery from a local greenhouse. I enjoyed the fresh greens and not having to have two extra pots to deal with after winter but I'm not sure the extra work in arranging was worth the savings of doing it myself. I still feel like we need to have something green up on the front porch!
My parents came the weekend before Christmas to watch the kids program at church. It was a special weekend and although the girls were a little naughty during the program, it went fairly well. Next year I'll know not to have the girls stand next to each other--yikes!
We celebrated afterward with lunch at Smokey D's along with Denise and her boyfriend. We also visited the cemetery and that was nice, too.
We hosted friends from Chicago a few days before Christmas. I'm glad Scott made it happen because it was really nice to spend time catching up and getting to know their families. Harry was a big hit with the kids!
We had Scott's family for Christmas. Dave and Margie arrived a day earlier which gave the kids some nice time with them, and we enjoyed swimming in their hotel pool.
On Christmas Eve day, we had an easy lunch of chili and cinnamon rolls before getting ready for church at 5pm. Scott and his parents left the house early to get a good seat and we joined them closer to 5. This worked out well and the church did fill up close to 5.
All was going so well at church until Brynn came to me and said she needed to barf. I hustled her out of the sanctuary to the bathroom where she informed she had already thrown up all over my boot and in the aisle- I totally missed it. I grabbed our stuff and we headed out to the car to rest for the rest of the service. Scott told me to watch the service on my phone and I did just that. I wondered how engaging it would be, watching on my tiny phone screen but it actually ended up giving the Christmas message a very personal meaning, with me staring out in the dark night. One of these years we will get through the holidays with no sickness!
After church we had snacks for dinner (meatballs, vegetable pizza, meat and cheese tray, garlic pull apart bread, little smokies in bacon, cookies, chex mix) and had fun socializing. We opened presents from the family that evening.
The kids gifts from each other were a hit and it was pretty special taking the kids out to buy for each other. I will have to remember that tradition for next year, as in theory it seemed very stressful for me but in actuality, it was very easy and I loved it.
Christmas morning Santa had arrived and the kids waited until after breakfast to open their gifts. Anna got her horse farm, Brynn got her dollhouse, and Michael got the Harry Potter Lego hogwarts great hall. I think they were all pleased with their gifts, plus their special little things in their stockings.
Grammy also got everyone $100 bills- wow!
It was really nice seeing all our family over the month and especially hosting everyone at our home. I am happy we have the means, energy, and time to do it and I hope everyone had a great time.
Merry Christmas!
Here is our Christmas video:
