This year I was completely LAME with taking pictures on Christmas Day. I'm not sure why, the camera was within arms reach the entire time, I just wasn't really doing it. We had a really nice Christmas this year. The kids didn't really ask for much (I love that about my kids - I am aware that it won't last though) so Santa was sure to come through!
To rewind a little...
This is on Christmas Eve, I caught Clayton and Noah watching a show with Sammie. These two boys are the best big brothers. They are so good to their little sisters.
Also to rewind, this year for Christmas I decided that I wanted to handmake a the gifts for our nieces and nephews. We now have three nephews and three nieces (with one nephew on the way) and buying everyone a gift was going to add up so I looked to Pinterest to find some gender neutral inspiration and came up with these:
I saw these cute little owl softies and thought, 'I can make that!' Now keep in mind that I am not a great sewer (I had to borrow a sewing machine to do these) so there are a TON of imperfections but I actually like that about them. Making them wasn't my favorite thing, but I liked the end product so much that I ended up making owls for Josie and Sammie too! (Sorry to spoil the surprise Abby, we're bringing yours in January.)
We spent our Christmas Eve caroling to friends and neighbors and delivering the holiday goodies that we (I) had made. It has been years since I've been caroling and it was a lot of fun to do that with the kids. For the most part they were good sports about the several hours it took us to hit everyone on our list. It got dark about 5:30 and Clayton kept asking if it was time to go home and go to bed yet. This is the kid who usually complains about bed time so I was getting a good chuckle out of his eagerness to get home to bed. After a festive Christmas Eve dinner of Burger King (our caroling took us longer than we thought so we decided on the zero mess dinner) we hurried home to open Christmas Eve gifts (we do ornaments every year) and leave milk and cookies for Santa and fruits and veggies for the reindeer.
I love the note that Clayton wrote for Santa. Dear Santa, This cookie and milk is for
you. These carrots are for
Rudolph. Split the cutie
for the rest of the reindeer. Love: The Smith Family.
Christmas morning was very enjoyable. I woke up early to feed Sammie like I usually do. Instead of going back to bed though I went downstairs to start making Christmas breakfast. I typically wait until after gifts have been opened to do this, but because we had church at 10:00 I decided that I needed an early start.
As I was cooking (crepes and eggs are tradition), Noah appeared in the kitchen (about 7:00). I promptly sent him upstairs to my bed to wait for everyone else to wake up. I was surprised that he was the first one up and that he waited until 7. That was really great! About 30 minutes later all three of the older kids were up (we decided NOT to wake Sammie for the festivities - it may be Christmas but my motto of not waking a sleeping baby supersedes all). As a family we walked into the family room to check out our loot.
The boys were super excited with what they'd been given. Since they didn't really ask for much Santa was able to deliver - along with a few extra surprises!
Santa brought Josie a new baby doll (which Justin named Guadalupe), a purse, two princess books, bottles to feed her baby, a Tinkerbell barbie doll, some candy, a toothbrush, and an orange.
The boys not only loved their own loot but they loved seeing what each other got (and honestly, they've been sharing everything since Christmas).
Noah got a robot, a McQueen book, a superhero book, Squinkies, Trash Pack kids, the game Guess Who, a toothbrush, candy, and an orange.
Clayton got Pokemon cards, a doorway basketball hoop, a Bakugon video game, the board game Connect Four, Squinkies, a Magic Treehouse book, a Captain Underpants book, candy, a toothbrush, and an orange.
Trash Pack! Noah was so excited about this! We're still not 100% sure what these are or what you're supposed to do with them.
Josie has been slightly obsessed with Tinkerbell for the past month or so and her face was pretty priceless when she discovered that Santa had left Tinkerbell in her stocking.
We let the kids play with their Santa toys for a while and then ate breakfast and got ready for church. We decided to wait to open under the tree presents until after church. After church our kids couldn't get home fast enough. We made them change clothes and clean up a little before we tore into the gifts. Sadly, I didn't take a single picture of opening gifts but we all got some great stuff! I think the favorites for the kids were the slippers and Bakugon toys that Grandpa Smith got them (okay, the Bakugons were only for the boys) and the owl softies that I made the girls. Granted, Sammie didn't care at all, but Josie opened hers and immediately started loving on it and had the best reaction. It made all my frustration in making them worth it!
I really didn't take many pictures, but here is what I did take:
Justin and Clayton. These two were two peas in a pod. I love seeing how alike they are.
Um, this would be the only picture I took of Sammie on Christmas Day. Oops.
Josie enjoying some of her Christmas Cutie.
Justin helping Clayton play his new game...
...and then enjoying a classic game of Battleship (what Santa brought Justin). The kids also got the game Sorry, which we played on Christmas Day also. I remember that, growing up, we always got a game to play on Christmas Day. This year we got lots of games. All classic, old school games. All awesome. All have been played several times!
For one more fun Christmas surprise, my parents, my sister, her husband, their son, and my brother flew in on Christmas night. We didn't tell the kids they were coming. I snuck out and picked them up from the airport and then they went to my front door and rang the bell. The kids were over the moon! This is the only picture I got of Max (my sister's son). He's 17 months and adorable! He has personality plus and is always on the go. I forgot how much energy they require at this age.
Because my family is here, we have been spending a lot of time together with our cousins. Josie and Tori and two little princesses and are becoming good friends. Growing up, one of my best friends was my cousin Jen (still is) and I'm glad that my kids can have that too!
This is just funny. For Christmas, Josie got these fairy wings from my brother's family. I came home one afternoon to find Disco wearing them. Everyone thought it was hilarious!
As you can (hopefully) tell, we had a wonderful holiday. The only thing lacking are more pictures! I hope you were able to have an equally wonderful Christmas. For now, we are just enjoying each other's company until school starts back up next week!
