2015 Christmas Recap

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, and before I know it, the kids will be back in school. I meant to post about their concerts at school, but I just haven't had a free moment. To sum them up, they were adorable! 

This year Christmas was spent with Perry's family at a house just a few miles south of town. Gorgeous home! The preparations began in mid-October (long before I had a solid decision as to what the kids were going to be for Halloween!) with a lot of emailing as to who was bringing what, and what was on the menu, and ideas for gifts for the kids, and such. I'm not a planner, so Christmas prep tends to stress me out a bit. Most everything went off without a hitch once we arrived at the house. 

 With Christmas landing on a Friday this year, we packed what felt like all of our belonging and met up with the rest of the family Wednesday afternoon. It was so nice to see everyone again! Once the sleeping arrangements were hashed out, and everyone was in attendance, we gathered around the dinner table for spaghetti made with Great-Grandma Dustin's spaghetti sauce. Before the kids ran out of energy, which never seemed to happen, we frosted sugar cookies. I say we, but I should mention Grandma and I decorated the large majority. Hunter and JP decorated a couple, Charli barely got through one. The men weren't overly helpful but Perry did add sprinkles to my frosting-only cookies. I think after 2 hours, we finally had them all done?!

 The first night putting the kids to bed was a little rough. Charlotte fell asleep in our bed, and then later had to be moved, but JP fell asleep under the pool table because "Hunter is too loud to sleep by." They each had their own bed but sometime Hunter can't just be quiet! He must have moved to the couch in the middle of the night though...

 Christmas Eve morning, everyone but Perry (who was working) and Grandma, drove a mile across town to a sledding hill to have a bit of fun. Ain't she cute?!

 All I want is just one good picture you guys!

 The sledding hill was really steep but both the boys are fairly fearless. They hiked their sleds almost to the top of the hill before going down...

 Once she saw the boys go down, Charli wanted nothing to do with sledding. It didn't help that Uncle Cameron had to push her out of the way to save her from being ran over by one of the boys...Eventually she decided she would try to go down too, but she didn't believe in using a sled. You can make this stuff up - she hiked herself halfway up the hill, and then sat down to scooter herself back down. Occasionally she would shout things like, "Look at me go!" and "Watch out for me!" and "Here I come!" I can't get enough of her humorous ways! 

 After going our separate ways for church, we gathered at the house for Christmas Eve dinner. Grandma Betty made their traditional Clam Chowder Soup, and since I'm not into seafood, I opted to make the second soup and decided on Chicken Cordon Bleu Soup earlier that day. (Like I said, I'm not a planner!) With the arrival of Santa increasing by the minute, the twelve of us curled up on the couches and in the recliners to listen to Great-Grandpa Dustin's re-telling of their Christmas traditions via tape recording. Instead of reading the book this year, we instead watched, "A Child's Christmas in Wales." 

 Before we sent the kids off to bed, Uncle Cameron read, "The Night Before Christmas" and I for some reason volunteered to read, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." I'm not entirely sure why I did that as I hate reading out loud. But I did it, and I "voiced" it well. 

 Look at all those cuties on the fireplace! Ahhh!

 On the second night in the house, Charlotte wanted to sleep with JP, and he obliged. He's such a good brother to her!

 When we put the kids to bed, we sternly instructed them NOT to go upstairs without mom or dad in the morning. At the usual 7:30a we heard them giggling in their beds so we rolled out of bed to distract them for a while. Perry played pool with them for a little while, and then later I played foosball with them. Charlotte somehow made it upstairs without Perry or me realizing...

 This is how they have to go upstairs - with pillowcases over their heads so they can't see what Santa left them...

 After a LOT of fighting about it, Perry and I came to an agreement as to what was going to happen with their Christmas presents. A few weeks prior, we had the boys write Santa a letter to tell him where they were going to be at for Christmas and what they wanted. JP has been on a roller skating kick for a few months so that's what he asked for in his letter. Hunter asked for "anything for kids" so he was brought a robot kit. Charlotte just wants "more kitchen" so she was brought more food. 

The original plan however was that Santa was going to bring the boys pedal cars, and Charlotte a Little Tikes cars. Perry and I went round and round and it wasn't pretty. In his family Santa can only bring one present and its always the biggest. While I had originally agreed on the cars, I really wanted JP to get the roller skates he asked SANTA for. I wanted the Christmas magic of it, but Perry was pretty set on no, the pedal cars can't be from us. Eventually I agreed that Santa could still bring the pedal cars, but I wanted them to go on a scavenger hunt for them instead of putting them under the tree. After more arguing about whether the other presents would be wrapped or not, we came to another agreement. (This is why Christmas is hard for me with him - breaking tradition is a huge no no to him!)

 Before they could see what Santa left for them, we all gathered in the master bedroom to open our stockings, but only after eating our first breakfast of kringler and breads and fruits. 

 Hunter claimed the middle of the room as his spot to open gifts, where as JP hopped on the bed and opened his presents with his aunt, uncle, and baby cousin. 

 Charlotte, Perry and I hung out by the fireplace to see what we received. Charlotte was too cute! "Okay let's see what we got here!" 

 Finally a few hours after they woke, the kids were released from the bedroom to see what Santa left. They all knew exactly what was theirs and were very excited. That's when they found their first clue to the scavenger hunt. Their elf, Skippy, left a note saying he hid the other present from Santa as one last joke before he left. They were lead around the house and eventually outside where the cars were all parked. It was so fun to watch them cruise around the driveway!

 The rest of the morning was spent trying out new toys and unwrapping more from under tree.

 I love watching the excitement of little kids on Christmas! 

 JP loves to color and draw so one of the gifts he was given was this HUGE set of coloring supplies. I think there are 3 sets of markers, varying in sizes, variety of crayon, and paints and colored pencils too. He and Grandma hunkered down in the afternoon for a little bit of coloring. 

 The rest of the time spent together was fairly unstructured. We took another trip to the sledding hill on Saturday and spent the rest of the day working on a puzzle. On Sunday we managed to take Hunter and Charlotte ice skating. JP came but didn't want to skate. Later that evening Aunt Em gave little Stevie his first hair cut.

 And since JP was getting a little shaggy, she trimmed him up too. 

 Hunter on the other hand is growing his out. And he enjoys wearing it in a ponytail.

 

Before I missed my opportunity, I sweet talked these little ones into taking a picture with me, but only after we played Ring-Around-the-Rosey a dozen times! My how they've grown!

We said our goodbyes Monday morning and parted ways. I took *forever* to load and unload the car and then to put it all away... I think this next Christmas we're going to try to have it at our house. We have virtually no memories of Christams at home and with the arguing that ensued this year, we have come to the conclusion that we realy need to make our own traditions instead of trying to always have it like it used to be. The last and only time we had Christmas here was when Hunter just turned a year old. So while it's not official yet, I just might get another award for wrecking Christmas again. Time will tell...