Christmas Weekend

Our Christmas was wonderful. Our kids typically wake up stupid early on Christmas morning, and somehow, when we told them they couldn't wake up and come downstairs until 7:30, they believed us, and they slept until about 7. I think last year they were awake at 2 and 4 and we had to tell them to get back to bed, and we were up around 5 or something crazy early opening presents.  I was so thankful for a little bit of sleep on Christmas morning. 

The girls came downstairs and Megan found the pickle ornament so she was able to open the first present. 

Then Gretchen and Adalyn had their turns. 

Adalyn asked for a stuffed Buccee toy and I told her she should ask Santa for one. She promptly told me that Santa does not shop at Buccees. Oh, but he does. 

Megan also asked for a stuffed Bevo at every single football game, so Santa brought her a super soft one. 

Adalyn got new bedding for her room. We plan to paint it in the next few weeks and get her room all set up for her, and maybe she'll finally sleep in it again. She's been sleeping with Megan ever since March 2020. 

Adalyn got a Barbie helicopter from her grandparents. 

Megan's big gift was an air track. She immediately started jumping on it! 

One of the sweetest presents I received was this hand embroidered picture from Gretchen. When I worked in the schools in Indiana, I had a patient who had hand drawn the scene, and he was working on cross stitching it. Sadly, he passed away before he could finish it, and the classroom teacher let me have the project. It sat unfinished, and I asked Gretchen a few months ago to finish it for me, and she did! I was totally surprised and I love it so much! 

Gretchen's big gift was a Cricut Joy. She went to work figuring it out and put her name on her machine. 

 We opened the stockings and the girls played with their presents. WE stayed home, didn't have a big meal, and just spent the day together. 

On Sunday, we headed to Arkansas. We stopped at Buccee's and Santa Buccee was there! Only two of the girls were excited to have their picture with him! 

We made it to Gee's house in record time. The traffic was light and we only had a few stops and made it an hour before we thought we would. We had dinner, and the girls exchanged presents with Amelia, Gee and Papaw. 

Gee and her girls. We were so thankful to be with them the day after Christmas, even if it was just for the night. 

 

Christmas Festivities

Christmas has come and gone; we celebrated and enjoyed family time. We did the traditions; we visited family, and now we are back to school and work  and diving head first in to life. 

I always like to spend some time wrapping up the Christmas fun, so the girls will have something to look back on when they're bigger. So, I'm going to spend the next few days wrapping up the festivities, and then get to blogging again, and maybe a more regular schedule. My hopes going in to the year, is that I can have blog posts releasing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So, if you're a regular reader, first, thank you, and second, new content is coming for you!

Alright, let's dig in to Christmas! 

The girls had a half day on the 17th of December and then they were out for Christmas break. We saw Santa on Sunday, and then I worked Monday and Tuesday, which turned out to be horrible work days, because half of my clients were out, and then most that had scheduled either no showed or cancelled. I told myself that I'll take 2 weeks off next year regardless. 

Megan had gymnastics every day of Christmas break up until Christmas Eve. While she was practicing, these girls and I were wrapping gifts and trying to get some last minute things done. They decided to sit under the Christmas tree and remind me that they're gifts too. 

On Thursday night we cooked gumbo and had our Texas family over for Christmas. It's crazy that we've never lived near family before and now we have a cousin, her kids, and an aunt close by. We also have an uncle that comes to visit, and it's wonderful that we get to spend time with them! 

After gumbo, we exchanged a few presents. Adalyn's face was the best. 

New games, new fidgets, and more. 

Aunt Gina taught Gretchen how to play the game she bought her. They stayed up until 10 playing, and then I sent Gretchen to bed, because our elves had some work to do. 

Our Elves on the Shelf (yes, we have two) set up a breakfast for the girls every year. We usually have this breakfast on Christmas Eve. It gives us something fun to wake up to, and there are usually some activities that can help keep the girls busy throughout the day.

One of our elves even came dressed as milk! 

I used bottle brush trees that were in the playroom, and found red, pink, and green confetti. There was also a "snowball" stand for some snowball fights. 

Each little plate had a tree party hat, a snowman hot cocoa bomb, and a party cracker. 

I found red, pink, and green cutlery at Wal-Mart (and then washed it so we can use it again next year.)

Our elves brought some chocolates, and a gingerbread stadium. 

Before breakfast, Megan played with dominos- this year, we had to wait on big sis to wake up! 

Hot milk and hot cocoa bombs. 

I made gingerbread waffles for breakfast. Some years we've done doughnuts, or just fruit and cinnamon rolls, but when I found a dash waffle iron with gingerbread, I knew it would be perfect for our breakfast. 

After breakfast, we cleaned up, enjoyed some family time, and then made our gingerbread stadium. 

I' not sure if it was easier or harder than a typical gingerbread house, but if you're a football family, then I'm pretty sure you're required to buy the stadium now versus the traditional house. 

We cleaned up for Christmas Eve service at church. 

The candlelight service was wonderful, but Megan is never a fan of fire. Bless her. 

Merry Christmas from our little fam......

After church we went home and had a dinner of salami, fruits, crackers, spinach dip, and meats and cheeses. I started doing this for Christmas Eve and it's so much easier than baking a big meal for just the 5 of us. 

3 girls (not so little anymore) ready to head out to look at lights. 

I'm a little sad that our pj & lights night didn't happen earlier in the month. but with gymnastics, holiday parties, church and more, we just didn't have the time to squeeze it in. So, we went out on Christmas Eve night to look at lights in our pjs 

We came home and sprinkled reindeer food in the yard. set out Santa's key (since we don't have a fireplace.) and said goodbye to our elves. 

We set out freshly baked (store bought) cookies for Santa... I asked the girls if they wanted to make homemade cookies, and they all said no! Thankfully, I had bought a pack of cookies from the store earlier in the week (that were gluten free) in case we needed them.

The girls said goodbye to our elves. We always let them play with them on Christmas Eve, because the elves fly home with Santa, so they technically don't need their magic ;) 

And it dawned on me, that the magic of our elves won't be around much longer. 

After saying good-bye, we curled up and read The Night Before Christmas.

The girls made it to bed fairly early on Christmas Eve. I was shocked they didn't stay up past 10, but we sent them to bed a little after 9, and by 10, they were sound asleep. 

Santa came and we were ready for Christmas morning! 

 

It's Christmas Time

It's Christmas week, and friends, I am still not ready for Saturday! Are you?!

 Earlier this month I decided to "declutter" Christmas if you will. We typically try to squeeze in some holiday fun daily in December, and this year, my heart just wasn't in it. I just wanted to slow down. Life has been crazy, and I didn't need the holidays to be jam packed either. And, it's the best thing I could have done.  

Don't get me wrong, we've been busy, but piling in the extras on top of the other events just didn't feel good this year, and looking back, while some of our usual memories weren't made and traditions weren't had, we made some new memories and maybe even new traditions that we weren't planning on. It's just been a good change and a refreshing change of pace. 

 I hosted a cookie exchange earlier this month and I'm so glad I did! I have friends from all these little groups and it was wonderful to bring them all together; some of them I had only met on social media! But. we all agreed it was needed and so good to just be together and away from kids and responsiblities. 

I made krinkle cookies and sourdough banana bread- yum! 

As well as chocolate covered potato chips- double yum! 

We had fresh baked sourdough, dip, and a charcuterie board, as well as hot chocolate, wine, and lots and lots of cookies! 

DJ and I attended UT's athletic department Christmas party, and had a great time seeing everyone. 

We had food and drinks and we were able to catch up with some staff members who are returning to Texas and chat with friends; it was a great night out! 

And how fun is this balloon Hook 'em?! It was set up for recruiting and I had to get a picture. 

On Wednesday night, we had a signing day party with the staff; and again, it was fun to have a night out, but I was beat the next day! 

And on Friday, we celebrated 16 years of marriage with a date night to Steiner Ranch steakhouse, and then we looked at Christmas lights in Round Rock. 

The trees were so pretty! 

Sunday afternoon we managed to squeeze in our visit to Santa! I'm not sure how many more years the girls will tolerate this, so I'm cherishing it now as much as I can! 

We walked around Bass Pro and then had lunch at Hat Creek, because that's what we did last year. It's funny that I didn't remember that, but Megan sure did! 

As we've slowed down this Christmas and not tried to "do it all" we've really been blessed. I'm not stressed trying to make the holidays perfect and we'll make sure we have time for our super important traditions and just let go of the rest, and it might be the best gift of all this holiday season.