Christmas Festivities

Happy New Year friends!!! 

We are back from the Sugar Bowl, and I'm getting around to blogging again :) We're catching up today with Christmas Even and Christmas day festivities. If you caught my post last Monday, you know that Christmas was different around here. 

We started off our morning with our North Pole Breakfast, but unfortunately, Adalyn had been running a fever and was not feeling herself, and for the first time in months, our entire family was home, and we spent most of the day being super lazy. 

Finally, in the afternoon, we baked chocolate chip cookies for Santa as is our usual Christmas Eve tradition. 

And then I was feeling bummed because we weren't going to be in church on Christmas. I was scrolling Facebook, and our church from Tulsa popped up with their Facebook live of their Christmas Eve service, so we attended virtually. 

We all miss our church tons. 

After the service, we rushed to make reindeer food. 

It's just a super simple mix of oatmeal and sprinkles. 

We stirred it all together, and I put some for each girl in a baggie. 

These girls were ready to sprinkle their reindeer food!

They spend so much time sprinkling it all over the yard. 

We left a key out for Santa since our new home doesn't have a fireplace.

And then each girl picked out a perfect cookie for Santa.

Cookies and milk set out and three girls ready for bed! 

But first, we had to hug our elves goodbye! 

Every Christmas Eve we let the girls hug the elves since they're going home with Santa anyway ;) They love that they're able to pick them up, hug, kiss, and cuddle.

Megan said, "they're so tiny!" 

One more kiss, and then off to bed.

Our girls went to bed early this year, and they all fell fast asleep despite promising each other that they wouldn't sleep at all, so they could catch Santa in the act.

Gretchen's big present was her Harry Potter coding kit.

Megan got a balance beam. 

and Connect 4 for family game nights!

Gretchen asked for Harry Potter lego sets. 

And all of the girls received Fire tablets.

We're such Apple people that we're still figuring these out, so if you have any tips/tricks for them, let me know! 

DJ has been asking for cowboy boots for years now, and he finally received them!

#wheninTexas

The grandparents gave lots of toys! 

And we had to include some Longhorn gear for Christmas too. 

After we opened presents, we opened our stockings. 

and Addy played on her bike for a bit, even though she still wasn't feeling 100% 

The little girls received scooters for their American Girl dolls. 

They all spent the rest of the afternoon playing with their new toys.

Gretchen built lego sets all afternoon!

I received a new diffuser, and set it up immediately.

And later, Megan and DJ built the lego set she received for Christmas.

By the end of the day, Adalyn was feeling much better and wanted to go on a bike ride, so we rode around the block. 

We came home, and jumped on the trampoline (thanks Gee and Papaw!), and then Adalyn crashed hard! 

We didn't cook any fancy meals, we spent most of the day in our pajamas, and we enjoyed being together as a family. 

It was a simple day and pretty much perfect. 

North Pole Breakfast

Christmas Eve morning, the girls woke up to their North Pole Breakfast. We started this tradition years ago, and frankly I wasn't sure the girls even remembered until Gretchen said something about it Sunday afternoon. 

Usually, our elves go all out with gingerbread houses, fun doughnuts, lots of fruit, muffins....... but this year, our elves kept it nice and simple :)

The table was lined with kraft paper and wrapping paper. 

Each setting had a new Santa plate, a Christmas popper, and a mug for hot chocolate.

I found the cutest little snowflake marshmallows for the girls hot chocolate.

There were also stickers, so the girls could decorate the paper.

Our elves stuffed themselves in to a little sack and waited for the girls to wake up.

They also left a note on the table, asking them to please watch a movie quietly until everyone else was awake. Typically, we let them wake us up when they wake up and discover the breakfast, but since Adalyn was sick, we didn't want her waking up super early. The girls were wonderful and kept quiet until the rest of us woke up. I made cinnamon rolls while they were waiting on their dad to get out of bed. 

Each kiddo had hot chocolate with their snowflake marshmallow.

We serve powder doughnuts each year, and we usually have Krispy Kreme doughnuts, but you know, I don't even think I've seen one since we moved to Austin. I opted for cinnamon rolls and blue berries. 

The girls had fun cracking their poppers

Megan had a magnifying glass in hers. Gretchen had dice, and Adalyn had little playing cards.  

Bless her little sick heart. 

G was a fan of the breakfast, and even at 10, I'm thankful her little heart believes.

That's better, Addy :)

The elves also brought shrinky dinks for the girls, so they colored them after breakfast. 

Later in the afternoon, we baked them. 

Each of the shrinky dinks have a hole so we'll hang them on the girls tree upstairs. 

We love this little tradition.