Christmas Wrap Up

Christmas has officially come to an end. It is always bittersweet. I love Christmas time and Christmas carols and preparing for the 2 days of family and food and fun... but I also am ready for normalcy and less traffic and less of the holiday humbugs people tend to get. I am a person who tends to take down our tree before New Years - sometimes even the day after Christmas... we live in tight quarters and we can use the space for all the kids' new stuff! But on the same hand, I have decals to put onto toys, board games to assist with, new gifts to put away and a new computer to make time to set up properly and I have work tonight... we are also meeting a friend for lunch and to exchange gifts. At least she doesn't have school until after New Years!

So Christmas Eve was great as usual. We have it at my Mom's house and she makes her amazing bread and lasagna that we look forward to all year. We track Santa on the NORAD (I am OBSESSED with doing that... :)) aaand usually open one gift and save the rest for the next day. I made a photo block set for my Mom and one for my sister. I got a Beatles lamp! My Mom rules at finding Beatles stuff I don't have already :) Feeding my addiction! I brought an old home movie of Christmases and other things and we got to see my grandparents in that and had a moment of really quietly missing them. It was great to hear their voices and see them smiling with their family. There was much dessert and coffee and we stayed until the kids were about ready to drop, loaded up the car and came home. They were super easy to get in bed and fell asleep immediately. Then we cracked open my Red Nose Ale from Heartland Brewery that I got for "Santa" and Hubs to drink as we put out presents. Santa had some beer with his cookies to take the edge off... haha Jim and I were super excited about the gold box for Maris and the nutcracker for Jacks. He said we should hide them in the back for last :)




Our Christmas Morning started at &am. The kids were up and talking to each other about how Santa did come. Jackson was under the impression that we were going to SEE him so he was briefly disappointed. Every gift he went "wow! thank you!" and it was soo cute!

she still loved her apron and robe! I knew the Hello Kitty would sway her :)
and they get to the GOLD BOX AND NUTCRACKER. Their faces are priceless and Maris refers to it as her favorite gift of all. Jackson got all quiet and hugged his nutcracker then hung it on the tree.


we got him an rc car that is for 3 yrs and up and he was going NUTS! (he is still playing with it as I type this blog... haha)


Around 930ish we got dressed and headed to stop #2 on the Christmas adventure- Back to my Mom's for Christmas morning there.


Muppets Yahtzee! I love when two things I love get combined! Its on!

Mom and Bobby got us a portable outdoor shed and I cried I was so happy! No more tarp with rocks for us! the kids outdoor stuff will now be safe and at our house. What an awesome gift!
Not sure how much I went into the portablenorthpole videos... but you can make your kid a Santa video with their personalized info and it will say if they are on the naughty or nice list... well my kids were obsessed with theirs and my Mom made one for Miranda saying she wanted a camel and she was on the bad list. Maris was deeply concerned about this for weeks saying Miranda better be good or she wont get her camel. She was totally serious about the good and bad list this year. It was super helpful for keeping her in line in the rare instances where she was acting up. WELL... some renegade elf *meee!* got a camel figurine and stuck it in the bottom of her stocking on Christmas Eve to surprise everyone on Christmas morning hehehe It worked! She laughed so hard she cried! and Maris was happy that her Aunt Miranda got her camel. :)


Around 12 we packed up (had to leave most of the gifts behind to pick up later *tiny car!*) and headed to Jim's parents house for Christmas stop #3. We had french toast and bacon and Maris went on and on about her squinkees :)



I took oodles of great pics but in the interest of saving space and time, I only uploaded some faves. We watched Christmas Story and opened gifts and ate delicious food... took some super pie home for later... The kids really got the hang of opening gifts! They made some priceless faces haha

I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas. I know that we did! Now off to brave the post xmas sales and clearance! where to start! I hate tearing the kids away from their toys... but we have errands to run!