We actually still have one more gift exchange on Sunday, when Jeremy's brother is up from Oregon. I can't even believe the amount of stuff we have somehow gotten over the past days. Jeremy's parents are extremely generous for the amount of children and grandchildren they have.
Shea is upstairs with Jeremy building a lego set he got from his Grandma and Papa, and Hailey is milling around playing with things down here. I love the day after Christmas. When we can finally just sit and relax and the kids have things to keep themselves busy.
We had a nice Christmas though.
Sunday, we had my family's celebration. We left early and stopped by my sister and her husband's church for worship, because he is the new worship pastor and we thought it would be fun to see him lead. We only stayed for the music, then we headed up to my brother Kit's house. It was fun, but it is always a little rushed feeling. We had apps, did a white elephant, and my brother even planned a family carol sing along. We had fun sitting around the piano belting out ridiculous harmonies as we went through a christmas fake book (Amber - this so reminded me of our old days singing phantom of the opera together!!). Then we went out to the Garden of D'lights at Bellevue Botanical Gardens. I think this will be our last year doing that, it was super lame this year because the garden was under construction. Not at all worth the money!
After that, we stopped at my sister Kaitie's house. This was way more relaxed than being at my brothers. Hailey went down for bed, and Shea was so super obedient. He just sat in the living room playing with some toys and different board games while we all talked and visited. We ended up staying until midnight. We didn't get home until 1:30, but we had such a nice time visiting. It is so fun to see my sister married and grown up. So funny how different our conversations are now.
Christmas Eve we spent the day relaxing, cleaning and baking for the next day. We went to the evening service at our church (which I spent the entire time trying to keep the kids quiet!), then we came home and the kids (and Jeremy, ha) opened their christmas pjs which I made.
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| our tree we dug up from our yard and salt dough ornaments - all ready for the kids to wake up! |
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| Christmas morning, we lit our advent wreath |
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| Christmas morning! Shea was making faces while Jeremy read the Christmas story. |
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| some more ornaments we made with the kids, Shea playing with the dollhouse, and our breakfast brunch! |
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| my labor of love |
Jeremy's parents came over and we opened presents and had brunch. Then we got ready to leave and stopped by Jeremy's Grandma's house, then we went to the hospital because she fell and broke her hip and was actually IN the hospital on Christmas. After that, we stopped at my parent's house for an hour and then headed off to Federal Way to Hanna's house for the Ellis Christmas (which is still not over). It was a long day, but not as bad as some years as far as chaos. One of Jeremy's brothers yelled at Shea and that really bothered me, and Jeremy's parents gave out soooo many gifts (especially for our kids) that it was a little overwhelming, but that is nothing new.
Anyway, I am glad for today. Jeremy is off of work and we are just hanging out, cleaning and resting. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! And that I will get to come out soon and see Angela's baby!!! :)
LOVE!
I loved your post as always! I was just thinking this year how exciting it was that this was our last Christmas without kiddos, kiddos make it so much more fun! Though I will admit, my Christmas was much more relaxed and had much more downtime than yours, and while it is something I will miss, I will also embrace the chaos of little running everywhere! I have a little present for you, I hope I don't forget to give it to you when you get to meet my little one. And hopefully we get to meet little one sooner rather than later!
ReplyDeleteI love that you painted all those peg people, I have been wanting to do that. I am still a long way off from completing a project like that of course since putting peg people on my wish list is as far as I have gotten :).
OH my gosh is that Cadence? She looks just like Kaitie! I can't belive both you and Angela have all your Christmas stuff put away already.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great Christmas! I love the Christmas pj's that you made, what a great idea. You always amaze me with all the stuff that you do. The dollhouse is adorable! I would have loved that when I was a kid. I'm sure Shea is going to have hours of fun playing with it. I just love Hailey's curly locks! So cute! I put away all my stuff on the 26th too (sorry Amber!) Our tree was really dry and we just wanted it taken down.
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