Christmas

This year we got to have Scout join us for Christmas while the Blacks were out of town.

It was strangely so much fun to have her!

They wore their Christmas dog scarves around so fancy. 

CHRISTMAS EVE

The boys watched the clock all day. 

I told them to get out something to play with, and the old blue track came out.

They had a bracket tournament.

Everyone: The whole month, weeks, days, minutes leading up to Christmas is SO FUN. 

I love it and I'm so sad when it's over. 

We told Scout about her present and she totally wanted to open it. She is so smart about gifts! 

Koda doesn't totally get it. 

We had to tell Scout it's not time yet!

We made peppermints and watched Charlie Brown Christmas. (Late! we usually do this activity early in the month).

Then we watched Klaus. 

I just want to bottle up the feeling of Christmas Eve. It's so exciting and fun. 

We went on a family walk and when I insisted on taking this family selfie you would not believe the grumbling from the boys. 

The kids get each other dollar store gifts that they open Christmas eve. Andrew got that football. He opened it early, early because he could tell it was a football and was throwing it around all wrapped up, and the wrapping paper was getting all ripped up, so we just cut to the chase. 

Soup and bread for dinner! 

Andrew said the prayer and prayed that "mom won't be up in the night worried about presents".

Which, you don't even know how needed that was. I don't know why I get nervous about Christmas. 

I don't know why. My brain knows there's no reason, but my body is so worried about it. 

Post dinner grandparent gift opening. 

pajamas!

sooo fun and so cute. 

We watch Best Christmas Pagent Ever.

The kids head upstairs so Santa can come.

Ready!

CHRISTMAS MORNING!

They are dying at the top of the stairs. 

7:00 am is our go time. Andrew only got 4 hours of sleep. I hope it's worth it Andrew!

That's part of why I get so nervous. 

Waiting patiently for dad to give the go ahead. 

This picture makes me so happy. It is such a fun morning. We open slow and everyone is so thankful and happy. 

Scout opens her present with her opposable thumbs. 

There's a dog under all that.

Last night Evan asked if we can "not put the wrapping paper in garbage bags". He has a fantasy about a living room floor full of wrapping paper. I remember having that same idea when I was a kid! So yep! We threw the wrapping off in the corner. It was nice and relaxing actually...I didn't have to keep things tidy all morning. We just threw things out of the center. 

Remember this from the thrift store? Jim went back and got it for me! I had no idea. 

He thought I knew, but no way I had no idea. 

The boys biggest surprise was NBA tickets to go watch the Lakers vs the Mavericks in February - the boys' two favorite teams!

And then the mayhem ensued all day and all the next day and the next.

The house is still full up on Christmas fun, but tomorrow I clean. It gets put away. I might cry. 

Legos, hover board, gel blaster guns, games, socks, candy, footballs, yeezys, king sized blankets, Cowboys jersey, stuffed animal, sandwich maker. All the things are so great and make me feel FULL UP and happy. 

It's weird how it's a lot of "material" things but it's so much more! The whole feeling in our house is my favorite. 

Andrew took a 4 hour nap, then came back down stairs refreshed. 

We watched a lot of sports between "playing".

Joe and Susan gave us a gift card to Paso, and we went out to eat last night. It was so fun! 

The kids were able to get "dressed up" in their new outfits (finally getting out of jammies for the third day in a row!)

The funniest thing was the two ladies across from us. They were mirror image! It was like we were in a video game and they were background npc's. And they were lazy and used the same character model. 

haha we were dying about this weirdest thing. 

sigh, until next year. I'm going to start Christmas season in November because it goes too fast. 

Sorry Thanksgiving. 

 

December Fun

I have so many pictures of this candle advent filling up with candles.

I miss when it was this empty. December went faster than I ever remember it going. 

It was a stormy month. 

Jim had to bring the chainsaw to our trail to clear lots of downed trees in the way. 

There was lots of dress up days the week before break. 

These studs were dressed for tropical day. 

This was family picture day. All Avery's friends wore red and black. 

I love these seniors. I already said that and I'll say it again and again. 

Evan had his Christmas concert. They played a Polar Express medley and it was SO SO good. 

We sat through an hour of the choir singing, and then when it was band's turn it was a relief. 

Andrew was suddenly bopping along. You can't help but have a giant smile on your face. It was so good. 

 I got this 2000 piecer. It was so fun! I started it the week of our Solstice party, and you have to do it flat on the table, so I was committed. I was nervous for a second that I wouldn't finish in time to clear it off for the party - but I didn't need to worry. It wasn't hard to finish in like three days of nonstop puzzle fun. 

Sunday Christmas! 

Me and Bailey are matching and Avery and Lisa are matching on accident!

Cuties. We are so big. 

I loved candle time. 

We would gather around the table and read and pray, but the best was after that when we would just sit and visit and watch the candles melt ALL OVER THE PLACE.

Evan would mess with the wax and I would tell him not to, but he couldn't not.

But we would talk and joke and catch up and it was the best month. 

Sometimes when time was up for the candles, we would head over to the tree and sit and talk around the tree light. 

I just cherish this time with my kids more than anything. I will discuss that a later day. I have so many tender feelings about my kids growing up. It's not fair. 

One time Andrew made this concoction and it was so funny for some reason and me and Avery were afraid he was going to shred his fingers when he shredded a chocolate bear into his whipping cream. 

On Christmas Adam, Avery had her friends over to watch Klaus.

Jim made a hundred racks of ribs for them. 

We were a little worried that they wouldn't eat them, but they came hungry and tucked right in. 

In 2017 Andrew wrote this Christmas card to Robbie and Mary. 

We joke about it all the time. Robbie sings "have yourself a private little Christmas". 

haha

The song should go: 

I know...it's been said....many times...many wayyyyys....

December goes too fast for me. 

 

Christmas!

Christmas Eve!

The boys were out playing basketball, and the mailman drove up to deliver stuff, got out, and played 2v2  with them for a while. ha! It was awesome. 

The day before we had left him some cookies in the mailbox. I assume that's legal? 

The Dicksons came over and we took a walk through the forest like old times. 

Our Christmas Eve evening is always pretty low key. We have a few traditions:

Dinner, open pajamas from G and G Larsen, be hyper and silly,

watch Best Christmas Pageant Ever, eat Christmas pavlova. 

The kids open gifts they got for each other so that they aren't "over shadowed" on Christmas day. They have fun playing with the dollar store garbage they got for each other. haha It's so fun. 

This is the first Christmas that ALL the kids admitted to not believing in Santa. 

It's such a weird shift to big kid Christmas. It's fine, just different. 

We tucked them in and got to work. They knew they couldn't come downstairs because Santa's workshop was in session. 

They are still so so excited. Andrew can't hardly handle it. 

They got around 4 or 5 hours of sleep. That just breaks my heart. 

I love it. I really do. 

But I also woke up in a sweat worried that somehow I would disappoint them. It's the most stupid worry, and I know it. I can't fully explain what my worry is - I think it has to do with why I don't like throwing a party - I just don't want to promise a good time, and then have that expectation unmet. 

It makes no sense. I feel like it's a thing I need to get a grip on because 

A. they are way spoiled rotten

B. it is a stupid waste of energy

I don't even know why I'm typing about it because the day was beautiful and fun and the kids were so thankful and we had such a blast together all day. 

One of the best things is when Koda opens her presents. She loves them. 

We are also going to Disneyland soon. It's been a while since we went on a "just us" family vacation. 

This is such a hit. He is so good at drums! 

You know the "yearbook" set up in his room? Four yearbooks he has spread out for a practice drum set? 

Well this sounds similar to that unless you have those headphones on. With the headphones on it sounds like the legit drum set. Who is the genius that invented this?

We are a few days into "Post Christmas" and it's just my favorite time of our lives. We eat and play and play and eat. 

We have played three rounds of Ticket to Ride

watched a million episodes of Clarence - the kids just purchased season one and are binging it start to finish. I love that show

parallel build Legos

paint my toenails

try and learn a Zelda song on the Ocarina

Jim has built/hung a few dozen things

gone to the beach to hunt for rocks to spin in our new rock polisher

text with all my family about their Christmases 

Andrew's hands smelled like literal poop after handling this "pretty" dead crab. 

I just treasure these days in my heart. They are the best ever.