So Christmas Eve didn't start as planned but we worked through it and had a great day! Well we all slept in due to the late night the night before. We woke up and were planning to have a lazy morning around the house. We were cooking our annual breakfast of sausage balls and cheese grits when the doorbell rang! It was our maid who we had no idea was coming to clean that day. I was a little flustered at first. It meant now we had to rush around to get ready and leave the house b/c having 4 people at home while she tries to clean is always chaos!! We made it through the getting ready part and the kids and I left the house for a couple of hours. I was sort of grumpy but once we left I got back into the spirit of things. I had a great time just getting out and spending time with them. We hand delivered Christmas cards to our neighbors. Colby loved this! He was so sweet to hop out the van and put them in everyone's mailbox! We also went to the park for about 30 minutes. It was pretty cold but it felt nice! The kids had a blast! I am so glad they now can keep each other entertained. We can stay at parks longer b/c of this! They ran around and laughed and played which was nice to see! We left there and ran a couple more errands. I decided we needed a Starbucks fix so I got a coffee and got them cake pops! They had never had one before but were quite pleased! Once we got home we just tried to stay out of Maria's way. We ate lunch and Lindsay napped and Colby rested while watching a movie. When she left we enjoyed a little quiet before heading out to my parent's for Christmas Eve dinner. The kids were very excited to go over there! I love our tradition of having a family dinner that night. The kids were very well behaved and cooperative! The holidays were the easiest this year in a couple years! Lindsay is WAYY easier and can stay out later. She has been quite a trooper! Plus the kids play together more which is also nice! After dinner we have the tradition of singing some Christmas carols and reading Luke 2 and the Night Before Christmas. Its fun participating in that together as a family. I think the kids enjoyed it too. We ate our happy birthday Jesus cake and visited a while longer before heading home to get ready for Santa. It was fun this year feeding the reindeer and leaving Santa cookies! The kids were both SO into it! Luckily both fell asleep very quickly so Santa and Mrs. Claus were able to get things into gear! Luckily Austin had put the kitchen together earlier in the day so nothing took us very long this year! Colby got a new bike, a play city set, a couple car/plane type toys, spiderman, a couple movies, a book, and a few other small things. Lindsay got a kitchen, some cookies for it, some outfits, jewelry, a horse, and a Cinderella carriage!
Christmas morning Colby was up bright and early. Well he actually came out of his room at 5:30 to go to the potty and we don't think he ever went back to sleep and neither did we! Austin got up at 6:15 to make sure the cats didn't disturb any of the presents well when Colby heard us up he was up by 6:30. We went to wake Lindsay up but I think she was already stirring too! It was nice we got an early start though b/c it gave the kids plenty of time to play with their new toys before we had to dress them and rush out the door! They both loved their new toys! We went to my parents house at 8:30 to have our annual Christmas breakfast and presents with them! I love keeping this tradition. We don't really exchange presents much as adults anymore but we enjoy the kids opening things up and having fun. The breakfast is also a HUGE hit! We always just stay and visit for a few hours before heading back home. Once we got home we let the kids play for a bit before having lunch and putting Lindsay down for a nap. It was nice to all relax for a bit but we couldn't rest long b/c we had lots to do for that afternoon. We chose to stay in this year and cook dinner for ourselves and invite some friends over. It works out really well b/c we don't have to get the kids out and about again and we enjoy the fellowship with friends. This year we invited Samantha and Ryan over. They are actually our neighbors...they couldn't go visit family this year b/c she was on call. It was nice having someone to visit with us. The kids also really loved it! After dinner and visiting Samantha got called into work so we quickly bathed the kids and put them in pjs and went to go look at lights. We wanted to go somewhere more elaborate but we just ran out of time this year. Well glad we didn't b/c Colby fell asleep like 5 min into the trip. Lindsay stayed awake though and seemed to enjoy the lights!
We really had a great christmas. I love that it was mostly stress free! I love that we have scaled back and focused more on helping people. It was so nice to have the time and ability to help out others this season. Hopefully we are teaching our children that is what matters most! We have lots to be thankful for! I am a little sad that the season has already come and go and that next Christmas we will have a 6 and 3 year old! Wow how time flies!
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