Thursday, January 9, 2014

Best. Christmas. Ever. | Christmas Traditions and more

UGH. I am SO behind with this post. You'll forgive me, right? If you're reading. I know there is only like one or two of you. That's okay.

This Christmas season started with a trip to see Santa. No one cried so that was good. Ladybug told Santa she has a very loooong list for him. Santa could barely hear so he just nodded at whatever they said.


A day or two after we put up the tree, we were all downstairs and it came crashing down. I cried. For about two seconds until I realized all the little eyes were on me, and Ladybug proclaimed, " This is the worstest Christmas ever." I reminded her that it's not Christmas yet and Santa always comes, even if your tree fell over. They were cool with that.



Several hours later, we had the tree back up and looking quite nice. I have no idea why it fell but it's been fine ever since. On Christmas eve day, I snapped these of the girls before we headed over to Mark's sister's house.  The little ladybird was doing quite well considering she was up sick all night the night before. 


Her eyes melt my heart.




And her eyelashes kill me. 

 

Coop got some things he really wanted...



And so did ladybug...



On Christmas eve night the kids got to open their first present from us...Christmas PJs. A tradition we started a few years ago and plan to continue every year.



The kids wrote notes to Santa and left them out with cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. We put them all up on the mantel so Santa would see them and Marley wouldn't eat them.



I saw this idea on my favorite blog and I LOVE it! What a fantastic idea! This is a new tradition for us but I know we will continue it each year. The presents from Santa are numbered, instead of having the kids names on them. In the morning they find a letter from Santa and when they see their gifts, they have no idea which one belongs to who until they read the letter that Santa has left for them. 










Here you can see some more living room progress. More on that soon! And you can also see my DIY advent calendar. SO simple and I just LOVE it!




It was so cute to hear them running out and screaming, "He came! Santa came! Hey! There's no names on the presents!??"When we came out of our room, they were jumping up and down with excitement...Despite the numbering system, Cooper had figured out which box contained the Star Wars Legos he had been hoping for. Lucia was squealing. When we pointed out the letter on the mantel, their eyes lit up. They half listened to me read it. The anticipation was oozing out of them.


And this was the aftermath....I was almost a little sad when all the presents were open. The joy and excitement in their faces as they opened each gift was worth every second of planning and wrapping and preparing and more.
Ladybug screeched "Oh my gosh! Just what I've always wanted!" about each and every gift she opened, which won her the award of best gift recipient for the second year in a row!


Cece loved her new 'baby' and her xylophone.



It was a musical kind of Christmas. Lucia's fave had to be the ukulele from mom and dad.


Little tired baby. We had to wake her up for this when the other two woke up!

 

Twinkle toes.





And there you have it. It sure wasn't the worstest Christmas, as Ladybug feared. No, far from it. It was very likely my best Christmas ever. And with this crew, they just keep getting better.



What are your treasured Christmas traditions?



0 comments:

Post a Comment