Christmas 2017

With Christmas falling on a Monday, we pretty much fa la la la-ed all weekend leading up to the big day! On Friday my nephews sent a text asking if they could spend the night. It had been well over a year since they had, we had no plans that night or next morning so it just worked out perfectly for them to come over. They LOVE playing with our girls and were a great help until Stephen came home from work for a little while to help put them to bed. Once the girls were in bed, Stephen went back to work to close and the boys watched a movie on Netflix, we munched on warm chocolate chip cookies and let them stay up way past their bedtime. Hey, what are aunts and uncles for?! 

The next morning, I had planned on making our special Christmas breakfast I just added a bit to fit 2 more guests. Seeing these 4 at our table filled my heart to the brim! 

(Side story: We had torrential rains overnight and through the morning. You can still kind of see the water in our back yard from the creek that flooded. It had almost all receded by this point. It was the highest I've ever seen water get since we've lived there and the closest it's ever gotten to our house. Colin was fascinated by it when he woke up and saw the backyard nearly completely underwater.)

Usually the Saturday closest to Christmas I will make a "big" (for us) breakfast. I'll break out some cute Christmas serving platters, Christmas plates and make it all a bit fancier than other times. Stephen could care less about this but it gives me all the holiday and tradition feels. I've been doing this since we got married and he said this time he doesn't remember me doing it before. Thanks, dear. 

This year I made sausage crescent casserole, hashbrown casserole, eggs, mini apple cinnamon muffins and fresh fruit. 

Our girls are BIG fans of breakfast foods!! 

Later that day, I hunkered down and finally made Christmas cookies. Next year, the girls will be involved in this job I'm sure of it!! 

On Sunday (Christmas Eve) after church, we headed to Stephen's grandma's house a little over an hour away from us. We had a great time watching our girls and his mom's cousin Kim's twins open all their gifts! Grant and Chloe are about 3 1/2 months older than our girls. 

Amelia and Mae got a piano. GOT A FREAKING PIANO. Thanks, Rhonda. Just kidding. It's actually pretty cute watching them "play" it. 

I will say when they've gone days without touching the dang thing and you're minding your own business cleaning out closets and are startled out of your skin by a sudden banging on the piano, in the moment, it's not such a cute gift anymore. 

Rhonda redeemed herself by also giving all of the babes these adorable reindeer hats. Of course, Amelia loves hers and wears it often. Loud and proud. 

Sidenote: I LOVE this outfit I found for the girls. LOVE it. And thought, it's not necessarily Christmas-y...it's a snowman, it can go into winter. Washed it according to the directions and now the white snowman is a light pink snowman. Is there anything I can do to reverse that??

We left Jamestown and headed back home and went straight to Stephen's other grandparents'. We had a fabulous meal of various appetizers which is close to being one of my favorite kinds of meals ever. We opened our stockings, got the girls ready for bed then headed back home after our LOOONNG day. 

Amelia and her Papa are big buddies! Especially when it's nap time. 

One last snap before heading home to wait for Santa! 

And yes, I did this photo purely for photo sake. BUT ONE DAY, the girls will leave the cookies out for Santa themselves. And I love this little plate I picked up at Hallmark last year. Can't wait to use it for many years to come!! 

Santa came and delivered a couple things with our few things. We kept it simple and stuck with the wear, want, read, need plan. (Except for the last minute 3-in-1 Sports Center that Stephen just HAD to get them.)

And isn't our tree just lovely with the top part in the dark? Stupid lights. Don't worry, I already bought new lights during after Christmas sales for less than $2 a box to use for next year. 

Christmas morning we woke up and got ready bright and early. We had places to be and people to see, but not before we opened the girls gifts with them. 

They were a good mix of confused and excited. What's all these boxes suddenly in our living room, wait, NOW it's ok to tear into the paper and you won't tell us no, stop it girls. ?? 

We headed back to Stephen's grandparents to have breakfast with the Staffords and open more gifts. 

This is Stephen's Aunt Jan. Technically she's his great aunt. We love her so much! She is SOO good to all of us. Everyone needs an Aunt Jan in their lives. 

And this is the girls' Aunt Ashley. Ok, again TECHNICALLY she's not their "Aunt"until May when she and Stephen's brother, Evan get married. But we've claimed her for a long while now. And yes, she's wearing an Olaf onesie. She's fun like that.

Just two girls sharing another breakfast together.

Then, this tried to happen...

*Spoiler alert* She didn't like it. Who didn't see that coming? 

Snapchat filters....entertaining families on Christmas morning since 2017.

From there we headed to my mom's side of the family for our traditional late Christmas morning breakfast. Fancier folks would call it brunch. Not us. 

This is the first year we've had Christmas morning somewhere besides my grandparents' house. My grandpa turned 90 last summer and asked that my aunt Linda have it at her house this year. He felt that we'd have more room (which we would) and he just didn't feel like he could help my grandma around the house like he used to (which he can't). It was definitely bittersweet, but still so special to all be together like we have on all the other Christmas mornings. 

We ended up spending the rest of the day there watching movies, playing games. It felt like the way Christmases used to be when I was little. All the little kids played and played and played with new toys. Naps were had by various people throughout the house. It was the best kind of Christmas! 

That night we went to Stephen's mom and dad's house to open gifts with them and his brother and Ashley. Lolli and Pop got the girls these....

Amelia loved hers and immediately figured out how to drive it across the room with the push of one little button. And as you guessed it, Mae Parker hated hers. It moved, she cried. It moved with her on it, she screamed bloody murder. She'll come around to it in time, but just not right now. 

After another lonnng day, the dust settled, I organized that day's worth of bags, food, and gifts and got the car loaded one more time for the next morning's activities. 

We have Christmas at my mom and dad's the day after. We've done this for several years now and it just works out perfectly. There's nowhere else to go for anyone. We have breakfast, open gifts, play my dad's game of the year (He creates a game every year that we all play where we can win cash, gifts and gift cards...it's FABULOUS. This year was Jeopardy style and we all agreed we like previous years' games ten times better. In turn, he agreed he made the game too hard. I doubt we'll ever play his Day After Christmas Jeopardy ever again.), let the kiddos play around, have finger foods for lunch, some of us take a nap...again, another fabulous kind of day! It's easily one of my favorite days of the year. 

And that my friends is a wrap on our whirwind 2017 Christmas. We typically have my dad's side of the family on Christmas Eve night, but this year it was planned for December 30 and that ended up being cancelled last minute because so many in the family were sick. SO, we were one less Christmas event short this year. I missed seeing my Flatt family, but I want everyone healthy and well!

Hope you enjoyed your Christmas filled with all your favorites!! Only 354 more days until we do it all over again!

(To see our other December happenings, be sure to read yesterday's Life Lately post!)