Due to our 10-day-old baby, Christmas was pretty low-key this year. Personally, I tend to go a little overboard on tradition, so I was worried about my ability to let go this year, but it was actually really nice to just keep things simple. I felt no pressure to bake 10 different kinds of cookies or participate in all of the various Christmas events. We stayed at home and enjoyed time as a family. And while I did miss seeing more extended family and friends in Connecticut, it was a great Christmas.
We started with a celebration with Mason's parents the Saturday before. The boys enjoyed spending the day with their B & Grandaddy and were especially excited about the first presents of the season!
On Christmas Eve, we went to church with Bret & Ryan. The boys all dressed up in their matching outfits from Auntie, so of course we had to get some pictures!
After church, we came home to a traditional dinner of soup & bagels, followed by hanging up stockings and setting out cookies & milk for Santa. The boys were so excited!
Once the kids were in bed, we set to work filling stockings and putting out presents. Bret said it felt like we were pretending to be grown-ups. It was definitely weird being the oldest generation in the house for Christmas.
Christmas morning came with all its usual excitement! We started with stockings...
... followed by a big breakfast:
The older boys were surprisingly patient while we all got breakfast cleaned up, showered and dressed, and prepared for the rest of the day. They spent some time on the piano, and Atticus entertained us with his own version of "Jingle Bells" :)
Ethan finally woke up, and we let the big kids "help him" open his stocking:
Then we bribed them to take pictures with the promise of M&Ms and present opening!
And I snuck in a few pictures of my very favorite Christmas present of all:
Now, on to the presents! It ended up taking us most of the day - we did one round in the morning and then took a break so that the kids could play outside for a while before lunch and naptimes. The adults finished opening our gifts while the kids were resting, and then they had another round of opening after naps. What a day!
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| Checking out their new kitchen from Nana & Papa |
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| Ryan's first ever Lego project with the assistance of Uncle Bret |
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| Trying out tummy time on his new toy |
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| Brotherly bonding... there's a lot of this going on in our house these days :) |
And finally, we finished the day with a turkey dinner, complete with fruit candy canes made by Auntie :)
Merry Christmas!
