Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday and continue to get to enjoy the rest of the weekend off. We have had a great last couple of days, despite the flu and coughs running rampant through our house. Nothing like being sick on Christmas huh?

On Christmas Eve we all stayed home and really took it easy. Soren and all three kids were pretty sick so I ran the show. But who am I kidding, I always run the show on the holidays.

Our family does Christmas Eve dinner with my parents and so Christmas Eve day we spent preparing our food for the meal. The boys helped wash potatoes and we made several batches of cookies. Knox was very enthusiastic to be washing anything, including the floor.

But right before we left for my parent's house- disaster struck. A Sam's Club size jug of laundry softener fell off of the dryer and proceeded to dump all over our carpet and laundry room floor. It was EVERYWHERE. Apparently there really is such thing as too much fresh smell  because the scent was INTENSE. We got a lot of it cleaned up, but there is definitely still a puddle of it under that dryer.

We finally made it to my parents and had an amazing traditional ham and potatoes dinner. Afterwards we all played games like charades and my boys did awesome. Kesler can act out "making a snowman" like nobody else.

We opened a few presents and came home to get kids in bed but not before stopping at Walgreens for more cough medicine. This is what our counter has looked like for days. 

Christmas morning was such a treat. The boys did a great job waiting until about 8 am to get all of us up and we all opened our stockings. My Dad "helped Santa out" by painting these wooden swords we found on Etsy. The boys wanted fire swords like Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon but I think these turned out a little better than the plastic Target versions.

We all got apples in the feet of our stockings (we were out of oranges) and Soren found his had a tiny bit out of it. Must have been those elves!

Knox was really fun to give gifts too. Like the perfect child that he is, he loved to pull off the paper and was happy with whatever he found inside. He is such a sweet little guy- I can't eve describe how much fun he is.

Easton was given the opportunity to shop for and wrap gifts for his family at school. He was so excited to give them to us and he was very thoughtful about what he chose. Soren got a real medal declaring him #1 Dad and a mug with an eagle on it (Easton's favorite animal). I got a mug with fire, soccer balls and footballs on it that says #1 Uncle. I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what it says but I'll treasure it anyway!

Kesler was the crack up of the day. He was amazingly bad at opening gifts. He said the worst things about the presents he opened- but he was so honest. I was dying! There was only one gift (his Playmobile castle) where he didn't say something like "Oh no- not that! I didn't want that!" He pouted about gifts from Grandma and told Easton that the gift he gave him was "Good and bad." It was so terrible and funny at the same time. We definitely need to work on what it looks like to politely receive gifts!

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. The boys are old enough to be entertained by their toys all day and I just loved watching and playing with them. We ate leftovers and took our time opening and assembling gifts all day. It felt wonderful to just "be". I'm so thankful for my little family and my place as their Mom. I can't imagine a better way to spend the holidays. I hope you had a wonderful day with your family and friends!