Self Christmas 2017

As much as we love spending holidays with family, it was really special this year to have our first family of four Christmas in our very own home. It felt so intimate and peaceful and perfect.

On Christmas Eve we went to one hour of church and then came home and quickly threw some final touches on the two Cinnamon Roll recipes that we had made to share with friends. Our little student branch becomes even smaller over winter break, so we sent out an email a few days beforehand inviting anyone still in town to come enjoy a light festive brunch with us.  I love hosing little gatherings like this and always worry so much about how it will all work out in our tiny apartment, and it always works out. Tight and squishy, but still fun.

While visiting my parents a few days before, my mom showed Belén this old Christmas dress of mine that she had made. She instantly fell in love with it and wanted to put it on. She was really excited to wear it to Christmas Eve church (worn with a cardigan at church, since, you know, it's not summer).

We call this "The Belén"

A little picture of a picture of me wearing the same dress 27ish some years ago.

We tried our hand at establishing a new tradition that one of my college friends mentioned to me that I just loved which was having Mrs. Clause drop off Christmas jammies on Christmas eve. We were hoping our neighbors would be home to drop the gifts and then knock, but they were out of town and since we only have one door to our apartment (my friend has either her or her husband drop them, knock, and then run back in through the back door), we just left them outside when the kids were occupied and then asked them to help us take the garbage out (which Belén apparently thought she needed no pants to do and we didn't push since we knew we weren't going to make it all the way into the frigid cold anyway). 

 She left them a letter, new jammies, and two new picture books. Shae got The Circus Ship and Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site and Belén got Rosie Revere, Engineer and some other book that I cannot for the life of my remember right now.

Shae was so sweet saying, "Mrs. Clause!? How did she get here?" and "These jammies are just what I always wanted!" and "How did she know that I wanted Christmas tree and truck jammies?" (note: he has never before seen these specific jammies, haha). It was so fun and magical and just the perfect way to go into Christmas. I think it's a tradition that we'll keep.

We did end up going outside quickly after all to sprinkle the reindeer powder (oatmeal and glitter) that Shae made at school. After which, we got in our jammies and then snuggled up on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn and watched the Polar Express before tucking the little ones in bed. Their excitement was contagious. Christmas with little kids is magical. 

(I love how Belén is the one holding the big bowl).

Once the kids were asleep, we got to work stuffing stockings and bringing out all the presents. 

My camera was totally playing games with me so this picture is blurry, but I couldn't not put it in here. I just love the Christmas eve feel, when you've spent the entire month doing so many fun Christmas things and listening to Chritmas music and talking about the meaning of Christmas and then it all comes to a head on Christmas Eve. The house just feels so cozy and peaceful, when you know in the morning the living room will be full of noisy squeals and wrapping paper (which is great in it's own right).

The kids woke up a little after 7. Belén crawled in to bed with us first. We could hear Shae moving around in his room and were waiting for him to come out as well, but he never did. I finally went in to check on him and he was sitting up in his bed saying, "I'm waiting for it to be morning." He's the sweetest. It was still quite dark, so he didn't think it was morning yet, even though it was. When I told him it was, he said, "Get back in bed! I'm going to come in and sing you a Christmas song!" He then came in to our room and sang his new favorite primary song "Picture a Christmas" to us. 

We told the kids to wait for us before running out while we got dressed, but Belén took the opportunity to grab my phone and sprinted out into the living room. Darin yells, "We've got a runner!" and we all quickly follow behind her. She was literally just staring at my phone screen trying to find a video and didn't even notice the stockings until I took the phone from her. Then the excited squeals began of "Santa ate the cookies!" "And he left us a letter!" And then we began to look through our stockings.

Belén wasted no time putting on her leotard and tutu and little heel shoes that she pulled out of her stocking.

After stockings, Darin whipped up some yummy french toast and sausage for us. 

We played with stocking stuff a little while after breakfast before getting to the presents.

Shae smelling the paper with his new scented crayons.

Shae's present to Belén was this set of 3 super hero girls and her present to him was a batman doll. They love playing with them together.

We got so many fun games and presents from family members and just feel so so so blessed! 

Playing with her kinetic sand.

The after party. 

Everyone enjoying their gifts.

Darin blew up a canvas of this picture for me and I just loved it so much. Love these guys with all my heart and so grateful that we were able to have such a wonderful Christmas and really hoping that something that we shared with them about Jesus stuck... :)