We were so happy to be in our new house by Christmas! Even though we were nowhere near unpacked, it was still so nice to just be IN. This year, Christmas was a bit of a blur (with how sleep deprived I have been for the last 6 months, my memory is not the best), but we enjoyed being with family and celebrating together!
This is my new favorite picture of Brooklyn and Savannah. It is SO hard to capture Savannah’s real smile on camera, which makes me cherish this picture so much. They were pumped in the days leading up to Christmas and couldn’t wait for the big day to arrive!
My sweet Savannah :)
This year, Christmas Eve was on Sunday. Paw and Rae Rae drove up and went to church with us that morning, and then we came back to our house for lunch. We snapped a quick picture of the girls before we ate (this is a typical posed Savannah smile…I call it her triangle smile…haha). Even Abigail was smiling a little bit :) We enjoyed spending the afternoon with Paw and Rae Rae. They brought the girls’ big gift with them, and they opened it that day—an activity table for the playroom! Brooklyn especially was so excited, and the table has gotten a lot of use over the last couple of months.
Santa came that night and left behind a few cookie crumbs ;)
When we moved into our house in mid-December, we only moved the stuff from our apartment—not the rest of our stuff in “storage” at Uncle Allen and Aunt Debbie’s house. We made a run over there to get a few carloads of stuff, including our Christmas ornaments, but I completely forgot to grab the box with the stockings in it! So, this year, we didn’t have stockings for Santa to fill. Everything was left on the hearth instead :)
Gifts from Santa included: a Lion Guard toy (special request from Brooklyn), Picasso Tiles (the cheaper version of Magna Tiles), a Melissa and Doug Pet Care set, Play-Doh, notebooks for drawing, a couple of watercolor books for church, and M&Ms. Gabby got some cat treats, and Abigail got some 0-6 month tights and new pacifiers :)
Brooklyn got up first, of course, and was anxious to check out what Santa brought, so I let her look at everything, but we waited on Savannah to wake up before opening up anything. Brooklyn was most excited about the Lion Guard toy and figurines!
Savannah wanted to do one of the paint with water books right away when she saw it :)
Abigail was content to just sit and observe the chaos…
It was an exciting Christmas morning! After we got ready, we headed over to Cici’s to spend the day…
There were SIX kids ages 4 and under there—you can imagine the chaos!
Luke and Barrett were a lot more interested in their gifts this year than last :)
Abigail was happy just to sit back and snuggle ;)
Savannah was excited about this baby doll cradle!
All of the kids were tearing into their gifts as fast as they could open them, so it was hard to keep up with who gave what gift. Savannah got more baby doll accessories :)
Brooklyn stacked her gifts up nice and neatly after opening them :) She got some play fruit and ice cream cones and wanted to open them right away, of course!
Michael was “Santa” again this year and passed out all the gifts…
Savannah got a new coloring book and spent quite a while flipping through it and looking at all the pages…
Kids everywhere!
Cici gave Brooklyn and Savannah a stick vacuum. Brooklyn was excited that “it really works!” and wasn’t just a pretend one. Savannah has been known to be terrified of vacuums, so I figured she wouldn’t actually end up using it. Our new house has hardwood flooring almost everywhere downstairs, so it would take a lot of sweeping to cover it all. This stick vac has been great! The girls (yes, even Savannah) use it to vacuum around the kitchen table, and I use it too. One of the best gifts we got this year!
Savannah LOVES princesses, so these stickers were a hit!
Everybody loves baby Abigail :)
After the kids finished opening their gifts, we ate lunch, and then it was time for naps! :) All the kids but Brooklyn took a nap, which was really nice. The adults waited to open our gifts until then, so we had a nice, quiet gift exchange :)
After that, we played games and ate snacks, and then it was time for supper. We ate good that day! :)
Christmas is a day we always look forward to, and this year was no different. It was loud and crazy, but a lot of fun!
This year, we didn’t end up celebrating with my family until December 30th because of Aunt Jenn’s residency schedule. It just meant that Christmas lasted the whole week, so we were fine with it :)
Always excited to go to Paw and Rae Rae’s!
Brooklyn’s favorite gift this year ended up being some craft kits that Aunt Jenn and Uncle Chandler gave her. She made some of the crafts before we even left town, and we made the rest of them in the next week or two. She had so much fun!
Anything involving glue sticks and tissue paper is a hit with Brooklyn :)
Savannah was excited to receive some Disney princess dolls!
She got Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, and Aurora (her favorite). She couldn’t wait to open them!
She was also really excited about this set of dishes for her play kitchen…
Rae Rae has gotten a new wall calendar for Christmas for as long as I can remember. Dad used to buy one at the bookstore for her, but for the past few years, I’ve made her one online with pictures from the previous year. It’s always fun to look back over what we did in the last 12 months!
Mom ordered some Usborne books for the girls, and the Sleeping Beauty book was probably Savannah’s favorite gift of all this year. It plays music and has really pretty illustrations. I love it too!
Abigail slept through most of the gift opening, but she got some cute winter dresses/outfits and diapers. Next year, her gifts will be more exciting, I’m sure!
Brooklyn had already made her first craft by that afternoon!
We stayed in town from December 29th to January 1st, and it was great to spend a few days with Paw and Rae Rae :)
Abigail laughed for the first time on December 31st while we were there. Travis was tickling her belly, and she definitely giggled a few times. It was sweet!
More paper plate bugs! Aren’t they cute??
Snug as a bug :)
We had a great visit and a wonderful holiday season!
