Christmas 2017

Christmas Eve
We spent the morning as a family, Brad mostly building Knex with Makin and me mostly cooking our traditional Christmas Eve soup for lunch and some prep for the next day. Our church has a big service on the green at local shopping and restaurants location, and because I'm in charge of hosting, Christmas Eve has been a bit of a work day for me. Last year it was rainy, so they had to change location. I was excited to see what all the hubbub was about this year. We headed there early afternoon and did some coffee cake drop offs on the way. It was COLD. The temperature was in the forties and we were definitely chilled by the end of the night. What I loved was how many people were out and about who just stopped by to get free hot chocolate or coffee. Many people just stopped and stayed to join in the "caroling" and candle-light service. I loved getting to see that. I also loved that we sang at least four songs by candlelight rather than just the traditional Silent Night. (Those candles helped warm you up too!)

When we got home the kids kept our tradition of opening one gift, followed by leaving Santa his cookies and milk. Oh and of course 8 carrots and 1 candy cane (for Rudolph) as instructed by Santa.

Christmas Day
This was one of the most relaxing Christmas Days I have had in a long time. The perks of this age of kiddos I suppose! (Overall I'm loving the 7/9  age combo!) We were awakened by the piano at 5:58 (6 AM on Makin's clock) and the fun began.

Oh how I love the joy they have at this age!!!

Because we had a low-prep meal Brad and I even got some time lounging on the couch while one kiddo was reading a new book and the other was building a Lego creation. Both enjoyed their gifts throughout the day.

After a late lunch and quick clean up, we decided to try watching It's A Wonderful Life. I wasn't sure the kids were quite ready for this type of a movie, but figured if they got bored they might be excited enough with their new toys to just go off and play if they didn't like it. Makin did do plenty of Lego building while watching, but we got two thumbs up! It was a relaxing way to spend our afternoon and I loved getting them into one of my favorite Christmas movies!

Merry Christmas!!!