The lead up to Christmas is always a blend of exciting and busy. I’m typically getting stuff prepared for Christmas right up until the day of, so that can make things busy, but it’s a wonderful season of the year, and I genuinely enjoy all that comes with it. Mark and I had an occasion out with some neighborhood friends at a little holiday celebration, the girls had some celebrations with friends, and Cayenne even got into the Christmas spirit! Clearly, she was very anxious for Santa to give her a chance as one of his reindeer this year!
Speaking of Santa, the girls haven’t “believed” in Santa for awhile, but they sat down with Santa for a chat and some joking around when we visited Mark’s work for the Christmas party. Santa even signed Lyla’s cast for her. :)
As is the tradition every year, we bake tons of cookies to give to family, friends, neighbors, etc. The one type of cookie that I always get plenty of help with are the iced and decorated sugar cookies. They’re not necessarily decorated with the most style, but they are decorated with lots of love (and finger licking)!
We had an awesome Christmas Eve dinner at the Williams house this year. Sadly, I didn’t break out my camera to get any pictures. Actually, I was kind of slack with pictures all Christmas, but the evening was a wonderful one spent eating some great food and enjoying the time with family.
We typically get home pretty late from Christmas Eve dinner, but Lyla was still up early on Christmas morning. Nina probably would have slept in quite a bit, but she didn’t mind Lyla waking her up to get the present opening started. Cayenne actually gets to open the first present because she is crazy for presents. She loves opening them, and even when the presents aren’t for her, she thinks she should help. I think she expects a treat for HER inside every gift - no matter who it’s for.
After we finished stockings and presents at out house, we did a quick turn around to head over to Mousey and Poppy’s house for brunch and more Christmas.
After more great food and more presents, we finish things off by celebraing Jesus’ birthday. My mom has carried on the tradition that started with her family, and every year there is a birthday cake and singing of the birthday song for Jesus. As PB used to say, we all get cakes and get sung to on our birthdays, so the same applies to Jesus.
After time at my mom and dad’s we come back to the house to hang, play with presents, rollerblade, etc.
For the past few weeks, we’ve been working to convert the basement toy room into a hang out room for the girls. It was unpainted (other than basic builder grade paint), had stickers all over the wall, and was filled with all kinds of younger kid toys that we’ve had for ages but just haven’t gotten rid of. A couple weeks ago, we started the big process of getting rid of all those toys, cleaning out the room, painting the room and the adjoining bathroom, etc. While we’re still working on the finishing touches of decorations, the girls now have a room to hang out in down in the basement that’s much more age appropriate. They got a Nintendo Switch and some large bean bags for the hang out room, an art table, and a couple other things to go down there. So far, it’s been a great change for them and one they’re getting a lot of use out of.
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