Navidad!

We had a lovely Christmas, as I'm sure you did too. I must say, I felt more frazzled and overrun by Christmas prep this year than ever. Decmeber was a busy month, and the kids and Randy had school or work until the 23rd, so the festive build-up was rather lack-luster. But as soon as the weekend came and we were all home together to relax and celebrate, it finally felt like Christmas and we had a wonderful time!

So, here is photo documentation of our Christmas fun.

From Chrsitmas

I thought I would get around to doing a family Christmas card. I usually love to send them out, but just couldn't get it together enough to do one this year. I took many pictures for what ended up being the Christmas Card that Wasn't. I was excited, though, that I found plaid matchy-matchy dresses for all the girls. I actually bought a matching plaid shirt for Rand that he refused to wear. Clothing decisions aren't something I feel the need to force on Rand, so we all survived and probably benefited from a little break in the plaid. Well played Rand. Well played.

From Chrsitmas

I don't know about you, but plaid and matching are the best combination there is. Here is one of the many out-takes (I'm having a hard time the low winter light and getting good indoor pictures right now). I just love Amelia's face in this one!

From Chrsitmas

Our busy month made for a theme of Less is More. I cut the cards out of our usual routine. I cut the neighbor treats (we did take small ornaments and cards around). And we also did fewer Christmas lights - not that we did many before. But instead of stringing them on the house, we just put some net lights on the front hedges and set up this little snowman who, sadly, has spent more time laying on the ground than standing up. He just won't stay standing! I think next year we'll tie him up to the lamppost since we learned from friends in the neighborhood that our house can be identified as the one with the dead snowman. Poor dead snowman!

From Chrsitmas

On Christmas Eve we had our traditional potato soup in bread bowls for dinner. It was a fun, easy night!

From Chrsitmas

Clara had her first taste of pumpkin pie. She sure liked it, but made this face after each tiny bite. Hilarious!

From Chrsitmas

Then we did our puppet nativity. (See that cute new-to-us chair next to Randy? We love it! Our neighbors got new furniture a few days before Christmas and gave us this sweet rocker/glider - so comfy!)

From Chrsitmas

Jammies were opened. I was going to sew pajamas and actually made a pair of pj bottoms for Rand and cut out a nightgown for Lindsey. But as per our theme this season, I cut that off my list before starting in on the nightgown. Yay for store-bought sanity :)

From Chrsitmas

PJs! After the kids went to bed, Randy and I spent the evening setting up a play kitchen for Amelia, a lego table for Rand, and a mini trampoline for Lindsey and then left those in the basement to be found later.

From Chrsitmas

Christmas morning was very nice. The kids didn't wake up until after 7, and then we all had a great time opening the presents under the tree (we didn't tell the kids about the big gifts in the basement until after church.)

From Chrsitmas

Clara got her first doll from Santa.

From Chrsitmas

We all grew some mustaches.

From Chrsitmas

Lindsey dressed her new doll in the dress grammy McB made her. She asked us, "How did grammy know Santa was going to bring me this doll?!" Grandmas always know!

From Chrsitmas

And then we all headed to church. (Rand has food in his mouth in this one - sorry Rand!) One-hour church that consisted of all music was lovely. I could go for that every week! After church we fed the kids lunch and then told them that since we have two chimneys and two fireplaces, maybe Santa left a few things for them to find in the basement too. So they ran down and discovered the gifts we left down there the night before (no pictures). That was so fun! After some playing and relaxing, we cooked and cooked and had a big dinner with a bunch of friends. Our breakfast casserole that I baked in the morning leaked into the oven, which I hadn't realized until I opened the oven to put the turkey in and was met with a wall of smoke! The smoke detector went off several times in the process of making this meal. Windows were opened, fans were turned on. At one point, there might have even been a small fire on the bottom of the oven. But we had to cook that turkey and so we scraped the black stuff from the bottom of the oven as best as possible and went on with the baking. Our house might have smelled like a fire, but the food was delicious and the friends were fun!

From Chrsitmas

We topped off the night by breaking out the cotton candy maker Randy's parents gave us. What could go better with pie than cotton candy made in our own golden kitchen?

From Chrsitmas

We have had a nice, relaxing couple of post-Christmas days, which have been lovely. I feel like I could sleep for a week after all that preparation and holidaying! Mom, here's Lindsey in her skirt (sorry about the poor picture).

From Chrsitmas

We have spent lots of time playing games (UNO attack is hilarious), trying out the Kinect and of course, making more cotton candy.

Whew!