Christmas Recap

Happy hump day before our final holiday push into the new year! 

I hope everyone had a good Christmas despite the circumstances. Although we missed seeing extended family for the holiday (we were supposed to go to Kansas this year) we did still enjoy making memories in our new home. It was Ivy's first Christmas and the first year Kip was really into the magic of the season so it was a special time to have those memories in our home. It may well be the only year we get to have Christmas at our house so I tried my best to treasure that experience. 

I took all of last week off of work but I ended up having to work a lot. It is so incredibly hard to separate work life and home life when I essentially live at work. I'm trying to make boundaries but in reality it's super hard to focus 100% on work 100% of the day when I can hear the kids downstairs and I'm still nursing. It's no ones fault but my own but I wish my bosses at a bit more understanding of what full-time parent and simultaneous full-time employee actually feels like. 

Anyways, on to our Christmas recap!

On Christmas eve we took family photos during the day because it was nice weather and we felt like Kip would be more cooperative BEFORE the mass of gifts the following day. I'm so happy Mandy helped this happen because the photos came out really well.

For dinner that night we made an appetizer extravaganza for something different and special.

After dinner we got our cookies and milk and carrots ready for Santa and the reindeer.

 

 

Kip watched the Christmas episode of Trash Truck and then we put him to bed. Once he was asleep we hauled all the gifts that accumulated over the month and put them up by the Christmas tree and then we loaded the stockings. Both my family and Dan's family sent so many wonderful gifts for the kids. It was a bit excessive honestly but it felt like one of those years where it was okay to overcompensate a bit.

 

Santa got Kip a Thomas the Train power wheel. He had played with this toy over a year ago when Mandy took him to the house where she is a nanny for another family. We decided that this year may be the last year for a toy like this and since we have space and his train obsession is so strong we splurged. When he saw it he thought Mandy had brought it from Ezra's house and didn't realize it was for him to keep! It has some tracks that it runs around but it also works off the tracks. 

 

Ivy got a Lovevery baby play gym that converts to a tent.

Christmas morning, the plan was for Mandy to sort of set-up the living room while Kip was in our room having his morning milk and watching a show (we call this family bed). But in rare fashion, Kip slept through his okay to wake clock and by the time he got up the living room lights were on and he could see all the set-up downstairs. He came into our room and immediately told me "there is a big Thomas down there. Nini (Mandy) got it for me!" I acted surprised and asked if it was Nini or Santa? 

 

We hurried our morning routine and I went downstairs to take video of Kip coming downstairs. He was SO excited to see the big Thomas train.

 

 

After Kip got over the shock of the Thomas he encouraged him to open other gifts. It took half the day for him to make his way through everything. The magic and excitement at this age is so sweet and it was great to just relax and watch him take it all in. 

 

Kip got a bunch of Duplos, tracks for his LEGO train, "little train" pieces (tracks, a bridge, and station for his wood train set), games, a backhoe toy (from Santa Mandy), a marble run, a star projector nightlight, and a TON of other stuff. Ivy got a bunch of baby toys, plush dolls, and some clothes. Kip "helped" her open everything. 

The kids also got a Radio Flyer beach wagon for the summer. I'm super excited for summer.

 

 

 

 

Mandy made scones for breakfast which is part of my family's Christmas morning traditions. 

We FaceTimed with my parents and Jessy and later in the afternoon we did a video call with Dan's family. The kids naps stayed on schedule and we kept the day low-key and filled with slow opening of presents and playing. 

 

Once kids are in the picture, the activity of Christmas really shifts in a fun way. Us adults got some awesome gifts as well and we all treasured the lazy playful day. Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas filled with good memories. 

Family Christmas jams!

We spent the rest of the weekend cleaning-up, finding new homes for all the toys, putting away some of the Christmas decorations, and mourning the end of the holiday season. It certainly looked different but different isn't always bad.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! Thanks for sticking with us this crazy year!

Here's to hope for a happy and healthy 2021.

2020 Ornaments

Every year we try to collect a few ornaments to represent our year. Usually it's a family ornament and something from some place that we go, like a trip. Well, no trips this year and I was initially annoyed to not have anything special to add to the tree. But then this morning while I was taking photos for this post, I realized we added many new ornaments and we have so many things to be grateful for this year and many milestones to add to our story. 2020 wasn't all bad after all!

There were a ton of ornaments online with masked Santas and toilet paper for the pandemic year. I purchased one but in true 2020 fashion, it arrived broken and in terrible quality. So I tossed it and ordered a "normal" 2020 ornament and it is perfect.

We added our "first home" ornament this year.

And, of course, Ivy's first Christmas.

 

 

I made the little New Jersey felt ornament for us. I made a few for our new neighbors and decided we needed one too.

 

 

Terri Mom sent this little first Christmas rattle. I couldn't find a good First Christmas ornament in time so this was perfect too. She also always gets us the Hallmark bird for the year so we added that (see above) and she sent a Thomas ornament for Kip which perfectly represents his interests as a three-year-old. He loves it.

 

I also always make a small Shutterfly ornament with our Santa photo for the year. Since we didn't get to see Santa this year I just made one with some photos I took.

 

 

 

I was a bit bummed to miss out on all those cute little preschool craft ornaments that start rolling in once starting school. Since Kip is not in school yet I decided to take the preschool crafts on myself and have Kip do them at home. These two turned out really cute and I love the Christmas tree because he had a vision when he started it and he told me exactly how he wanted it to look. He did not want any help at all and it turned out perfect. He is too cute at this age. 

 

Looking back at these ornaments in the years ahead, I'm hopeful the struggles of this year will not be the first things that come to mind. We will think about cute toddler crafts, a deep passion for steam trains, a milestone baby's first Christmas and happy first traditions made during this holiday season at home. 

Weekending it

I'm officially on Christmas break. I took a week off like I usually would have if we were traveling somewhere, so far it doesn't feel like much of a break when it's so much harder to separate work and home when I'm now working AT home. 

We're trying our best to get into the holiday spirit. We had an epic snowstorm on Thursday and got outside with Kip to build a snowman and throw snowballs. Terri Mom sent us a snowman kit just in time. Kip had SO MUCH FUN. I really loved being able to play with him and to have an outdoor space all our own.

We had some hot cocoa and read How the Grinch Stole Christmas afterwards.

On Friday night Mandy, Dan, and I started a puzzle and watched Home Alone.

On Saturday we set-up a Zoom call with Auntie Jess and decorated Christmas cookies together. It was a lot of fun and Kip cooperated surprisingly well. 

Saturday night we loaded the kids into the car after baths and drove around looking at Christmas lights. These are blurry moving photos but we found a few Griswold-style houses.

 

 

Afterwards we went to get Chick-fil-a for dinner but the drive-thru line was insane. Is that happening for anyone else? During this entire pandemic the Chick-fil-a line has never been less than a 10 minute wait. It is generally worth the wait but on Saturday the line was more like 30-40 minutes so we bailed and got Wendy's instead. 

We finished the puzzle after the kids were asleep.