Christmas Recap

Happy New Year everyone!! I hope you all had a lovely holiday filled with warmth, family, memories, gifts, and good food. 

Our weekend of Christmas was a whirlwind, I've got a few posts this week to give you a full recap. 

This is the very first year that we have hosted family for Christmas. Normally we would have traveled back to Colorado (we alternate years between Dan's side and my side), but just after my mom's passing this summer, my dad and sisters and I decided to do something different and gather in New Jersey for Christmas. This means that last time we had Christmas in Colorado (with my mom) was 2019. Kip was two and I was pregnant. It was truly a lifetime and a pandemic ago. In 2020 we had Christmas in New Jersey but no family traveled that year. 2021, we celebrated in Kansas. 

Anyways, Mandy, Dan, and I were excited to host this year since our home is big enough to have guests and the kids are at an age where Christmas is truly magic and I love to have some of those memories rooted in our own home. Also, Kip didn't get out for break until the day before Christmas eve which would have made travel tough that close to the holiday. AND both kids were sick with colds. Even though planning and prep for hosting was stressful, it was really nice not to jump on a plane with two sick kids and fly directly into the bad weather.

The Friday before Christmas was Kip's last day of school before winter break and his class party (and pajama day). A lot of planning and money went into the party and it was chaos. As class mom, very little worked out as I imagined it would but the kids had fun and I've chosen to let the rest go. I love being in the classroom with the kids so I enjoyed it overall.

When Kip and I got home, Auntie Jagee (Jess) had arrived. Shockingly, Ivy warmed up relatively quickly and Kip was, of course, thrilled to see her. 

In the afternoon it actually snowed a little bit! Just flurries, but it was exciting and festive.

Poppa arrived later that night! We are grateful that despite all the weather and travel snafus across the country over Christmas weekend, nothing interfered with the arrival of Jess and my dad. Our Uncle Greg (technically my mom's cousin but we always call him uncle) has spent Christmas with our family for as long as I can remember. He was on the road headed to Jersey from Texas but opted not to make the long drive and turned back early. We really missed him but it was a good decision considering the kids were sick and he has an upcoming surgery. He didn't realize how taxing a drive of that length would be with everything else going on. We plan to catch-up with him in the summer. 

On Christmas Eve it was frigid outside so we stayed indoors and the kids opened a few gifts early to have something new to occupy our time.

In the afternoon, we decorated Mandy's homemade sugar cookies. It's a tradition! This was Ivy's first time participating and she loved it!

Mandy had Kip open his gift from her early so they could build it together. A Lego Santa sleigh! He was SO excited and surprised.

That night before Christmas excitement!!

We listened to our recorded books from Grandma before bed.

And then when the kids were asleep, the adults played Santa!

Tomorrow post I'll share a huge photo dump from Christmas day.