The Easter season is upon us, and I LOVE Easter, but before we get too much further into the year I'd like to reflect on our Christmas season. I love how intertwined these two holidays are, without Christmas there would be no Easter, and without Easter, Christmas would be meaningless. So, there ya go, there's my deep thought for the day. Both are important, and I love celebrating them!
We celebrated a little differently this year by following an Advent activity calendar our church created, and I loved how it kept our hearts completely focused on the reason we celebrate this season in the first place. December was such a sweet month for us, I completely unplugged from social media and just spent time enjoying time with family and not running myself ragged trying to keep up with all the things. I came up with a simple list (not from Pinterest!) that I wanted to make sure we made time for but left plenty of room for resting and relaxing and unstructured time together. I made myself blissfully unaware of all I was "missing out on" and I think it turned out to be my favorite Christmas yet!
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This became the center of our Christmas,
every night we would listen to the
Advent lesson and (most nights)
participate in the coordinating activities.
The kids could not wait to do this after dinner every night,
they so looked forward to it, and would make sure we
never forgot! While the lesson was being read there was
a small ornament for each child to color, so this is how
I displayed their ornaments. |
The above picture was my favorite Christmas decor we had up, but can't forget the tree! It was strange having to decorate a new home this year and figuring out where everything should go, but it was fun!
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| watching the train chug around the tree |
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| Donuts for breakfast, yum!! |
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| getting ready to do "Christmas morning" with family |
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| Putting all the gifts together...the best part right?! |
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Meeting up with friends to see the Nutcracker which
has become a bit of a tradition |
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these boys are fascinated with motorized vehicles that
go around and around |
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| goofy! |
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gathered round the table!!
I love anything that involves gathering around a table |
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| nightly bedtime stories |
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these boys can't wait for the dads to be done
with the new swingset so they can PLAY |
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| boxes are possibly just as much fun as swingsets |
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more table gathering happening,
this time with our dear, dear friends |
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post dinner game time,
Pie Face is just as hysterical as I'd hoped |
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| love these girls and their friendship! |
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can't have Christmas without making Christmas cookies!
P.S. Notice Owen in the back... hahaha, and that is why each
child gets their own knife and are not allowed to
get their own frosting |
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| Another night with sweet friends of ours!! |
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| sillies! |
Eventually the time came when we had to say our tearful goodbyes and drive home...but we had Christmas day ahead of us to look forward to!
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| making a gingerbread train |
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| goofball |
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| ta-da! |
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| getting ready for the Christmas Eve service! |
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| Opening their one and only Christmas Eve gift |
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| Operation!! |
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| Blake thought the buzzing was hilarious!! |
The kids were all snuggled in bed and Santa's helpers got to work!
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| yes, laundry still exists, even on Christmas |
We took our sweet time on Christmas, and it was a beautiful, beautiful thing. The kids woke up to their Santa gifts and rummaged through their stockings, then we watched the parade and played while breakfast was being made, then we opened a new gift pretty much every one to two hours, the last one being opened right before bed...it was perfect!! We enjoyed one gift at a time and savored the slow-paced day. We played games, watched Christmas movies, ate a delicious turkey dinner and baked a birthday cake for Jesus.
Another Christmas in the books! It feels like I'll blink and Christmas 2017 will be here, it comes quicker and quicker every year, but until then, we have a lot to look forward to this year and I'll do my best to keep this updated!!
