We started our school break the week of Christmas. I had pulled some decor out before then, but I really saved most of it for once school was out. We spent the first day of break getting out the boxes and making the house really festive. To be honest, the kids really did most of it, and they did a great job.
The kids strung lights around all the doorways and hung bows on the doors.
Unfortunately, we had a few sick kids early in the week, and it felt like I might be coming down with something. So I took a bunch of Zicam and zinc, and prayed a whole lot, and thank the good Lord, everyone was healthy on Christmas!
On the 23rd, we got a knock on the door in the evening, and it was some friends from church who had arrived in a large group to regale us with Christmas carols. It was so fun and funny, and it turns out they had rented a whole party bus to take caroling, and there was more room on board, so Todd and most of the kids hopped on and joined! (The babies were already asleep, so someone needed to hang back at the house.) The kids came home and said it was the best night of their lives.
We kicked off Christmas Eve morning with our usual fare: breakfast burrito bread and cinnamon rolls. (I actually made some extras last year and froze them... it turns out that one-year-old cinnamon rolls taste just as good as fresh ones, and they require so much less work the day-of. It was my own little Christmas gift to myself. Thanks, Last Year Me!)
Todd had to work on Christmas Eve, so he joined us when he could. I made my grandma's potato soup recipe for lunch, and we had cheeseboard for dinner. I spent some of the day trying to figure out some stuff with the babies' stockings. Remember last Christmas Eve when I was agonizing over their stockings? This is apparently a new tradition, and will likely happen again next year because I still haven't figured it out.
In the evening, we opened Christmas jammies, then watched The Nativity Story and ate Christmas popcorn before bed. The kids set out milk and cookies for Santa (the first year we've done this), and they all had a slumber party in the boys' room. (Remember last year, when Atticus woke up in the middle of the night with the flu, and Juni lost her first tooth at like 3:00 a.m.? This year was much less eventful.)
And then... CHRISTMAS MORNING!
Our Christmas routine is very full: we open stockings before breakfast, then we eat bagels and lox and drink mimosas. Then we open gifts from Todd and me to the kids.
Stocking time
They got little Postmillitant keychains and stickers
Knox got his own G. I. Joe and named him, "Guy! Wow!"
Lalie got her own set of baby twins. (A boy and a girl, of course - the best kind!)
Knox got a vacuum
Oey got a wooden train set
Juni got a doll bed that was mine when I was a kid, and I sewed some flannel sheets for it
She is a very emotional gift recipient. She often cries. It is so sweet.
She kept saying, "I'm so... PROUD! I'm just so PROUD!" I don't think she had words for her feelings. It was so cute.
Callista got a sewing box.
Rocco got art supplies to continue to work on his graphic novel, Hi Power.
Lolo got kitchen cabinets and appliances for the doll house.
Penelope got a poster of literary insults for her room.
Finneas got rollerblades.
Atticus got an emergency preparedness kit for his car.
This year, I tried to make sure that each kid got at least one "activity" gift either in their stocking or their "big" present, so they had something to do after the gift opening but before lunch.
Knox looks like he's showing you the rims.
Lalie decided to take her babies for a Target run.
The trains were a communal activity.
Also, a solo activity.
Rocco worked on Hi Power.
He also made this guy out of Sculpey clay he got in his stocking.
We had a big lunch...
...then the kids opened their presents from each other. This really has become kind of the main event. They know each other so well, and pick thoughtful gifts for one another. This year I just kept thinking how blessed they are to have the gift of each other - they have a whole world they've built amongst themselves, and these are such special relationships to watch from the outside.
(This was the Year of the Ninja: So. Many. Ninjago. Sets.)
Bandaids for her FAK.
The kids got me the prettiest, coziest pair of slippers.
Callista immediately started sobbing when she opened her present from Atticus. It was a little minifig Lego - apparently one that meant a lot to her. They all know each other so well.
After the babies got up, they opened their gifts from the bigger kids.
Then we were all basically in a Christmas Exhaustion coma, so we had leftovers for dinner.
The rest of the weekend, and all of last week, also held some really fun stuff, but I'm not going to attempt to cram it in here - I'll give it its own post soon.
