It's December 27th, I've put my kids in front of a movie - like a Good Mom - and stepped over the piles of puzzles and blocks to sit down with a cup of coffee and write about our Holiday.
This season I kept trying to recall last Christmas, and I really struggled. I was so grateful I had this blog to go back and look at. It really has helped me capture some sweet memories with my family. So in an effort to catch up, I now begin the Longest Post Ever...
We took good advantage of our Zoo membership and headed out one late afternoon to see the animals and all the lights!
The kids were mesmerized, and so was I!
Abbey and Luke were especially thrilled to see this Gingerbread House at the Zoo! We've had our Christmas books out all month and their favorite by far is GingerBread Baby. They love, love, love it and we've read it eleventy billion times in the last 27 days.
(Aunt Carol, you gave us this book at my baby shower! We've loved reading it so much!)
This month we had one-on-one dates with the kids. It was my turn to go with Luke, so we went to the local aquarium together =)
And look who we ran into!!
We then went out for ice cream and then stopped at the store to pick out Abbey's Christmas gift...
The twins had their first ever preschool program this month, and as hard as I tried, my camera was not able to properly capture the adorableness that occurred.
I mean, really, how cute are these two and when did they get so big?!
The 3's class got together with the Pre-K kids and they all sang a few songs for us. It was so cute!
We were so lucky to have Auntie Natalie come watch us sing!
And Grammie and BopBop came as well!
We didn't do nearly as much Christmas baking as I'd hoped, but we did manage to make these which were so easy and a great kid-friendly baking project!
And we did make, bake, and decorate sugar cookies as well...
Which, shockingly, if you make sugar cookies before bed, and let the kids sample them, you will have some crazy wild kids at bedtime...
Before we knew it, it was Christmas morning! We set the owl for a little before 8am, which gave us time to wake up a bit and have some coffee before the Twinadoes touched down...
Luke was thrilled to open his new tool set, complete with his very own tool belt!
(He looks SO grown up to me in that picture)
Just as we did last year, we took the kids separately to buy presents for each other. They did SO GOOD keeping the secrets from each other! Dave and I were impressed.
This is Lucas opening the Spiderman with web thing Sister got for him...
And Abigail opening the Horse her Brother picked out for her...
David and I agreed our favorite part of the whole morning was seeing how grateful the kids were. They each kept taking turns stopping everything to come over and say Thank You to us, it was beyond precious...
This picture cracks me up, as it captures pretty well our Christmas morning... Daddy opening/putting together some toy, Abbey and Luke opening new presents excitedly, half in their new jammies they just opened - but still half in their original jammies as they were too excited to complete the task of fully changing...=)
We were lucky enough to get to spend Christmas morning with Auntie Natalie! She was so sweet to let both kids assist her in opening her gifts...=)
Once each of us had opened our gifts, Daddy directed the twins to the coat closet...where a 21" Spiderman and 2foot tall stuffed elephant were waiting!!
Abbey and Luke were THRILLED!
We had been at Costco a few weeks ago and they both fell in LOVE with these items. They asked to buy them that day, and I off-handily said "not today, but maybe for Christmas..." and they then proceeded to talk non-stop about the "BIG Spiderman!" and "HUGE cuddly elephant" at Costco. So, I went back sans kids two days later and picked them up =). It was nearly impossible to hide such large toys for nearly a month in a 900 sq ft house with no garage or basement and only 5 closets. But for $14.99 (the giant elephant) and $22.99 (the gargantuan Spiderman) I had a feeling they'd sell out fast so I wanted to snatch them up!
They each also got these little remote control cars that they have had tons of fun driving around the house...
We were having so much fun playing with all our new stuff, we nearly forgot about Stocking Stuffers...
Dave and I had some happy, happy kiddos on our hands!
Luke, using his new hammer as a drumstick whilst Spiderman observes...
The major bonus of the morning was getting to Skype with Auntie Mem!!
I was so, so happy to get to hear her sweet voice, but it also made me miss her all the more. So proud of her though, and I know she is right where she is supposed to be.
I think the twins' favorite gift would have to be the fridge marble maze thing Auntie Natalie got us...
Daddy, Abbey, and Luke all spent A LOT of time Christmas Day configuring new ways for the marbles to get from the top to the bottom =).
We also got a new floor puzzle!
For Christmas I got Dave (and me) tickets to see a Trailblazers game. I haven't been to one since Nov of 2009 and Dave hadn't in over a year. We had SO MUCH FUN...
....admittedly, part of that fun was the last minute 3pointer we sunk that tied the game and sent us into overtime...(which we WON)...
...but a big part of the fun was being out, just the two of us =). We used to go to these games all the time when we first moved here in 2007, but since the twins have come our budget and time are spent much differently. And while neither of us would have it any other way, it's nice to reconnect with who we used to be, pre-kids, and remember those days together as well.
Final Score: 116 to 112 in Overtime!!
So, there you have it. Christmas, 2013 on the record books.
It was far from Pintrest-worthy.
Our house was a mess most of December. We have loved ones who are deeply hurting. Our schedules were crazy most the month. I only crossed off about 60% of my December To-Do list. I never sent our Christmas cards. Dave's cousin passed away unexpectedly. Luke attempted to move a lit candle on our birthday cake for Jesus and burnt his finger. Chaos got the best of us, and Dave and I lashed out at each other spoke less-than-kind words once or twice. I forgot I'd stored a plastic serving tray in the oven temporally (a hazard from lack of counter space) and pre-heated the oven, causing us to throw out the super-cool serving tray AND sit in a house with all the windows open to air out all the fumes.
I told you, far from Pintrest.
But. We also laughed, a lot. We drove around and looked at Christmas lights, twice. We enjoyed receiving Christmas cards. We made Monkey Bread. We were purposeful about teaching our children it's better to give than to receive. We watched Christmas movies and ate popcorn. We took naps - ALL of us! We wrapped presents. We made Christmas crafts. We listened to Christmas music and sang Christmas songs. We praised God for the Gift of His Son. We curled up together and read Christmas books. We were together, our little family, happy and healthy...and for that, I give my utmost thanks.
