Christmas Celebrations
I don't know about you, but December always seems to be the busiest month of the year for us. With all of the celebrations going on and fun things you want to do as a family, it seems there isn't as much downtime as I usually hope for. But this year December seems especially busy for me, don't get me wrong, it has been so much fun...just busy. I think preparing to leave the kids for the first time had be stressing for a whole month before we left, then after leaving and enjoying our vacation we came back to a lot of fun events.
We had our annual family Christmas party on my mom's side...you can read about that on my mom's blog HERE. I had so much fun hanging out with my cousins and letting all the babies play together, it was like baby central there. I have to admit though, it was my first trip and several days with the babes away from Jared, it was really hard. Jared helps me so much with the babies, and I seem to take him for granted quite often, I don't know what I would do without him. My mom shared a lot of pictures of all those there, I want to share a few more personalized from our little family, and a few of the precious moments I experienced.
We were eager to leave for the party, it would be the first time we took the babes in the car for that length of time. We were all so anxious, I knew they would get hot in their seats so I had them in summer outfits.
The trip started off a little rocky, we couldn't figure out how to unlock the child control on the AC, the kids were sweating. Once we got that figured out the kids did great! I loved sitting in between them, looking at their cute little feet and playing with them.
We got there a day early to help set up for the party and finish our scrapbook pages to give to the family. My dad and I were able to take a drive while we waited for pictures to be printed. We got the classic fresh lime (a drink from my childhood, sprite and fresh limes), and drove by my grandparents house. It brought back so many childhood memories for me, it was in this home that my passion for cooking developed and where I learned to cook.
Because I went early with my parents I got to have a part in creating our scrapbook page for the year...this was just the simple layout...isnt it cute?
And go grocery shopping which was fun because in Kanab the store has carts for 2 babies, it was perfect to do all our shopping.
This is what we called the baby center, we all sat around the fire/coffee table chatting while all the kids played together...
It was fun to see my cousin Cortni because our kids are so close together we were able to swap mom stories and experiences.
The kids even got to open their first gifts, they were so happy, they were even good at sharing.
The kids even got to open their first gifts, they were so happy, they were even good at sharing.
They even got to meet Santa and Mrs. Clause, Liam was fascinated by Santa's beard, and Abigail with the candy (shocking, I know).
Liam was so fascinated I think he thought Grandpa Great was Santa. It was fun to be able to see these two nuts playing together.
The kids had so much fun, but I think all the stimulation made them a little exhausted. They took almost double the naps that they do at home. And did I mention it was hard without Jared?! I missed Jared being there to relieve me during the night or letting me take a nap. The kids missed their beds terribly, I ended up putting both babies up with me in the bed because they were waking up so many times crying throughout the night.
The drive home was pretty good, the kids were did really well, they slept most of the time due to the exhaustion.
Once we got home it was pretty much time to pack up and spend Christmas Eve with my family. We wanted the kids to have something fun, so they got their very own holiday jammies.
It was an interesting Christmas for us, we spent Christmas Eve with my family and then due to a big winter storm we left on Christmas morning to go on a family road-trip to Washington state (this was originally planned for after Christmas). So even though our Christmas was different, and we werent necessarily with my family as we planned, we were still with family, our little family. It was an amazing growing and bonding experience for all of us, and it really did help us think about Christ and the celebration of his birth. We have been so grateful for all that we have been through this year, both trials and triumphs. I will describe more about our Christmas day in the next post, but all in all, it was a great holiday.
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