I hope everyone is recovering from their Christmas hangover. We have been in our jammies and eating left overs all day (writing this on Tuesday). This year's Christmas was one for the memory books for sure. I was honored to host my first Christmas Eve AND Christmas day dinners at our house. It was stressful for sure, but I was so excited to have our family over for Christmas. So, between the cleaning, cooking, baking, wrapping and preparing I was able to snap a few photos. Having a 1 year old and a 3 year old at Christmas is so much fun! Camden is just now 'getting' the idea of Santa (after a month of him asking for his birthday back 😂). And since my brain is still on co-pilot mode from all the hustle and bustle, I'm just going to go ahead and share the photos now so they can tell the story for me...
Christmas Eve started with church service at 10am (both boys went to the nursery and it was the first week I didn't get a text saying Bennett was crying! It was a Christmas miracle!). After church, we donated some toys to the local fire station (they host a toy drive every year) which was on our to do list for the past month! Then, we headed home for lunch and naps for the boys. Once the boys were down, it was time for me to hustle to get the house ready for my family to come over for dinner. It was just my immediate family on Christmas eve which consists of my parents, my brother and his girlfriend and my grandma. Christmas Eve has also been a more casual night for our family. Growing up, we would dress up and go to an early church service, then as soon as we got home we would change into jammies and my Mom always served heavy hors d'oeuvres like cocktail weenies, cheese and crackers, veggie tray, shrimp cocktail, etc. I love these types of dinners and I think it is partly the reason why I've grown to love Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day!
The boys got in their matching jammies after nap time and I gave them a few little toys to play with while I finished getting ready.
A newer tradition we started with my family a few years ago, was adding baked potato soup to the Christmas Eve menu. My mom would make a big batch in the crockpot and would set out a toppings bar with scallions, bacon pieces, and shredded cheese. This is my love language people! So, you bet I made the
richest, creamiest crockpot baked potato soup recipe I could find on Pinterest because #yolo and Christmas comes once a year. I also had all the fixin's as they say. I also made my famous
home made chex mix (
which I pretty much just make so I can eat it all...).
After dinner, we headed into the family room to open a few gifts. My grandmother always gifted us with a new pair of PJs Christmas Eve and she still does! She got me
this set this year and you bet I've already worn them!
I let the boys open
one gift (
these magnet blocks) Christmas eve to keep them happy. This was supposed to be one of the 'share' presents I got for the boys. So far, so good with the sharing of this one since there are so many pieces.
By the time we were done opening a few gifts, it was time for the boys to go to bed. I was so excited for the boys to go to sleep on Christmas eve so I could start playing Santa that I forgot to leave out cookies for said Santa... oops! Camden didn't even mention it, so hopefully we can do it next year when both the boys will be more into it! After the boys went to bed, I brought all the gifts out to put under the tree and filled their stockings! We ended the night watching Elf, drinking egg nog and eating cookies. The perfect way to end Christmas Eve!
I was so excited for the boys to wake up and see the tree Christmas morning! As soon as Camden saw the presents he turned to me and said "Santa was here!" in the sweetest voice! My heart melted!
We are continuing the theme of cars, trucks and things that go over here at the Rumple house of boys. So. many. cars!!! Camden asked Santa for 'Lightning McQueen' this year so we got home some 'Cars' characters and a 'Mack' truck to carry them in. We also got him the first Cars movie (
since he actually hasn't seen the whole movie yet!). Some other fun toys that were hits were
these cardboard blocks,
this emergency vehicle play mat and a
new scooter for Camden!
How quickly the pretty scene of the presents all wrapped under the tree turns into a mess!
After we opened gifts, my parents came over for a little mid morning brunch and to give the boys the rest of their gifts. Bill's brother's family also stopped by with their little one for a bit. After everyone headed home and the boys had their lunch, it was time for nap time which meant I was again cleaning, cooking and setting up for Christmas dinner! We were expecting around 15 adults, so not too big of a crowd, but enough to fill our house with tables and chairs. I set up the dining room with a fancy table scape and used my mom's Christmas dinner plates that she always uses. I also set up an extra table off of our kitchen table which was the family friendly area for the kids.
I was very pleased the way my
Target table runner looked with my Trader Joe's last minute center piece (taper candles and candle holders from
At Home).
Everything went according to plan and I was so happy to host our first Christmas dinner in our home. Bill and I were talking Christmas night about how many of our prayers have been answered over the last year and what a different place we are now than we were a year ago. It makes me really want to focus on giving thanks and giving back. We have so many blessings in our lives and I don't want to take any of them for granted. I have so many goals for 2018 and one of them is to become more grateful for this life that we have built together.
These boys are growing like weeds and I really want to make sure we are enjoying these fleeting moments to the fullest! I mean, just look at those faces!
I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!
And cheers to the New Year ahead!
