1st Day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me.... some family time and perogies :). 

I love Christmas. I love how thick the air feels with anticipation leading up to Christmas and I love the extra time that we get to spend all together as a family. Saying it's awesome doesn't even begin to describe it. 

Of course, around here, we tend to do things a little differently (it seems to be a pattern with us) in order to try to keep Christmas focused on Christ and family. Of course, we have our Bethlehem dinner on Christmas Eve where we read from the scriptures and end the night with a reading of A Christmas Carol, but I felt like the feeling we had worked so hard to build throughout December and on Christmas Eve faded into the background come Christmas morning. So, last year we changed gears on account of Christmas falling on Sunday and pushed all the presents to the Second Day of Christmas (that's Boxing Day for all you folks in North America). That left Christmas day to things we deemed important and how we felt the Savior would want us to spend his birthday (not to say that gifts are a bad thing...but we were feeling a bit of gift overload around here). 

We tweaked it a bit this year on account of a few different things, but all in all, we really enjoyed the day. When the kids woke they trickled into our bedroom and climbed into bed so that we could call both sets of Grandparents (before they went to bed Christmas Eve) to wish them a Merry Christmas. We loved being able to start off the day talking to them.

Then, still in our pajamas with lovely morning hair, we all tip toed into the living room where Keely was still sound asleep (the kids had plenty of fun waking her up in the mornings while she was here); she mustered the strength to roll to the edge of her bed with her camera in one hand and retrieve her stocking in the other hand. I'm grateful she had the energy for her camera, it means awesome pictures. Like this one, which seems to capture Atticus' anticipation sitting in front of the tree so well. 

Since we don't do presents on Christmas Day, we have found that stockings (and the exception of one present, which I'll go into later) seem to balance things off well. We don't really do much in the way of Santa around here, particularly when we have three Santa's vying for our attention (Dutch, German, and American...) but that is a post all on its own for perhaps another day. Our stocking fillers are pretty standard; a couple candies/chocolate each, oranges, nut mixes, fruit bars, crackers and, in Keely's case, fry sauce. The junk food is kept to a minimum so that we can feel comfortable giving our kids complete control over their eating regulation of their treats. As to be expected, Atticus chowed down on chocolate for his pre-breakfast and Milayla on her crackers. 

We also slipped in a couple new books into each of the kids' stockings. We aimed for one activity book (magnetic books, dry erase, coloring books etc) and one story book so that they would have plenty do entertain themselves with while I made breakfast.

At Keely's suggestion, we gave omelettes a go for breakfast. Loaded with plenty of veggies and served with a side of fruit salad and croissants it was the perfect Christmas breakfast. One of the most perfect parts (I think) was that we sat, talk and ate without any rush at all - there was nothing pressing for our time or attention. We enjoyed the moment. We enjoyed the company. And we enjoyed the food. 

After we all pitched in on the clean up, we read books together, played games and watched a couple short Christmas videos about the Saviour and about the Wise Men. We really had no agenda except to spend time together however we felt was best. It was great. 

I love the pictures that Keely got of some of the little details of everything. Like Milayla's incredible expressions.

Or Atticus' immense concentration as he works through his new dry-erase learning book.

Or those little pigtails lost in a mess of duplo building blocks. 

The little touches of decoration.

 and even our collapsed gingerbread house.

Then, with the morning rounding out to a close, and breakfast leftovers filling our tummies for lunch the kids got to open up one present. It was a joint present that we had picked primarily for the logistics of setting it up in preparation for the next day. Otherwise, I think we would have let them each pick one present to open. Oh man, they sat there waiting to open that present like they had waited an eternity. 

And then, it happened, they got to open it. When it was nearing completion we asked Atticus what it was and, only seeing the back of the box and not the front with the pictures, he exclaimed very matter-of-factly, "a new box!". It was pretty priceless. And Keely even captured his facial expression when he said it. I love his expressions and how well he explains things.

Once they figured out that the cool kitchen that was on the box was also in the box they were pretty excited. But their excitement would have to wait, it was naptime, and Keely and I needed to get to work assembling their kitchen (not to mention, all of their kitchen gear was still wrapped under the tree!).

While Keely and I got busy putting together the kitchen, Jason was busy in the real kitchen getting the perogy dough ready (and making me my very own batch of gf perogies - I love that guy). We would have loved to help him make the dough and the perogy sauce but he won't let us. It's forbidden. Perogies are his thing and we did our best to respect that. Especially when he is so good at it!

And with the arrival of the mid-afternoon the kids were up and our guests were arriving. It was time to assemble the perogies. This is an absolute favorite around here. We all sit around the table, talk and assemble the perogies before we sit down and eat Christmas dinner together. We try to always invite others to share the meal with and to get to know them a little bit better. In a way, our day kind of leads up to this; the opportunity to share the Christmas Spirit and the joy of family and friendship with others.  It is what Atticus declared as his favorite part of the day as I was tucking him in and I would have to agree with him. I love being surrounded by my family and our friends and being able to do so on Christmas day is just that much better.

And after lots of lovely conversation, the kids were tucked into bed and we bid our guests ado. It was a lovely day that I wish I could wrap up in a bow and gift to myself more during the year. We are so blessed and I know those blessings are a gift to us from our loving Heavenly Father and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, whose birthday it is. And I am grateful for an awesome husband who, when he asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said "a day spent with our family and friends, no agendas, no appointments, just us drinking in the Christmas Spirit however feels right for the day", said "I'll make it happen." and did. How grateful I am for my Saviour and grateful that I get to share the joyful news and importance of his birth with my little family.

And, even though I know this post is going up about a month and a half after Christmas, I hope you all had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!