Christmas Day 2013

Christmas Day was pretty relaxed around here. After waking up, Milayla promptly pulled out a stack of books from our Christmas book box and probably would have been quite content on reading those for quite a bit longer than we let her. But alas, we had stockings to open and the first of several phone calls to make. 

For the sake of my memory next year. We put an activity book, some roasted nuts (Milayla is presently in love with pistachios), a little lego figure, toy car, crayons/pens, and a few chocolate coins in each stocking and the kids were pretty enthralled.

And so was this big kid with his surprise of homemade buckeyes that he found in his stocking.

Between the stockings and all the fabulous clothes that Grandma and Grandpa English sent out (and the kids unwrapped that morning) the kids weren't too keen to open other gifts and we just hung out in the living room, eating nuts, trying on new clothes and playing with little lego men for the first couple hours before we finally decided we should probably go eat breakfast.

You can see Grandpa and Grandma English on Skype there; getting to see our blanket filled living room.

And I'm pretty sure that Milayla wore these new boots around the house for most of the day.

I've got to say that I love those initial hours on Christmas morning with the living room floor filled with little ones in pyjamas all wrapped up in their bed quilts. It's so cozy.

For breakfast, Atticus insisted that we needed to have pancakes (our traditional birthday breakfast) since we were celebrating Jesus' birthday. So we feasted on pancakes and fruit. Before kicking off breakfast though, I got to share a little spiritual thought from my new Christmas book. It's an illustrated book of the testimony of Charles Dickens on the life of Christ. Love it. And it sure captured the kids' attention as well.

This is the first Christmas in 5 years that Jason has had egg nog. That's if you don't count my pitiful attempts to make our own eggnog. Let's just say that he has been happily cashing in on the readily available holiday nog this December. And he has succeeded in building mini-egg-nog lovers as well.

After we all cleaned up from breakfast we very leisurely opened up some gifts. Pretty sure that I have mentioned this before, but we kept things pretty simple around here. Aside from a few home made gifts the kids each got a couple small toys (a puzzle and skill building item each) and a couple books.

There really was no gift rush around here and I loved it. The kids adored everything that they opened and as we neared to the last gift, I could tell that they were getting all gifted out and I was grateful that we didn't pile more gifts on them. I think it would have made things a little too overwhelming.

I loved Milayla's excited over her gift from Atticus. The handmade cat fingerpuppet.

And Atticus was pretty over the moon when he discovered that he got a lion fingerpuppet from Milayla.

It was a lot of fun to see them play with those together.

And read their new books together.

I decided on the morning of Christmas Eve that I would whip a dress together for Milayla that would match the doll that I made her. And make a matching tie for Atticus. Jason told me I was craaaazzzy and that it was too late in the game. He ran out to grab an item from the store with the kids and mail something off - by the time he got back I was finishing up. Success.

Actually, the real success was seeing how much the kids loved those items. Milayla put her dress on as soon as we would let her and has wanted to wear it every Sunday since. Atticus wants to learn how to make his own tie now. And that little doll has been toted everywhere by both kids.

The kids brainstormed the gift that they wanted to make for Jason and came up with some face lotion in hopes that he would stop using Mommy's. They're thoughtful kids :).

I just want to point out the look of complete panic on Milayla's face right there. It was this weird moment as I caught the picture just as she was pulling away as I was asking who was next to open a present and she was answering.

Tickles from lion.

After gifts were opened we really just played. Jason and I eventually got around to getting dressed. And we were able to chat with some more family periodically throughout the morning and afternoon. Including a phone call with Grandma and Grandpa Hochstein (and Uncle Chase and Aunt Keely) where Atticus and Milayla got to see their new sled they got from them. Though, due to Jason's expert hiding abilities, Atticus had already seen the sled - twice.

The sash has come undone in this photo, but you can kind of see how Milayla's dress turned out here as the kids were playing in their new sled.

When the kids went down for nap, Jason had one more batch of perogies to make. Since we were only making gf perogies this year, I made a big batch of filling and Jason made the perogy dough and formed the perogies in a few batches; a batch a day. Splitting it up made the process so easy and simple. We froze the perogies that we had already made and it all just needed to be put into a boiling pot of water on the day of.

More play time.

Both the kids received puzzles with a higher piece count than they have done before and have already mastered them solo. They love a challenge.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention our most brilliant idea of Christmas. We put beginner recorders in the kids' stockings. They were a little unsure about them at first but when Grandpa English pulled out his recorder on Skype and started playing the kids changed their mind and decided they were brilliant. We had them playing a duet most of the day. It was pretty awesome. They actually figured out how to change sound and pitch pretty quickly on their own, but they have some practice ahead of them yet. First step, learning to keep a beat and learning notes. They're young yet, they've got time. In the mean time, just look how cute they are playing those things! It makes the practice songs 100% worth it.

Upside Down Cranberry Cake modified to be gf and without sugar in the topping. It was delicious!

We eventually made it around to dinner. It worked out perfectly. We had a nice selection and it came together so perfectly. In the event I cannot remember next year what we had this year I want to write it so that I have a reference. We had 3 batches of perogies with sour cream (no sauce this year..), baked sweet potatoes, roasted green beans, mixed green salad with red onion and mandarins and creamy Quinoa/Kale/Parsnip salad. It was great!

I healthified dessert with just a cake and some fresh fruit salad and greek yogurt. I think it was the first year that we didn't have the whipcream and marshmallow laden canned fruit salad and I could not believe how happy we all were without it. While getting fresh berries in December is a tad more expensive, everyone remarked at how much they loved the fruit salad.

It was a lot of food. And we had a ton of leftovers. Though I don't think the kids minded eating leftover perogies for the rest of the week one bit.

After we cleaned up dinner, we watched the short nativity (the church produced one), curled up in our pyjamas and say Christmas songs at the piano until the kids were too tired to sing anymore.

It was a good day. I am so happy that we simplified, planned ahead and then just let things unfold however they wanted to organically. So grateful for all the time that I got to spend with this little family of mine this holiday season. Time together really is a wonderful gift. It fills me with so much peace and joy - and that seems to capture that wonderful Spirit of Christmas so magically.