Christmas At Our House

I'm finally getting around to posting about our Christmas holiday. It was the first year we've celebrated here at our house with the kids. There was one Christmas my side of the family made the trek here to VA for Christmas, but other than that, the kids have never spent a Christmas at home. They were super excited, and it was great starting some of our own traditions, while at the same time passing along traditions that have been in my family for years. Christmas Eve was filled with homemade pizza, and a trip downtown to see the lights and decorations at the James Center. It was extremely cold, but the kids loved the lights outside, the humongous Christmas tree, and we even ran into some old friends we hadn't seen in years while we were there.

 

 

 

When we returned home, it was time for our traditional Christmas Eve present, and the matching Christmas jammies they got were too cute!

 

 

The next morning was surprising, as we had to wake up two of the kids! It was really quiet. We're used to being at my parents house where there's about 15 people, so it was definitely a little strange feeling. We opened our stockings, and then it was time to find the Baby Jesus. Kylie found him first this year, and was excited to get to open the first gift on Christmas morning!

 

 

 

 

It seemed like the presents were endless, and the kids were so busy playing with what they had already opened, that we actually had to make them finish opening gifts. We did good budget-wise this year, and even though not a ton of money was spent they had plenty to open. Kylie had lots of Littlest Pet Shop stuff and a Baby Alive. Caitlyn got a small sewing machine and a new fishing rod. John David was very happy with some Star Wars toys and Batman figurines. Jeremy got me a fabulous minky blanket that I love, and I got him a GPS. Luke really got into it, and was having a blast ripping the paper!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast was french toast made with homemade bread and blueberry pancakes made with fresh blueberries. Yummy! We had to have banana bread of course made from grandma's recipe. We made our first Christmas ham this year and it was so delicious! I have to admit that Jeremy did most of the work on that. :)