I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Raise your hand if you're dealing with the post Christmas wreckage of toys and decorations this week. My house looks like the picked over aisles of Toys R Us right now. I'm not complaining though, that's the sign of a fun, family-filled holiday and we loved every second of the last week.
For as long as I can remember it's been our family tradition to go to my aunt's house on Christmas Eve. We have a big family and everyone gathers together for Christmas pizza, lots of cookies, and too many presents to count for all the kiddos. When I was younger my cousins and I would run around until all hours of the night trying out our new toys, but now everyone is grown up and Ez and Declan are the only kids. So they get spoiled. Alot.
But before we went to my aunt's house we started off the afternoon at my mom's for Christmas baking. My mom probably bakes a thousand cookies for various friends and family each Christmas. Helping my mom with her sugar cookies each year is one of my favorite traditions and this year Ez joined in on the fun. He loved being in charge of sprinkles. And of course taste testing. That's my favorite part too, kid.
On our way to my aunt's both boys fell asleep in the car and they woke up in grumpy moods. Ez was on the verge of tears until he spotted a bowl of candy. Then he received a few presents to entertain him, including a giant dump truck and a few toy ambulances, and his mood did a 180. Declan on the other hand never completely regrouped and he threw plenty of screaming fits to let us know just how he felt.
After lots of visiting we called it a night around 9:30 and headed home. I thought for sure Ez would fall asleep in the car since it was over an hour drive, but nope. After weeks of seeing presents sitting under the tree he finally got his chance to open a few and he was pumped up. Just as I was thinking we might be in for a long night he thankfully went straight to bed as soon as we got home. Of course that means Declan woke up all bright eyed and ready to coo and chat with me. I tried getting him to sleep a few times before I gave up and let him help me fill the stockings. He made a great Santa's little helper and it was fun having the company. Too bad we can't make that a yearly tradition.
Christmas wreckage is Dec going on here! Looks like the perfect Christmas Eve, sharing traditions like that with your own kids makes them so much better even if they wake up having fits!
ReplyDeleteChristmas wreckage is Dec going on here! Looks like the perfect Christmas Eve, sharing traditions like that with your own kids makes them so much better even if they wake up having fits!
ReplyDeleteChristmas chaos is a tradition too! Can't skip that. Grumpy kids though aren't fun. Also not sleeping. But a little stocking helper is pretty cute =)
ReplyDeleteChristmas Eve has always been a huge deal on my side of the family too. We've kept some of the traditions going but it's just us and my in laws usually.
ReplyDeleteLily use to wake up from naps all crazy. Now it seems like Ben wakes up from his afternoon nap that way. Not sure what the deal is there. Ya'll had the best time though..it seems.