Christmas Day 2017

Christmas Day is always full of excitement when there's kids around. There is so much build-up to the day that of course no one can sleep. We had our usual Christmas Eve service at church, and this year I sang with the choir. The kids sang a little too and did amazing! By the time we got home and got to bed, it was nearly 9:30, but thankfully Santa had already wrapped the gifts a few nights prior!

The kids were up by 7 and ready to go, but we are mean and make them stay in their rooms until we're ready. It wasn't too long to wait, though, and we were done unwrapping everything in about an hour.

Jacob really did not care at all about unwrapping new gifts. He was a little unsure about all the stuff going on and had to sit with Brett in order to get into doing anything. After one or two gifts, he kept saying "I don't need this!" and pushing it aside. He played most of the day with toys he already owned. I think it was just a little overwhelming for him. His Santa gift was a big set of blocks because he loves to build "tall towers".

Abi is usually one of the harder ones to buy for because she doesn't have any really particular likes. She did request a stuffed puppy that could walk and do stuff, so she got this one that really "poops." She loves him! She also got a fairy playset with a toy unicorn.

This is the first year that Leah knows the truth about Santa, and it was really a lot of fun. She did a great job at keeping it up for her brothers & sister and still made a list for Santa, too. She is really into horses this year and got a horse for her Barbies to ride. She also got another Journey Girl (American Girl knock-off) doll this year, which was actually something we had bought for Abi a long time ago and decided she wasn't ready for it yet. She was soo surprised. And I think she appreciates them even more now that she knows we bought them and not Santa. She now has 3 dolls and loves to play with them!

Andrew is into Power Rangers and dragons and superheros and the XBox. He got an XBox Game from Santa and a Power Rangers glove and mask from Daddy.

Brett bought us a window seat which also serves as a storage box for our shoes by the door to the house. Everyone loves to sit on it, and Jacob has other ideas!

Aunt Karen sent the three older kids Hatchimals, which are apparently a hot item this year although I would have never spent the money on them. They each got twins, which hatched from their eggs and grew from babies to toddlers to kids all on the same day. The twins talk to each other and play little "games." The hatching and growing part was rather anti-climatic, though.

Jacob also enjoyed playing with Andrew's toys. He got a toy dragon that walks and makes noise. He got a dinosaur last year. Now they can fight each other. Or Jacob can ask me to get them for him to play with EVERY TIME WE GO IN HIS ROOM. He also wanted to play with the PlayDoh he got in his stocking.

We got several family games to play together. A church friend bought Andrew a basketball shooting game. We also got a chess set, Stratego (which Andrew LOVES to play with Daddy), and Kerplunk.

We had a white Christmas this year! Maybe the first one since we've been in Vermont. The snow plow made a huge sledding hill at the top of our already existing hill, so the kids had a blast playing outside Christmas afternoon. 

I even convinced Jacob to go out and this time he wore his mittens, so once I got him to ride the sled down the hill with me, he didn't want to stop! No sooner would we reach the bottom before he would say "again!" and start back up the hill even without me. We must have gone a dozen times before I carried him kicking & screaming back into the house. 

More Christmas Fun

More fun things we love to do at Christmas:

Make gingerbread houses together. This year we decided to try with graham crackers so everyone could do their own. It wasn't much easier, and definitely not as tasty. I still had to put them together ahead of time myself before they could do any decorating.

Jacob had more fun eating the building materials.

We watched The Polar Express with hot chocolate (this was the first year the kids actually enjoyed their hot chocolate HOT instead of just like chocolate milk).

We went caroling with our AWANA friends from church. There was tons of kids & grown-ups too. We sang at three different nursing homes.

Just a sweet little moment between brother and sister. Jacob really got into trains for a few days after seeing The Polar Express.

Our homeschool group had a sledding/ cookie baking day at one of the family's home. We did tons of cookies and the kids had a blast sledding on their big hill together.

These two girls, Jocelyn & Moriah, have quickly become Leah's best friends, and they are such sweet, godly little girls. They share many interests and are so fun to be around.

At home later that day, we tried to convince Jacob to go outside in the snow. He refused to put on gloves, so the second he fell down he was DONE. He wanted nothing more to do with the snow.

It's Christmas Time Again...

This year I've tried to keep Christmas low-key, while still keeping lots of the traditions we always do. I like feeling less busy & stressed and not feeling like we have to do something Christmas-y every day! The first of December, we went to see Santa in the morning & then went to decorate cookies at church with some friends.

On the day Santa comes into town, there's always several things around town to walk around and do for free. A local church opens up for crafts, cookies & hot cocoa.

There's Christmas character cut-outs.

And one of the main reasons we put up with the crowds and the cold and the madness is for horse-drawn carriage rides. It's only about a 5-10 minute ride, but /Leah is super into horses this year, so she was in heaven!

And finally we got to see the big guy. I didn't really have any expectations that Jacob would do well, and I'm glad, because he certainly wanted nothing to do with it. I did not however expect Abigail to be equally as upset or anxious about sitting with him. We forced them both on him anyway for a photo to remember in years to come!

We always enjoy going to Cookie Decorating Day at church because they have fancy colored glazes & sprinkles for decorating that we don't have at home. We get to eat some of the cookies, and leave some for the workers at the nursing home where we go caroling later in the week.

Jacob wasn't really interested in making any cookies, but was perfectly content to sit here in his chair with a bowl & a rolling pin for quite awhile. Then he started running around and eating all the sugar cookie dough he could find.