A Very Merry Christmas

And just like that, it's over.  The biggest event of the year! It always goes by way too fast.  Between Christmas day and Christmas Eve it was just like a whirlwind! What I want to remember is that on Christmas Eve my kids were SO perfectly well-behaved.  They were so sweet and happy and excited.  I want to remember that even though I cooked for hours all day (Lucy helped this year!), I loved every minute of it.  I want to remember that I heard a new Christmas Song that day called "A Labor of Love" and the words made the tears flow down my cheeks as I listened to the story about Mary, and the labor and birth of Jesus.  I want to remember that the kids took the bubbliest bath in my bathtub that night so they'd be clean on Christmas morning.  I want to remember that Lucy painted her nails will LOTS of red nail polish and glitter all over the tips of her fingers (she's still learning!).  I want to remember that we ate breakfast at 1pm on Christmas. I want to remember that me, Sully, Lucy and Piper all went to bed in our matching Christmas PJs.  I want to remember that Shawn always does the toothpick part of our teriyaki strips.  I want to remember that Sully slept upstairs in the girls room for the first time ever so that they all could come down the stairs together on Christmas morning and he actually slept good! (Lucy said one time he woke up once in the night because his pillow wouldn't stay on his bed {we brought up his toddler mattress for him} so she fixed it in the middle of the night by fluffing it up and wedging another pillow under it to help it not slide off- so sweet).  I want to remember that Shawn turned the fake fireplace on the TV in the background so we could pretend to be cozy even though it was hot outside.  I want to remember that Santa brought our dog Coal because she is so naughty (hahhahaaa). I want to remember how messy the family room was on Christmas with wrapping paper EVERYWHERE! I want to remember that I was a little bit sad that we had NOTHING to put together on Christmas Eve night for the first time ever.  All we had to do was take their gifts out of boxes and set them out.... and do the stockings.  But no building of toys this year :( I want to remember that they faithfully rang their bells for us at 8am SHARP! They woke up at 6:41 (according to them) and stayed put until the time we told them they were allowed to wake us, hahaha.  I want to remember that they watched The Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and talked about how Santa would also shrink down in size when he came down OUR chimney because ours is skinny like the ones in the movie.  I want to remember that Piper asked for an Ice Cream Machine, Sully asked for a giant Spider-Man and Lucy asked for a Hoverboard. I want to remember that Sully kept singing "all I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth" and "Must be Santa" all day long.  I want to remember that Piper was practically shaking with excitement when I put her to bed on Christmas Eve. The girls were closing their eyes tight with the biggest smiles on their faces as we said our goodnights and gave kisses.  I want to remember them running down the stairs as fast as they could the morning of Christmas and Lucy and Piper were holding hands as they ran down.  I want to remember that Piper was so disappointed that she couldn't use her ice cream machine right away, but then felt pretty special when it was ready to go! I want to remember that when we gave the girl's a Kids-Edition Alexa for their room, they FLIPPED OUT with excitement! I want to remember that Sully told me he was happy that Santa came when he was sleeping so that he didn't have to see him, hahahaha!  I want to remember all the happiness that day held.

I don't want to remember that Piper had more than one meltdown as the day went on (when she gets over-stimulated, she melts down).  I don't want to remember that it was almost 80 degrees out and I went and sat outside to read for bit and I was actually sad that the sun was bright and warm on Christmas day.  I like snow on Christmas so it was a melancholy afternoon out there- however, it allowed the kids to play with all their new toys (in shorts!) outside.  Piper received laser guns and they had lots of laser gun fights in the backyard that day! That was fun. 

I don't want to remember the arguing over sharing their new toys and I don't want to even ADMIT that we didn't FaceTime my family at ALL.  When we were busy, they weren't and vice versa.  And then at the end of the day, the kids were all so tired and cranky that face-timing anyone wouldn't have even been fun.  But these days won't last forever!

I'm grateful we were able to give our kids gifts and watch them open everything and see and hear their excited reactions.  I'm beyond glad they all still believe in Santa. I'm thankful for extended family who sent them fun gifts as well. And, well, I'm BLESSED!

And that was our Christmas in a nutshell.  The decorations came down last night (I know, as much as I love Christmas you'd think I'd want to keep the decor up through New Years, but I also like having my house back to being clean and less cluttery as soon as the magic is over).  I still have some more cleaning to do to get all the new toys organized and new clothes put up.  But for the most part, Christmas is done and we will wait 11 months for all the magic to show up again!

Opening the Alexa!

 The Coal, hahaha!

Next up- New Years!