Christmas day went totally different than I expected. I had a very specific plan, we would wake up before Zoey and sneak up to her room and film waking her up and coming downstairs, and her expression at seeing the presents. She would be happy all day long with her new gifts, we would have a delicious breakfast early in the morning after gifts. Church was going to be uplifting and Zoey would be so excited to see her friends there.
We did spend a beautiful day as a family smiling and laughing together, but things never go quite as planned when you have kids, do they?!? Our day was nowhere near the way I planned, but it was perfectly imperfect.
I stayed up till 2am Christmas Eve finishing up little details and writing my Christmas Eve blogpost. Then I woke up at 7am to Zoey in our doorway, asking if she could open all the presents. I was SO exhausted, so Kris took her upstairs to watch cartoons for a bit and I fell asleep for another hour.
Then Kris and Zoey opened their stockings. Zoey’s reaction to every single thing in her stocking was priceless. It was mostly trinkets, play dough, candy, glow sticks, etc. But you would have thought it was stuffed with gold. She is so satisfying to give gifts to. Not only is she so grateful, but she gets so excited about the smallest things.
After that we went to church with our good friends, Olya and her family. I loved the parts of the program that I got to hear. But I spent a lot of the time being a referee between Zoey and her friend, who were having a very hard time sharing. You miss a lot in church when you are trying to keep kids quiet.
When we got home we opened presents and Zoey had the same excited reaction to almost every gift. She is so satisfying to give presents to! The highlight of the gift for Zoey was her NEW BIKE!! It actually comes with ski’s too, which can be attached where the wheels are for the snow… All our snow melted over the last few days and I can’t wait for it to come back so we can try them! She also was obsessed with all the new doll accessories she got for her Bitty Baby. The most popular gift was her SHOPKINS, why are kids so obsessed with those?!
We did a scavenger hunt for her to find one gift. The first clue was hidden in her stocking. She LOVED the hunt and I think it will become a new Christmas tradition that we do every year.
MY favorite gift was everything Kris got me. He told me his goal was to out-do me this year with gifts and he did a great job. Especially with the chocolates and an H&M gift card. He knows the way to my heart… Oh also, all his gifts were wrapped like this:
I am pretty sure that Kris’ favorite gift that I got him was this beard. I mean, how could it not be?!!?
The gift I am most happy about though was one I gave to Kris. I know haha, bragging about my own gift. But it is pretty special. I spent the last 3 months compiling all the email messages Kris and I sent back and forth to each other before we were dating. I made them into a book so that we will always have these memories forever. I used Blurb to make the book, if anything every happens they save my book so I can reorder and also I just love the creation interface. It is super easy making books with Blurb and I use it for all our scrap-books.
Kris and I have been best friends since I was about fifteen…. Our emails and conversations made me laugh SO MANY TIMES. Such good memories. Some highlights though:
From my mom (she hacked my email) to Kris: “Hey Kris, it has been awhile since we talked, but I thought I better email you in case one day I end up being your mother-in-law.”
From Kris to me: “Tell your dad I will NEVER be a doctor because…..” and then he told a story about someone he knew having to go to the hospital for something gross. Currently Kris is more than halfway through medical school so I guess he lied about that.
From me to Kris: “When are you planning to propose to your girlfriend??? Because I think you should wait at least 6-8 months.” Code for, you better not propose to her, because in one week from now I am going to FINALLY profess my love for you. Luckily his response was that he was nowhere near ready to think about marriage (and luckily that changed the second I told him I wanted to date).
Anyways… After the gifts Zoey must have had a bit of a sugar overload, because the rest of the day was downhill from there. She had more meltdowns in the later half of the day than she usually has in a week.
With how late we got up we didn’t end up making our Christmas breakfast till around 4pm. It was a major highlight of my day, an absolute feast. I love sitting around the table with my family. Usually we try and eat really healthy, Christmas breakfast was anything but. SOOO good. Even cranky Zoey loved our dinner/breakfast.
At the end of the day we took some inspiration from This Is Us (the most amazing show I’ve ever seen…). We stole their Thanksgiving hike tradition and transferred it to Christmas. After a twenty minute drive to one of our favorite hiking spots, we got out of the car and bundled the babies in their strollers. Within five minutes both of them were crying. Zander never cries, so we pay attention when he does. Zoey was telling us she was “TOOOOO COLD!”, even though she was super bundled up. So we got back in the car and drove home. Basically we drove 40 minutes for a 5 minute walk.
Pictures of the breakfast and our hike/5 minute walk full of tears are coming soon.
Life is never quite as planned with kids… But that is ok. Parenting really is its own kind of beautiful. I love the hashtag I have seen going around, #inbeautyandchaos. Such an accurate description of my life.
How was your Christmas day???
Keep scrolling for more pictures or…
Matching Family Christmas PJ’s: Mine, Kris’s, Zoey’s, Zander’s | Zoey’s Presents: Bike | Helmet | Basket | Skis | American Girl Dress | Matching Dress for Bitty Baby | Kris’s Gifts: Beard | Hat | Sweater | Blurb Book
3 Responses
Love the pics! Absolutely love the beard–it’s awesome!!
Aww thanks! I thought the beard was hilarious too haha.