Little Family Christmas

I love my little family of four and I love the memories we are making together. This was our year to be in California on Christmas Day (more to come about that) so Claire asked Santa if he would be willing to come to our house a little early. Thankfully he was able to be a little flexible and so we had our very own Christmas Eve on December 18th and Christmas Day on December 19th this year.

Christmas Eve* was spent opening up our new PJs, making cookies for Santa, and putting out reindeer food in our front yard. Claire seemed to really get into the traditions we are figuring out as a family and that made this Christmas one of the most fun so far. I loved that she wanted to sleep in our bed that night and she was so excited when she woke up and got to see what Santa had left under the tree for her and her brother. She was a little concerned that Allan and I did not have anything from the big man in red.

Christmas day* we turned on the Christmas music and the video camera to capture the first moments of our baby girl seeing that she got exactly what she had been dreaming of, a big dollhouse. The excitement on her face made me want to cry, it was magical. Jacob was pretty excited about his superstar toy as well, we have already memorized the songs that it sings over and over and over. We opened stockings and then exchanged our family gifts and I would say that we were all pretty blessed with the outcome. Allan was by far most excited about his Slap Chop which cracks me up even now. He got creative with wrapping my present and used household boxes (Bisquick, nursing pads, screw box, etc.) to wrap up the individual pieces of my Pandora bracelet. I got a special charm for each member of my family- a bear for Claire, a snake for Jacob (which is actually really cute), and an "I love you" box from Allan. We stayed in our PJs almost all day while Allan and Claire built a huge train around the living room and kitchen and I relaxed and got ready for company. Later that evening we headed over to a neighboring town and took a horse drawn carriage ride.

It was a wonderful little family Christmas! I would love to figure out a way to be at our house on actual Christmas day every year, and maybe we will when the kids are a bit older, but for now Santa has agreed to be flexible on our CA Christmas years and we will make the most out of the time we have together no matter what the date is.