I love Christmas. I love the anticipation, I love finding the perfect gifts, I love the family time, I love the good cheer, I love the focus on the Savior. It's just a happy season. For the first year since we got married, we didn't spend Christmas or Christmas Eve with either of our parents since none of us are in Nebraska anymore! We did have visitors though, and it made it feel very festive. I went to Salt Lake to have a hang out day with my mom (it was lovely) the weekend before Christmas, and Aaron stopped on his way through Cheyenne as he moved from Nebraska to Utah.
Look at this beautiful cheese spread we made! It was delicious, especially the cranberry Wensleydale.
A beautiful big sky on my way home from Utah - I get frustrated sometimes when I try to take a picture of a sunrise or sunset because the camera never seems to capture it, but I think that's also kind of the beauty of it: you have to see it for yourself and remember it when it's gone.
When Mario is fast asleep, his tongue peeks out from his mouth and it is so cute. When he's waking up and still groggy, the tongue is still there and it makes us laugh every time.
I loaded the kids up in the car for school and then ran back inside because I forgot something, and I found Mario red-handed with a bag of biscuits from dinner the night before. It was so funny that he just sat there looking guilty with the biscuits in his mouth hahaha.
Claire with her Tortilla blankie and Roo (it's really a wallaby but the kids thought it was a kangaroo and Claire saying "Roo" is just too cute to correct...thanks Ananda for sending it!)
Natalie is so fun and lively. And mad when I take her picture secretly haha.
Bedtime cozies in my bed. They all find their spots and then fight over where I'm going to lay. Aren't kids in big t shirts the cutest?! Claire goes to bed at 7 and the other hooligans go down around 7:30. They all wake up between 6:30-7am.
Claire is at that fiercely independent toddler age and has her own agenda when we go shopping. She sat here taking every single nutcracker off the shelf and organizing them for at least 10 minutes until I finally dragged her away. I've actually started ordering grocery pickup because going to the store is so unpredictable with Claire (and it helps me not make so many spontaneous purchases).
Happy dance after a nap
A beautiful nativity painting that my friend Annie did for me! I LOVE it.
Claire was obsessed with this big present behind the tree. She would sit on another present and just admire the big present haha, and she always got so sheepish when I caught her looking at it or touching it. (It was a tennis racquet for Natalie).
Jack's message to anyone who thought about eating his donut haha
I think Stockton missed school while we were on break, so he wrote teacher nametags for their bedrooms.
Claire and Mario, enjoying an afternoon movie.
Claire lounge modeling after a nap haha
Jack wearing Claire's vest and feeling very proud of himself
Cheeto puffs plus mattress time...Claire was in heaven
We like pulling Jack's mattress out to the living room when the kids don't have school. They lounge on it all day, and Mario loves it too. Plus it makes our living room look bigger when we take it out again haha.
I had ordered this drill toy for when we were quarantined but it didn't come until Christmas break. The timing actually worked out really well because they were home from school and needed a fun activity.
Stockton has been loving the Dog Man books. He loves when Austin reads them to him (over and over again). He gets mad when I interrupt their reading by coming into the room because "it's a boy patch." Don't know where he got "patch" from but apparently girls aren't allowed!
Saying hi from his bed right next to mine. Sweetest dog ever.
We took a little jaunt over to our favorite park again. The weather was pretty mild, which was nice.
Claire has specific opinions about who gets to be on the swing with her. She gesticulates wildly and makes loud proclamations if you are not the one she wants. I love how she says their names: "Na-nee!! Yaahhh! Sah-uh!!" (She never says their names quietly either, it's always yelling. Her version of Jack is so funny: "Yaaaaah!")
Those cheeks are still so delicious
Stockton took her across this super high bridge when she was a little nervous. He was very sweet and careful and she loved following him.
We had some primary Christmas bags to drop off to children in our neighborhood, and the kids were very good helpers. Stockton loves pretending to be the "package man" (Amazon prime haha).
We made some truly excellent sugar cookies with lots of eyes and an excessive amount of sprinkles. I love frosting cookies with my kids...they're so creative and funny with their ideas.
Eggnog cookies...mmmm
If you look close you can see Mar's tongue sticking out. He loves napping on Natalie's bed during the day. He was pretty worn out with the kids home from school for so many days...he's used to more quiet during the day!
Makae graduated from her cosmetology program and came to spend Christmas with us! We figured it was only appropriate that she give us haircuts.
For Christmas Eve we each got a book, and the kids got fleecy jammies. I love their sweet happy faces!
Claire got a Frozen board book, Natalie got a biography of Marie Curie (to match other bios she has in this series), Jack got an atlas, and Stockton got another Pigeon book. The girls got Frozen jammies, Stockton got Mario jammies, and Jack's were Baby Yoda.
I love celebrating Christmas Eve with a little present opening. It gives us just enough of a bridge to get to Christmas!
The onion I cut for dinner was maybe the strongest onion I've ever experienced haha. It was making me cry so bad!
We made our traditional Poppyseed cake for dessert, and the Ashdowns came over to share a ham/funeral potatoes/baked beans/rolls dinner. I'll say it again: it is the best having the Ashdowns here in Cheyenne with us!
The kids were excited to have a mini sleepover in the boys' room and they got their stations all set up with sleeping bags, couch cushions, and all of the stuffed animals in the house haha.
Claire joined the fun for about two minutes and then went to bed. We set up the computer and watched Descendants 3 together all stuffed in their room.
The kids lasted about two minutes after we put the movie away and got them officially ready to go to sleep...Natalie moved back into her room, Jack got back into his bed, and Stockton rolled around on the floor making so much noise that Austin finally put him in bed himself haha. I love that pre-Christmas excitement that kids always bring!
Austin hardly ever wants a specific gift, and if he does it's something inexpensive and practical. This year I knew he wanted a Nintendo Switch but I knew he didn't want to pay for such an expensive gift so I told him I'd get him something else. And then promptly bought a Switch in October and had to keep it secret for two months! I hate keeping present secrets, but it was a fun surprise. I gave it to him on Christmas Eve because I knew he wouldn't want the kids to know that there is a Switch in the house haha. He was so excited and started playing immediately!
The stockings were hung with care and we went to bed, excited for the morning! The kids surprised us and didn't wake up super early like we thought. It was 6:45 and they raced into our room and then raced downstairs to get Makae, and then exulted in their stockings. Stockings are my FAVORITE. I love how they look when they're all stuffed with little treasures and I love to see what prizes are inside.
Mario got a fresh bone in his stocking^^
The boys immediately got to work with their swords, of course.
The living room was quickly destroyed in a blissful mess of paper and packaging. Claire stole everyone's juices out of their stockings while they were distracted haha.
Claire LOVED her new Olaf!
Jack was excited about his new scooter with light up wheels!
Claire got a Frozen castle and brought it all around the house with her even though it's like twice her size.
Harmonica, camera, cowboy boots
Poppyseed cake for breakfast and of course, our traditional orange julius
That's all the pictures that I have, but it was such a fun Christmas. I am so glad Makae was there - she makes everything more fun, and it felt more festive to have someone else with us. Makae and I took the kids to the park and gave Austin some alone time with his Switch (who we named Homer since Austin was playing Mario Odyssey...get it?). Then Makae and I went to Wonder Woman 1984 with Annie. I love seeing movies on Christmas! We got home and had dinner with the Ashdowns again (bless them), and then Austin and Rory had their turn going to the movies. Makae and I put the kids down and then tried to watch the new Pixar movie, Soul, but we fell asleep.
The next day Makae left to visit Makenzie in Utah and Jack and Sara took her place. It was fun to have a stream of company! We got our favorite brick oven local pizza in town - Jalapeno Popper pizza...it's to DIE for- and a caesar salad and had a lovely dinner at home. The kids enjoyed their Little Caesars pizza as much as we enjoyed our fancy pizza. We put the kids down and watched the last two episodes of The Mandalorian season 2 because Jack and Sara hadn't seen those yet, and I couldn't get enough of Sara's baby yoda blanket haha.
We had Christmas part 2 and Claire took Olaf for a ride on her new popper bike.
A very fitting Jessie gift!
We always eat so well when Jack is involved...for lunch this day we had an amazing spread of cheeses with crackers, pretzels, pears, and honey. So delicious!
We love Jack and Sara! Stockton even let big Jack hold his precious fire extinguisher.
The Jacks
It was a quick visit because Jack and Sara had to get back to Omaha before a nasty snowstorm, and we were getting ready to go the opposite direction to Salt Lake. We watched Minority Report on our last night, or I should say the boys watched it and Sara and I went to bed. We taught them how to play Among Us and had fun laughing about that together, especially when Jack and I were the imposters together.
I am so grateful for these family members who make time and effort to come and spend time with us. It is always so worth it! I am so glad our children have meaningful relationships with their aunts and uncles.
We had a great Christmas break!
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