We had such a wonderful Christmas. We got to spend lots of quality time with almost all of our favorite people! Three "Christmases" is A LOT though and we enjoyed the rest we all got on Sunday.
Christmas Eve night we went to my Dad's house for dinner, cookie decorating and gift opening! Gemma was completely overwhelmed to have all of her favorites in one place but also because of the cookies and presents! She emptied an entire piping bag onto her snowflake cookie and then licked all of the frosting off. By the time we got around to opening presents she was literally bouncing off the walls. Lesson learned! She flipped out over the Piggy Paint she got from my sister and asked me to paint her nails immediately! When we got home that night we put out our cookies even though Gemma was almost asleep!
Christmas morning was pure magic. She woke up around 7 and I climbed up to sit with her in bed. I told her Santa brought her a special present AND ate the cookies we left for him! She leaped out of bed and said HOW!? WHERE!? It was so great. When she opened her Leap Pad (from Santa) she could hardly believe her eyes. She just kept saying it's an iPad, it's and iPad mom. For me? SO adorable. She gave Brandon his presents and watched patiently while he opened them like and old man. I however ripped mine open four-year-old-style. We had so much fun watching Gemma enjoy it all.
Later that afternoon we went to Brandon's grandparents house for dinner and Gemma got the other thing she asked Santa for! A guitar! Then she and her Pop sang jingle bells to the entire house for 15 minutes. It was pretty dang sweet. We were really missing the big kids by this point so we called them on the way home and they were both excitedly distracted by new toys. Just how it should be.
Saturday afternoon we hosted Christmas at my house with my Mom and siblings and we all laughed way too hard and I had the best time cuddling my newest little nephew. I made chili, which I'd never done before and it turned out alright! I also made these cookies and my sister brought TWO chocolate pies! My mom showed up with a MOUNTAIN of gifts for the kiddos. Gemma got a drum set(!). She basically lost her mind and played a rock version of Let It Go for the rest of that day and well into the night. (Thanks Mom!) Cousin Joel brought his golf bag to show off and my brother was terrified of the monkey which was really the highlight of the entire afternoon!
And believe it or not these are some of the only pictures that I got! The entire weekend was a total whirlwind. It was such fun and I'm already looking forward to doing it all again... in at least a year.
We're so incredibly grateful for the blessings in our life and so overwhelmed by the love we are lucky enough to receive. We're looking forward to a new year and whatever changes it will bring.
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!
XOXO
Miranda
Christmas Eve night we went to my Dad's house for dinner, cookie decorating and gift opening! Gemma was completely overwhelmed to have all of her favorites in one place but also because of the cookies and presents! She emptied an entire piping bag onto her snowflake cookie and then licked all of the frosting off. By the time we got around to opening presents she was literally bouncing off the walls. Lesson learned! She flipped out over the Piggy Paint she got from my sister and asked me to paint her nails immediately! When we got home that night we put out our cookies even though Gemma was almost asleep!
Christmas morning was pure magic. She woke up around 7 and I climbed up to sit with her in bed. I told her Santa brought her a special present AND ate the cookies we left for him! She leaped out of bed and said HOW!? WHERE!? It was so great. When she opened her Leap Pad (from Santa) she could hardly believe her eyes. She just kept saying it's an iPad, it's and iPad mom. For me? SO adorable. She gave Brandon his presents and watched patiently while he opened them like and old man. I however ripped mine open four-year-old-style. We had so much fun watching Gemma enjoy it all.
Later that afternoon we went to Brandon's grandparents house for dinner and Gemma got the other thing she asked Santa for! A guitar! Then she and her Pop sang jingle bells to the entire house for 15 minutes. It was pretty dang sweet. We were really missing the big kids by this point so we called them on the way home and they were both excitedly distracted by new toys. Just how it should be.
Saturday afternoon we hosted Christmas at my house with my Mom and siblings and we all laughed way too hard and I had the best time cuddling my newest little nephew. I made chili, which I'd never done before and it turned out alright! I also made these cookies and my sister brought TWO chocolate pies! My mom showed up with a MOUNTAIN of gifts for the kiddos. Gemma got a drum set(!). She basically lost her mind and played a rock version of Let It Go for the rest of that day and well into the night. (Thanks Mom!) Cousin Joel brought his golf bag to show off and my brother was terrified of the monkey which was really the highlight of the entire afternoon!
And believe it or not these are some of the only pictures that I got! The entire weekend was a total whirlwind. It was such fun and I'm already looking forward to doing it all again... in at least a year.
We're so incredibly grateful for the blessings in our life and so overwhelmed by the love we are lucky enough to receive. We're looking forward to a new year and whatever changes it will bring.
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!
XOXO
Miranda
♡
ReplyDeleteWonderfully written AGAIN. I can see each event as it unfolded. Keep writing!
ReplyDelete