A Northern Belle in Boots: Christmas Season 2013 -- Christmas Eve. and Christmas Day

I'm not sure if it's because I've gotten older or what, but Christmas just isn't as big of a deal anymore. It comes and goes and I'm not as thrilled by it. I mean, I enjoy the entire month of fun things to do, but Seth only has Christmas Day off of work, so it's like a break in the middle of a week and then it's right back to the same old grind. Doesn't feel much of a holiday or something. Anyone know what I mean?

Anyways, Seth worked Christmas Eve., but it was an early release day, so he was home about 4pm which was perfect enough time to get us all dressed and ready for church. I was insistent about trying to get some pictures in front of the tree before church because it would be too dark when we got back and it's so hard to get a good picture of people plus the tree when it's dark outside. It's the first year we've taken a family picture in front of the tree, but I love the idea and I'm hoping we can make time to do it in future years. And it turns out that a self-timer photo can actually work pretty well with two kiddos. (And given all the camera issues we were having this fall/winter, I'm SO grateful it decided to cooperate for Christmas! At least partly.)

Kim and David met us at church for Christmas Eve service. It was probably the strangest Christmas Eve service I've ever been to and it was a harsh reminder that we're without a church home right now. Kept comparing it to our old church... Anyways, after church, we came back to our house to eat dinner and dessert with Seth's parents. Once we're done with that, the boys go to bed and we play games and hang out. It's nice to have them to ourselves for a bit and we always love a chance to play games! We played Yahtzee this year and Kim won. Probably because she got TWO YAHTZEES. Sheesh!

Christmas was changed this year given the recent passing of Gran (and the subsequent changed choices in celebration that different family members made), and it made for a much more relaxing day, in my opinion. We started the morning at home with stockings, followed by cinnamon rolls followed by presents. (This is an idea that Seth gave us, based on his experience growing up. I can't remember what I did as a kid, but I liked how well it extended gift opening so I'm hoping we stick to it in future years.)

Stockings are filled with Usable Items. Usable Items are things that we would probably need or want to buy anyways, that they will enjoy, but are needed things like toothpaste. I don't wrap those things and since we don't teach Santa in our home, there isn't any question about who gives those things. Cinnamon rolls are because I LOVE them and it's become something we eat for breakfast on most every holiday--Fourth of July, a special day, Memorial Day, you name it! And then we have three wrapped presents for each person. This is to remind us of the three gifts Jesus received from the three wise men. We're exchanging gifts in remembrance of his birthday, so the number of gifts helps us keep focused on that reason.

Here is our Christmas morning:

The big contraption is a Wheelies ramp/coaster.

Austin went first, but I think we'll probably go in age order in future years. Graham just wasn't into it soon enough.

Carter's Underpants!

Spiderman Bandaids, socks, hat and mittens for the ski trip, etc.

Then Graham was ready to open:

I bought these adorable velcro-on-their-head hat sets for the ski trip.

I love the look of concentration I got here! Such focus!

And determination!

And then it was Georgia's turn. True to form, she was afraid of her stocking, so Austin helped.

And then Seth went. This is Austin's excitement over Seth's scratch off lottery tickets I give him each year. I don't know that he had any idea what it was, but he liked the picture on the front! (Seth won $5!)

And then we took a break for breakfast and then came back to open our presents. Somewhere in there, I got this adorably funny face from Graham. Such. A. Ham.

When we started opening gifts for real, Graham went first.

This was Graham's favorite activity all day--sitting on or in boxes.

He was pretty good at ripping the paper off, too!

The first present they opened was a tote bag with their name on it and some clothes, including matching plaid Grandpa-style jammies and tshirts with capes attached.

The second was of books and a movie.

Austin was THRILLED to get another personalized Cars book. He'd already opened his Cars 2 book from Anne Marie and Mike.

Then Georgia Mae opened her gift. I loved how this stuffed animal reminds me of a Popple. Who had one of those!? (I had the white one.)

You know what happens when I set down the camera for a minute? I'm actually captured in front of it! :-) Love this. Thanks babe!

And last they opened their "big gift." Austin got an iXL which is like a little computer with games on it.

I love the mess. I was actually sort disappointed this was such a small mess!

When we were in Atlanta, Seth bought an Emory shirt for himself. But somehow he bought a small, so I have taken it over and then bought him a Large online as a surprise.

Graham wanted to taste Seth's Dallas coffee mug. Good thing it was empty, because drinking from the wrong side wouldn't have yielded much coffee!

Seth went into the kitchen to find out how much he won on his scratch offs and Graham paraded around in his new shirt sans bottoms. SO cute! He kept walking around with Georgia's "Popple."

I got a pair of pearls as my big gift. I LOVE them.

So great, right!?

While Seth did his scratch offs, I read Austin his new Cars book (with his name inside!) and Seth caught me in front of the camera again. Note to self: put the camera down more often.

Once we were done with our gifts at home, we got ready and headed to Kim and David's house for lunch followed by presents. I had been nursing a headache all morning and decided to be on the safe side and took a migraine pill sometime before we left. It was a good thing, too, because by the time we got to their house (which is only about 30 minutes away), it was a full-on migraine. I took another pill and attempted to eat some lunch so that all that medicine wasn't on an empty stomach. The nausea made it pretty difficult, but several hours later, I was ready to celebrate again, just in time for gifts.

Before we open, we read scripture and Delaney did the honors this year. Love that sweet girl!

And once we're done with the scripture, we start with the youngest and move on up to the oldest.

The camera had stopped working and I handed it to Seth to see if he could get it working again, and low and behold, I'm in front of the camera again! :-)