Christmas Celebrations

We have it pretty easy when it comes to seeing family and celebrating over the holidays - one of the many blessings of being back in Austin where everyone but Kyle's dad lives. And we sort of have a Christmas routine that seems to actually make everyone happy, which is a nice perk. Here we are at my mom's Christmas Eve. We've already been to church (which was crazy because all the kids were with their families), and now we're enjoying her annual Christmas solo before we eat stew and open a few Christmas Eve presents. She performed beautifully.

While the adults ate, Mom put on one of those old Christmas cartoon videos that run on prime time every once in a while during the season - I think this was was Frosty the Snowman. It was like Rebecca had never seen a tv, or a cartoon snowman, or something before. She stood exactly like she is in this picture for probably ten minutes (no exaggeration). She was frozen. Just like Frosty.

Then she sat down. It probably corresponded with when Frosty started melting.

Here is the whole crew...can you tell I ran to get into the photo? That's me, Bee with Rebecca, Sid in the back, Kyle holding Owen, my brother Alex with Deidre, and Sid's sister Marilyn down front.

When we got home and got the kids in bed Kyle and I started what seemed like the all-too-adult task of putting together toys and prepping food and straightening up the house. Kyle worked heartily, like a well-trained Elf, but it still took several hours to get Rebecca's toy kitchen put together. 

We finally told the kids about Baby June on Christmas morning. They each had a rubber ducky in their stocking. Owen's said "Big Big Brother Owen" and Rebecca's said "Big Sister Rebecca". It didn't take Owen long to figure it out. He was excited, but then we went right back to the toys. Pretty much like we expected. We caught it on video, but it may be too long to post...I'll see. 

Is this seriously the only picture I took that morning??? Bad Momma. Owen loved his crash track, hungry hungry hippos and checkers, and Rebecca just loved running around in (and helping create) the chaos of passing out and opening presents. She didn't seem to care what was in anything, just wanted to pass boxes around and rip paper. It was, of course, fun having Bee and JoJo come over to enjoy the early morning chaos with us. (The kids actually didn't get up until like 8 or something - which never happens here. We consider that a small Christmas Miracle!)

Then we moved on to part 3 of our Christmas Celebration - with Franny and the Mukes at their house. I didn't do much better taking pictures there either...

Here is Franny with her Christmas photo of "Gen 2" - Rebecca and Blake. It pretty closely matches photos we had taken of Owen and Bailey last year.

So happy!

Jesus' Birthday Cake v 2.0.

Trying to get all the kids in a photo - thought the piggy bag pose might keep them entertained.

Again, seriously can't believe there will be 5, possibly 6???, kids on this couch next Christmas.

We spent the rest of the day in our pajamas. All the kids but Owen took a nap and we adults even managed to watch a movie! 

The next morning we went to my Dad's for our final celebration. I think he took all the pictures - but he won't share them with me. Boo. The kids actually spent the night with them that night and Kyle and I had a non-Christmas date night. So nice. And then back to work and normal life. But we really can't complain. 

I forgot to mention that we actually had a 5th Christmas celebration the night before Christmas Eve (so technically #1) with the Mukes, Fosheas and Murrays. Great food, great fellowship, and a huge pile of leaves for the kids to romp around in in the back yard. It was just about perfect. 

*I should mention (so I remember how crazy life was with little ones, someday when I've glossed over it in my memory) that our decision to NOT have a real, normal-sized Christmas tree was the best decision. Part of it was just trying to keep things as simple as possible this year - especially with my just having come out of the first trimester hibernation fog. But mostly it was because we knew that with Rebecca's climbing, curious, rambunctious self it would be a constant battle to keep her out of and off of the tree. We had a little fake one, about two feet tall (on top of a tall bookshelf, out of reach of little hands) that had our favorite ornaments on it. And to be honest, I didn't miss the real thing. Or the mess. Maybe the smell, but I think they have candles for that - although that would be dangerous too! So, anyways, call me Scrooge, but we had a great Christmas even without the tree. 

And speaking of Rebecca getting into things - we had a little tray of kisses by the front door that once she discovered, it was hard to keep her out of. They didn't last there very long. I would find her with foil at her feet and chocolate all over her face and hands. She started out not even unwrapping them, just biting in, then she figured out the unwrapping part. She was caught red-handed one time and she looked at me, through the foil and the chocolate back into the dish and ran as fast as she could away from me. Stinker.

*The other thing I want to mention (for my memory) about this Christmas is about our minimalistic, but definite, inclusion of Santa Clause. Owen had pretty much already figured out he was pretend, which we were fine with because we felt really uncomfortable lying to him. But he really enjoying "pretending" and playing along with the "game people play at Christmas". It was his decision to leave him chocolate milk and crackers. We had a good time with it, and I think we managed to do it without taking away from the true story of Christmas - which he knows is true and really happened. Much weight off my shoulders...

Merry (belated) Christmas!