Christmas Weekend

Where to even begin?  Whew!  What a weekend!  I guess I’ll just go ahead and dive on in!

Friday was my last day of work, but the boss let us off a couple of hours early, so I ran one last errand and then headed straight home to get the last couple of gifts wrapped while Brian and Jacob baked homemade chocolate chip cookies. 

That evening we watched The Grinch (the Jim Carrey version) and the kids loved it.  Both of them kept saying that The Grinch was scary, but neither of them wanted us to turn it off.  Haha.  After the kiddos went to bed, B and I watched Christmas with the Kranks since we had never seen it.  That part where he gets botox about killed me.  I could not stop laughing.

Christmas Eve morning was spent baking and cooking… I made mashed potatoes and a chocolate chip bundt cake for Christmas Eve dinner at my parents’ and I also had to prepare for Christmas breakfast the next morning. 

We headed to the 4 o’clock children’s mass at church, and the kids were both little angels even though they had to sit there a little longer than usual.  The church was decorated beautifully… this picture below just doesn’t even do it justice.  After mass, we let the kids walk up to the front to see the nativity, and then it was time to head home.

At home we changed and rounded up all of the food and gifts for the celebration with my family, and then we headed over to my parents’ house for my favorite four hours of the whole year. 

We drank, we feasted on all of our Christmas Eve favorites – ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato soufflé, green beans, corn casserole – and we spent the evening chatting and laughing and having a great time.  After dinner was cleaned up, we sat down to open gifts, and man, were there a ton of them!  Halfway through gift opening, several of our other family members dropped in to say hello – my grandmother, aunt, uncle, and two cousins, and they stayed and hung out for a while.  They had yet to see my new nephew, so they wanted to stop in for a little bit to visit.  And boy, did he have a great first Christmas!!  He was so stinking cute and jolly!

Later in the evening, we turned on Home Alone as we always do, and we broke out the dessert and coffee.  The kids were still going strong at that point, but we scooped them up and got them in their jammies around 10:30, and then it was time to head home so Santa could visit.

When we got home, we sprinkled the reindeer food on the lawn, left Santa some cookies and milk, and then it was up to bed for the babies… but not before giving each other a sweet Christmas Eve hug.  Oh, I just love these two so much.

The fun had only just begun for B and me at that point, so we grabbed some more cookies (you know… for energy!  Hehe.) and turned on Serendipity as we got to work.  We finally fell into bed around 1:45 AM and it was a short and sweet sleep as Jacob got us up around 7.  We laid there for a bit longer, and then it was time to head downstairs to see what Santa brought.

The next couple of hours were a blur of gift opening, laughing, preparing for breakfast, and marveling over the kids and their pure Christmas morning joy.  Both kids were very happy with their gifts – Jacob got his Nerf guns and Legos and super heroes, and Olivia got… a whole lot of princess stuff.  Haha.  What else?

Brian’s dad and my parents and brother all came over around 10 to have breakfast and see what the kids had received from Santa.  I had made a breakfast casserole and a cinnamon braid, and then we had some fresh fruit and DD Munchkins.  You can’t go wrong with those!

After brunch, we cleaned up and then opened our stockings from my parents.  Look at the ornament that my mom and dad got for me!!  A glass ornament with my blog logo and a Starbucks red cup.  She knows me so well!

After the grandparents all left, we let the kids play with their toys some more, and then it was time for Olivia to nap.  While Olivia napped, B and J started working on his Lego Millennium Falcon and I… took a nap on the couch with Maui!!!!  And it was gloooorious!  I never take naps, y’all, so this was quite a treat.  The house was a wreck and gift wrap was everywhere, but Christmas music was playing softly and I had a full belly, so I decided to let it slide and just rest.  And I’m so glad I did!

After nap time, it was time to bake yet another casserole, get ready, and then head to my aunt and uncle’s house for Christmas evening dinner with my mom’s entire side of the family.  We drank (more), ate (more), laughed (more), and it was another great evening.  On a side note, look at that black and white tile floor!!!!  I need one of those in my life... it's such a great blogger floor!  Y'all know we're always looking for cool floors and mural walls to take pictures against.  Haha.

The day after Christmas we stayed in our PJs all day.  The kids played with all of their new toys and I cleaned out all of their old toys.  Around 5 we decided that we should probably get the kids out of the house for a bit, so we took them to the playground to burn off some energy, and then we stopped by our favorite Mexican place for margaritas and tacos for dinner.  We finished the day with three episodes of GG and then it was off to bed.

Tuesday we started the day with leftover cake for breakfast, and then we took the kids to see Moana.  It was Olivia’s first movie at a movie theater and she did great!  She was completely enamored for the first hour or so, but then when the scary parts started she was a bit upset.  I tried to cover her eyes, but she still wanted to look, so she ended up watching the entire thing.  She seemed a bit traumatized when it was over, but she made a quick recovery.

We spent the rest of the day having lunch at Jason’s Deli, and then just hanging out at home.  It was a wonderful, wonderful four-day weekend and we can’t wait to do it again next weekend!  I’m working today, but then I’m off Thursday – Monday to do Christmas with B's family, so it’s going to be an even longer long weekend coming up!

Happy hump day, friends!

*Linking up with Jessi's Design and Going the Distance for What's Hap-"Pinning" Wednesday.