Christmas In July

We did have Christmas in December 2009. You wouldn't know it from reading our blog.

So...

I decided to celebrate Christmas in July on our blog so that I will have it documented before I forget too much more of it!

This is my favorite picture from Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve at our home. We made Christmas chili with my side of the family. After dinner, we did what we always do...read the Christmas story from the Bible and sang Christmas hymns. For as long as I remember, my family has always done this. My Mom has a binder that she must have made at some Homemaking activity back in the day that has the Bible story along with pictures and songs.

After the last song was sung, we had the kids open their 1 Christmas Eve gift...

yes, pajamas.

After everyone left, Jon and I put the kids to bed and the real work began!

We stayed up until the early hours of the morning putting bikes together, wrapping gifts and stuffing stockings.

Christmas morning was so much fun. This year was the first year that we had Christmas with just our little family.

The kids were kind to us and slept in until 8.

Jon and I ran downstairs ahead of the kids so that we could record their faces.

I L.O.V.E. Christmas morning faces.

They were so cute. They seemed to be more excited about what the other had gotten.

Beckham yelled, "Chloe! Look! A new stroller for your baby!"

Chloe yelled, "Look, Beck! An orange bike for you! Orange is your color!"

After all of that work, it took them about 12 1/2 minutes to open everything.

I now realize why my parents seemed kind of sad after all of the gifts were opened when I was growing up.

(When we were older, my Mom even tried dragging Christmas morning present opening by: color coding gifts OR each kid opening 1 gift at a time OR forcing each kid to not only acknowledge a sibling's new gift but also forcing each kid to make a comment about the new gift...although these strategies worked, it also put a damper on the whole ripping into your stash idea...)

Where's Jasper???

Uncle Oscar and Auntie Meghan gave us the Elf on the Shelf book and doll. We named our elf Jasper. He was hiding in a new place every morning of December and watched over us and took note of who was naughty and who was nice. The kid's were so aware of Jasper all month. They would look right at him as they passed by and would put the biggest smiles on their faces. They didn't want to risk Jasper telling Santa Claus that they were bad! They were so well behaved with him around that I considered inviting Jasper to stick around all year...

The kids gathered their favorite gifts and we went over to my parent's house for breakfast.

We played Rock Band, watched movies, called all of our long-distance relatives and ate.

New Years Eve

With a big family, conflicts of scheduling happen regularly. My brother, Weston, entered Basic Training for the Air Force in October. He was able to come home for a couple of weeks and New Years Eve was the only time that all of my siblings could get together...and we only had a 3-hour window. So, we decided to meet up to go bowling.

We brought all of our secret Santa gifts and did the exchange while we bowled, ate and talked. It was so much fun.

After bowling, my Mom went to work and everyone else came to our home for some more Rock Band and food. We had some friends come over and we just hung out until midnight.

Family pictures

When I was about 33 weeks pregnant with Ava, I asked my sister-in-law, Meghan, to do a maternity/family shoot before I got much bigger.

She was sweet enough to agree and I love how they turned out.

Once again...I am so grateful for the gift of photography and that our family of 4 1/2 was captured before Miss Ava decided to show up a month early!

Thank you so much Meghan!

Here are a few of my favorites...

Here Comes Santa Claus

Our Christmas season would not be complete without a visit with Santa Claus. Chloe was a little bit nervous of him this year. Beckham was so excited to meet him. As soon as they approached him, Santa called them both by their names. They were both so impressed that he knew their names!

Whew!

I feel much better!

Now I have less than 6 months before I do this all over again!

Happy New Year!