I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas break! I just got creamed by my 6 year old decided to take a little break from playing The Settlers of Catan
It seems that no matter how much I prepare, Christmas usually never does go quite as planned. Packages that were “guaranteed” to arrive by Christmas never did get here (in fact they STILL are stuck somewhere in WA) and a Christmas Eve Hazardous weather warning kept us from making the trip to town to our friends Christmas Eve Party. However, everything worked out and it was perfect just the same.
On Christmas Eve we saw that the storm was on its way so after we finished making our Starlight Cookies, I made a quick trip to town for Papa Murphy’s and a couple last minutes gifts to replace those that are still on their way… (Maybe they will arrive by Epiphany?!) I also picked up a couple
After dinner the children decided they wanted to put on a nativity play for hubby and I. It was so sweet. Rascal was St. Joseph, Twinkle Toes was Mary, Chiquita was an angel, and Captain was a shepherd as well as the innkeeper.
Before bed, the children each received our traditional Christmas Eve gift of new pajamas! Of course Snuggles preferred the box to the jammies!
Snuggles eventually got tired of playing with the box and let us put his pajamas on him so we could pray the rosary before bedtime.
I had pre-wrapped most of their gifts so it didn’t take long for hubby and I to place them under the tree, fill the stockings, decorate their rooms, and then eat the cookies that Rascal insisted on leaving out. 😉 It was a rather quiet Christmas Eve, but I can’t tell you how much we enjoyed it!!! Staying home also made it so much easier to get up and dressed for Mass in the morning. (The was weather was awful and the roads were just too icy to attempt Mass at midnight.)
As you can probably tell from the picture, by Christmas Eve our tree was not looking so good. The branches were having a hard time holding the ornaments, and for safety we only hung one strand of lights. We rarely ever get our tree before the last week of Advent, and then we usually cut it down ourselves, so it lasts well into January. At least it made it through Christmas Day, barely! Our nativity is up in a prominent place and we it will remain up for the remainder of the Christmas season… (Yes, the Wise Men are still on their way.)
To be continued… I am off to start dinner and prepare some wine. We have a nameday to celebrate!!
I stumbled by and thought i would let you know that I began the “Christmas Eve Pajama Gift” when my children were babys. Now they are 24 yrs (married with a husband of 25 yrs), 23 yrs and 16 yrs and they still get pajamas each Christmas Eve. One year I didnt, foolish mom thinking they were too old for this tradition and they never let me forget it!!
Hopefully the tradition will remain as special to yours.
You play Settlers with a six year old??? Really?! I would never have attempted such a thing. We LOVE that game! Did Regina teach you?
Your Christmas Eve looks like it was perfect. 🙂
We played with our two oldest boys today, and we had a blast! Our oldest (who is 8) has wanted the game for awhile, and so we got it for him for Christmas. They have picked right up on it!
Regina didn’t exactly teach us, but I did call and ask her a whole bunch of questions half way through our first time playing 🙂 And a couple times since!!
I love the Nativity play and your beautiful angels. We’ve never done the pajama thing. 🙁
Super fun pictures! It was a busy Christmas for us too. I miss being the kid.☺
Sounds like your Christmas Eve was relaxing and cozy 🙂 I love the pics and your stockings are so beautiful! Love the pajamas too, we also do that here 🙂
Merry Christmas!
Would love to know where in WA you live….we are in Kitsap County and survived all the snow…barely..hehe! Merry christmas to your beautiful family.
Your kids’ pajamas look just like the ones that my kids’ grandparents got for them! They’re adorable. It’s such a good tradition.
Do your kids believe in Santa Claus? Do you encourage it? Jeremy and I have differing ideas about this and I’m curious for your opinion.
Looks like a great Christmas! Hope you’re having better weather now!
My kiddos get new jammies on Christmas Eve as well. Something about singing Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas morn, wearing something new… so special!!! Looks like my sweet Punky got the same jammies as your girls. 🙂
Blessings~
J+M+J
I love that they put on a Nativity play for you, how sweet!
The Christmas Eve Pajamas IS such a fun tradition! It sounds like the girls nightgowns were popular this year!! I think little girls look so cute in nightgowns, don’t you?
I love that pajama tradition, but my kids always need warm pajamas long before Christmas, like the end of October!! (that’s MN)
Our Christmas Eve, the kids opened their Advent Angel gift from eachother. They exchanged names this year and secretly did nice things for their Angel. (my 4 year old is the only one who guessed everyone right!) They each spent $5 of their own money to buy their gifts for eachother.
This was the first year we’ve done that and it was really fun.