Christmas #3.

For our last and final round of Christmas get-togethers (on Christmas day that is!), we headed over to David's mom's house to have Christmas with her, Marc, Jessica and little Miss Harper. It was already later in the day so everyone had already had a long day and were probably all pretty tired at this point, especially the kiddos, but we made it work and had a nice little evening filled with lots of laughs, lots of gift exchanging and a few adult cocktails for the mamas and daddies. We hung out for quite some time and didn't end the festivities until kind of late, so I was completely exhausted by the time we left. In fact, I actually was falling asleep on the car ride home! I wasn't the only one though, everyone was pretty pooped by the time we left Marcia's and thus, we all hit the sack promptly once we got home. All in all it was a wonderful Christmas day and although we were on the move to a certain extent, it ended up being a fairly relaxing day.

 

Nana got Hudson some yellow rain boots!

 

Hudson was so surprised and excited about these.

 

He insisted on putting them on immediately and has been wearing them a ton since Christmas day! He's wanted some rain boots for a while and I can never find any his size in the stores whenever I remember to look.

 

Marc and Jess helping Harper open a gift.

 

Cute little girly things!

 

Such a sweet little smile!

 

So cute!

 

Hudson thanking his Nana for his Clickstart computer.

 

David being goofy with his "gag gift."

Okay, now that's a little better!

Christmas #2

After we finished Christmas at our own house, we got ready for the day, finishing cooking some side dishes and packed the car full of gifts and goodies and headed to my parents house for Christmas lunch with my side of the family. It is always so much fun when we all get together and this year was no different. I love spending time with my family and Christmas is an especially fun time since everyone is particularly jolly and in the Christmas spirit!

My parents house still feels like home to me, you know the kind of homey feeling I'm referring to, right? Incredibly cozy, comfortable and easy going. Filled with love, laughter, open-minds and open-hearts and not to mention filled with the scents of a fabulous Christmas spread that everyone contributes to and a plethora of sweet goodies that my mom bakes every.single.year. In fact, she is so dedicated and passionate about making the day special for all of her children, grandchildren, family and friends that she literally bakes for days leading up to Christmas to make sure that there is a large variety of yummy treats to please each and every sweet tooth among us! She even bakes everything not only with love, but in mass amounts so that we can all take bags of the cookies, brownies, fudge, pralines, etc. home with us. And everything is homemade, no really, entirely homemade, not semi-homemade and not from a box. SO yummy and something we all look forward to every year.

We all exchanged gifts and laughs and had a truly enjoyable afternoon. Hudson and Landon got spoiled by everyone, even though we had drawn names as a family to exchange gifts. We are so blessed to have such a generous and thoughtful family to have gone out of their way to do something special and to get the boys gifts that they truly did not have to. As you can imagine, Hudson was beyond excited about getting more gifts and definitely loved every single one! Landon got mostly clothes, which we actually needed and are much appreciated. Overall, it was a great afternoon and everyone seemed to really have a good time! And even better, everyone was there *close* to on time or at least not excessively late for the most part, so we were able to enjoy each others company longer instead of having eat, unwrap and dash! Here's just a few pics, unfortunately we didn't take too many and always forget to take any family shots except for there are some pic of all of the grandchildren below courtesy of my dad's idea!

Trying to explain to Hudson that no, not all of the gifts are for him, ha!

 

Uncle DJ giving Hudson a gift to pass out 

 

David, Hudson and my sister Karen

 

Hudson opening gifts

 

The "grandchildren" shot....many, many tries were attempted as Hudson did not want to cooperate. See him in the left corner of the photo trying to avoid getting his picture taken??

 

Yep, David had to finally go behind Nicolas and hold Hudson up behind him to get him in the picture.

 3

Grandchildren picture = FAIL?

Just chatting...

 

Hudson and Uncle DJ clowning around as usual!

 

Just thought that this shot was cool because of the lighting.

Christmas Morning.

Christmas morning in our home is when we (David, myself and the kiddos) do our entire Christmas ritual as far as exchanging and opening gifts go. Traditionally, we normally open one gift each on Christmas Eve as a prelude to Christmas, but with being SO behind this year and having not even wrapped a single gift once Christmas Eve came around, we ended up foregoing that tradition this year, although it will definitely be back in the years to come as it is a tradition that we did in my own home and I've always wanted to carry it on in my own family as well. So, Christmas morning we woke up fairly early (not too early though) and of course were excited to see Hudson open all of his gifts and to share in the joy of Christmas as a family of four. Landon was a happy little camper that morning, so although he hadn't an inkling as to what was going on, he at least was in a good mood and definitely seemed to enjoy the festivities and most of all, staring in wonderment at the tree all decorated and lit up in all its glory!

Since David and I strongly share the belief that Christmas should be mainly about the kids and not the adults when it comes to gifts in general, we decided to only exchange modest gifts this year and not go overboard as we often times do when it comes to buying each other gifts for Christmas. Instead, we focused on getting gifts for both boys that were carefully selected because we knew that they would not only love them, but that they would be good for their development as well. Some gifts were just merely toys, while others definitely had more of a developmental purpose which made me feel even better about giving them to my children and even more so since Hudson loved all of his gifts and I know that once old enough to enjoy them, Landon will love his as well!

After exchanging gifts, we had breakfast and afterward, Hudson and David went out in the backyard to enjoy the snow a little bit before it all melted away. I stayed inside in the warmth and cuddled with Landon on the couch until time to start getting ready for our next Christmas celebration at my parents house for lunch. It was a great first Christmas as a family of four and I know that with each and every passing year it will only get better and better!

Hudson making a mad dash out of our room headed to see what Santa left for him!

 

What a cool race track....he was SO excited about this!

 

Hudson checking out the race track closer.

Vintage-esque silver roadster race car that we bought for Landon. It's for 12 months and up, but I just adore it and figured it would work perfectly as room decor in his nursery until the time comes that he can actually ride on it.

 

Checking out all the goods in his stocking.

 

Happy boy.

 

Mama and Landon - SO not good photos, but I only had like 3 hours of sleep and had not gotten ready for the day so I look a bit rough.

 

LOVE this baby boy!

 

More gift unwrapping with Hudson...

 

Hudson kindly assisting me with opening Landon's gifts too, ha!

 

I think he might be becoming a pro at this unwrapping stuff!

 

One of his favorite gifts - Tag Junior, he LOVES this thing!

 

We are laughing because this is one of the Tag Junior Books and it's called David Smells. Yeah, David didn't think it was quite as funny as we did, ha!

 

Hudson and his VTech camera. He was on cloud nine when he opened this because he has been obsessed with our cameras lately and has become quite the little blooming photographer in training!

Video games make daddy happy....he's pretty simple to please.

Taking pictures already....

 

Me opening my gift from David and poor little Landon just hanging out ready for some snuggle time! I got the sewing machine that I had been hinting about for over a year and now I just need to study up on some tutorials online and then take a class or two so that I can get to being crafty and sewing some cool things for my boys!

 

Hudson had to go try out his camera in the backyard first.

 

How do I work this thing again????

 

Say cheese!!!!

 

He had fun stomping around and exploring the snow covered yard.

 

Leaving a trail....

 

Such a cool kiddo!

Christmas Eve.

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house...not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse....

Well, that was FAR from the case at our house, but it's a nice sentiment I guess! Our Christmas Eve was actually quite the hectic one including trips out in the blistering cold weather and snowstorm to finish up our last minute shopping since we started everything oh so very late this year. Since Landon was born early in the month and between preparations for his arrival and then recovering and adjusting to our new life afterward, we just had very little, in fact virtually no time to prepare and shop for the holiday like we normally would have leading up to the big day and thus, we were scrambling until the very.last.minute to pull it all together. 

So, Christmas Eve included not only last minute shopping, but we actually didn't finish putting up the Christmas tree or what little decorations we put out in the house until the evening of Christmas Eve. Imagine that! Here we are putting ornaments on the tree on Christmas Eve, not a month before like we normally do, but rather the night before, ha! 

On top of that, we had to wrap each and every single gift not only for Hudson and Landon, but for each other and for every other person we had purchased gifts for! Oh, and then add on the extra fun of cooking for Christmas day too and it definitely suffices to say that we more than had our hands full and our work cut out for us with all that was on our plate. 

Luckily, in the end, we pulled it off and it all came together without a hitch! And not only did we have time to bake cookies to leave out for Santa, we also were able to sneak in a traditional movie viewing of The Polar Express with Hudson, which he thoroughly enjoyed! It was certainly a whirlwind of a day, but one that we were determined to make happen and to get every single task accomplished so that our Christmas day would be no less, but rather far more special than we had planned because SO much love was put into making it happen for our family and most importantly, for Hudson and Landon to have the best holiday possible. After tucking the kiddos in for the night, we finally got to work wrapping gifts into the wee hours of the morning before climbing into bed ourselves with far more than visions of sugar plums in our heads, but rather excitement for the day ahead and to see Hudson's eyes light up as he experienced the joy and innocence of Christmas yet another year. Next year it will be even more special as Landon will be able to soak the holiday in and truly enjoy the magic of Christmas. I simply can NOT wait!