Our 2022 Christmas At Home

We celebrated Christmas at home with a full day of fun on Christmas Eve.  I prayed for renewed energy and less equilibrium imbalance and God delivered graciously.  I was wide awake at 6 and had time to get ready for the day and bake our breakfast casserole before the kids got up.  Thank you, God.

Leaving milk and cookies.....

The kids opened stockings when they woke up - little Evie slept and slept and slept until I went and woke her.  Listen to her sweet voice.

balaclavas, stocking hats, stop watches, chips, and a few other treats comprised the stockings...

Natalee worked all week on a surprise for us all.  She drew several beautiful scenes depicting the Christmas story and told us the story as she showed each picture.

After stockings and Natalee's surprise, we had our breakfast.  A simple but favorite breakfast casserole of sausage, eggs, cheese, and tator tots with juice to drink.

We gobbled it up, did a quick clean up (paper plates were a Christmas gift to myself), and the kids washed up, a few changed, and we headed back to the living room.

Again this year I "coded" the presents instead of writing who they were to.  Each child had the same number of gifts but they didn't know which symbol was theirs (so they didn't overshake or pick at the paper of any!).  I found a paper the other day where they had written their guess at whose was whose (they were wrong!).  

I had them sort everything out and then told them what their symbol was.

Round we went youngest to oldest.  First they opened gifts from their sibling exchange - they drew names and everyone bought for one person with a $10-15 limit.

Natalee had Evalynn

Ameliya had Zayden (Transformer micro machines)

Zayden had Ameliya (Lil Woodzeez set)

Evalynn had Xavier and got him a dart gun rifle with a scope but I missed a photo.

Xavier had Natalee (sketch book and markers)

I was overjoyed at how they thoughtfully shopped for each other.

And then it was gifts from mom and dad - something for each kiddo in the categories of want, need, wear, and read.

We didn't take pictures of everything but sure delighted in watching our children and snapping a few photos here and there.  Zayden needed a fleece coat to wear in his car seat.

The glow city basketballs for the boys will be more exciting when the weather is nice enough to play!

A lined swim coat for Natalee.

A hopping horse for Evalynn!

A make your own Twisty Petz kit and Twisty Friendz for Mia.

Xavier really wanted an electric toothbrush that charges.

Natalee wanted fun socks and I was so excited to find these game themed socks.

And sock organizers for her!

Mike got me a robot vacuum to help me with the floors.  We call her Reta and she'll never take the place of a deep clean but she does a great job with the crumbs!

Sisters patiently waiting.

Xavier was hard for me to see from my spot on the couch so I regretfully didn't get as many pictures of him.  He got a Lego technic jeep set he'd been wanting.  Natalee is opening a Lego friends set.

I budgeted wisely and got Mike a new apple watch.  He bought his last smart watch used a couple of years ago and it no longer pairs with his phone.  He'll get so much use from this one.

I hit it out of the park by finding this Lego Harry Potter train set on deep discount for Zayden!

There were other gifts but what we got isn't as important as the fun of giving and receiving and delighting in each other's joy.

Then we did a tidy and it was time to play and play and play....

I set up an easy "make your own" pizza station for lunch and it was a huge hit.  The Greek pita breads made it super easy for me.

The face I get when I say "more pizza, less chips."

Me embracing "the mess" for the memories.

making Twisty Petz

One of the books Evalynn opened was a paint with water - her favorite!

Let's go, Reta!

A pause for devotions and to reflect on what Christmas is even about.  We finished our Jesse Tree and our Advent reading.

And then mid afternoon cinnamon rolls....Evalynn ate mine and then went and ate her daddy's.

We did a bit of a tidy, cleaned ourselves up, and went to church for Christmas Eve service.

After service we came home and had our hamburger sliders with fresh veggies before finishing up showers and getting to bed.

It was such a great day just being together.  I'm so thankful we got to celebrate our Savior's birth as a family.