Is February really almost over?

So Christmas was a really long time ago. Do you remember it? I am a little behind here, with everything that has been going on. But I do remember Christmas and I loved it, so I wanted to post about it even though it seems like it was another lifetime ago.

Christmas, of course, is more than one event. In fact, it started at the beginning of December and kept right on going!

We left on vacation the week after Christmas, so I decided to put up the tree earlier than I usual do because we were going to take it down right after the big day. I love our tree every year and I have tons of ornaments that I have received as gifts or bought on vacation. Each one means something to me and I have so much fun putting them up each year and remembering when and where I got them. Emma and Ellie really enjoyed helping me this year and it was fun to share it with them.

They were actually pretty careful, although by the time all the decorations were put away, a couple things had been broken. Oh well.

We celebrated St. Nick's Day for the first time this year, too. The girls liked it, of course. What's not to like about candy and stickers in your shoe when you wake up in the morning?

We all attending Santa Breakfast at Visitation again this year. As usual, it was a wonderful time. Unfortunately, I didn't really get any good pictures. This is about as good as I could do...

The girls loved the breakfast part, but HATED Santa Claus. We had practiced telling Santa what we wanted for Christmas, but as soon as we got close enough to him to see him, both girls cried...really hard. Once we left the room again, Ellie was finally brave enough to say what she wanted for Christmas and said "toys" over and over again.

I have a picture with Santa...somewhere. I can't seem to find it on my computer right now. Imagine Santa and two little girls screaming. you have probably seen a picture like that at some point...you aren't missing much.

The next big event in our Christmas extravaganza was the Cookie Bake. For about 5 years or so now, we have had a Cookie Bake at my mom's house a week or so prior to Christmas. My sisters, mom, aunt, cousins, and kids all come to my mom's house and we make A LOT of cookies for a full day. It usually gets pretty chaotic and is a ton of fun. This year we changed things up a little to make the actual cookie making part a little less confusing. In the morning, it was only adults and older kids who actually wanted to make cookies. And we did make a lot of cookies.

This is my neice, Olivia. She is six. And she is really good at rolling Christmas cookies. She worked diligently all day, even after burning her fingers pretty badly on a cookie sheet. See her hand in the glass of ice water? Didn't faze her - she just baked one-handed the rest of the day.

In the afternoon, the kids arrived. There are a lot of young kids in our family. When all are present we have 14 children, 10 are 6 or under. On this day, I think we had about 11 or so. Tommy and my cousin John spent the morning making gingerbread houses for the kids.

And then when the kids arrived, they got to decorate them with candy and frosting. I am sure there was plenty of tasting, too.






Then, it was finally Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we went to my mom's house. After opening presents with our immediate family and taking a nap, our extended family came over. It was busy, loud and a lot of fun.

My uncle Raymond read the Christmas story to everyone.

Then we all got red stickers to put on our noses and sang "Rudolph" and a few other songs.


Finally, Santa came...and all the kids were beyond excited.

Christmas morning was a much quieter affair, with just the 4 of us at home. It was wonderful, though. The girls understood a lot more this year than last and they were thrilled that Santa had come.

We opened presents and then got to play with them. We enjoyed a lazy morning. It was great.

In the afternoon, Andy's family came over for sledding, Christmas dinner and opening some more gifts. It was a busy and wonderful Christmas. We are so blessed.