This has been a CRAZY week for us trying to cram all of our holiday prep into such a short period of time!
Let's start at the beginning:
Here are the Christmas goodie bags we put together for all of the girls' classmates...
(a chocolate Santa, a pencil, a puzzle eraser, and a candy cane.)
(I personally felt REALLY good about this! I put together over 30 of these for about $16.)
Not pictured: Personalized religious teacher's ornaments. Thank you Bronner's for having an entire section of these!
Charley Bell putting together a pan of Rolo Turtles:
(Don't mind that foot!)
(Sadly, I didn't have time to make any of my traditional Christmas cookies this year.
Trying not to beat myself up too much over that.)
Decorating our WAY too short tree:
(It looked much taller at the lot!)
(Don't mind Kid's hair wrap + antlers...
we had to try and squeeze this in on a school night after her shower.)
(We could only fit about1/2 our ornaments.... Oh well, clean up will be a breeze.)
Last minute attempt at a Christmas Card photo...
(Still haven't gotten around to that... maybe New Year's cards this year)
Santa lists:
(Good luck trying to find a Chinese doll made of china 2 days before Christmas!)
(Note to self: next year demand they write to Santa sooner.)
(Turns out only having two things is harder...)
(thankfully Santa was a good guesser)
Christmas Eve eve I finally got the house cleaned up and fulfilled Baby's wish to string up Popcorn & Cranberry garland...
(I attempted this one year before kids when I still lived in NYC...
and I remember that it was actually an EXTREMELY frustrating process.)
(P.S. I didn't have high hopes going into this one)
(Turns out Kid LOVED it.)
(She made them for 2 straight days and proclaimed it her new personal Christmas tradition)
Failed attempt to show you that on Christmas Eve afternoon it started SNOWING!!!! ...
(We were all so excited that we ended up with a White Christmas!)
The girls after the Children's service on Christmas Eve...
(Baby was in a Mexican Dance celebrating Christmas traditions from around the world.)
(She did great! So proud of her for her performance abilities.)
After the service we got to enjoy the luminaries lining every street in our little village...
(Such a beautiful tradition, made all the better with the addition of a snowy backdrop!)
Unfortunately all that snow made for a treacherous and long drive out for our Christmas eve dinner! We finally made it home right before Santa hit our house...
(Phew! That was a close one! Got them in their beds at midnight.)
(Kid was FREAKING OUT that he wouldn't come if they were still up.)
Turns out that tracker isn't totally accurate, by my clock Santa wasn't done at our house
until 2:30 AM...
(Santa may have been whimpering in my bed at 12:30 desperately wanting a nap
while waiting for the kids to be sound asleep)
Proof that Santa was here...
(Apparently the reindeer don't like the carrot tops.)
Might have been the happiest Christmas Morning to date...
(Possibly our last with 100% believing children and I am grateful for it!)
(Although I will be happy for the extra sleep non-believing children allow)
Adorable Nativity that Kid made me for Christmas...
Mr F modeling his men's nightgown...
(Believe it or not Mr F wore a nightshirt just like this when we were first dating.)
(Yep, I've never let him live that one down.)
(But look at his blurry face... he LOVES it.)
(And now we have daily fodder for mocking him. It's a Win-Win!)
Mr. F ended up giving me the best gift he's ever given me. I actually cried. After the year when he gave me a giant blue zip up fleece bag robe thing with foot holes (monogrammed, no less), I've REALLY lowered my expectations. This year, seeing how hard it was for me to find something nice to wear to all of Baby's performances and Christmas parties (especially since I won't buy myself anything over $10... and I haven't worked out in 6 months so nothing fits) he gave me a black velvet dress, a sparkly cardigan, a dressy scarf, and an evening purse.... so that I'd always have something I could throw together. I was very surprised!
That's all folks!
We wish you a Very Merry Christmas from our house to yours!
With Love,
The Furious Family
