On Christmas Eve, my husband, Liam and I went to the Children's choir mass. Nora was still sleeping from her longer than usual nap (due to all the snow-play), so she stayed home with Greg's family. After dinner with some family, we all changed into our coordinating (and the kid's matching) jammies. I know this is a popular tradition - but I, too, love it! I got these sweet red/white striped with buffalo check accents from Mami's Little Muse shop (has tons of cute jammies for all occasions and kids clothing!).
Thank goodness the kids didn't wake up at the crack of dawn on Christmas - in fact, they slept until almost 8am! We all went downstairs together to find gifts next to the fireplace from Santa and stuffed stockings. We dug in there first and then handed out each other's gifts that were under the tree.
The rest of the day we spent lounging around in our PJs, playing with all the new toys and napping and eating lots of candy canes. It was the most lazy day ever - glorious. Later that night, more of Greg's family came over and we had a nice dinner and relaxed more!
After a few relaxing and snowy days in Omaha, we hit the road to come back home and celebrate with my family back home in Kansas City. We did it just like the real Christmas. We spent the night at my parents house and the next morning we woke up to have a Christmas-like morning.
We Skyped with my sister while we opened gifts she had sent ahead to us, and then took turns opening and playing with gifts. It was a nice mixture of clothing, toys and books for the kids + they each got super soft blankets that they immediately took too. Liam got a lot of super hero themed items this holiday - Spiderman ("Spidey" as Liam calls him) is his favorite. Her got two huge Marvel books - one is filled with different stories and one is like an encyclopedia of all the Marvel superheroes. He's spent hours meticulously looking through them. And then Star Wars was pretty big for us this year, too.
Nora loved the wrapping paper and anything her brother got (naturally...), but she was pretty excited about some baby doll stuff - like a 3 in one stroller! and musical instruments (band in a box!)
I was really excited when earlier this holiday season Liam mentioned shopping for some presents. I hadn't really thought he was quite at the age that he'd really get the giving side of the season - but it's never too early to start talking about it, so I'm so glad he had brought it up!
It's really funny - anytime he talks about getting a gift, he always says, "Mommy, do you want to go to Target?" I guess he knows me too well. We did shop a at a few other places other than just Target for Christmas, by the way. :) Anyways, Liam picked out a bracelet for Mimi (he had picked out a necklace for her birthday - and still gets so excited every time she wears it) and some Royals flare for Papa! He was really excited to give them the gifts! That might have been my favorite part of Christmas - to see him get excited about gifts to give other people...
After gift exchanging - the kids played while my dad whipped up breakfast. He really makes the best - eggs, turkey bacon, pancakes, toast and cinnamon roles! It was perfect. The kids cuddled up in their new blankets and spent the rest of the morning grazing on brunch and watching holiday specials. Another relaxing day - which was lovely.
And there you have it! After our two Christmases then began a whole week off work with the kids also off school - spending it together! Oh the ups and downs we had... but had fun meeting up with friends around KC, having playdates and spending quality time together.
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas or two, or three! And hey - HAPPY NEW YEAR to you!