This year Christmas fell on Sunday. Alot of people said how special it was to have it fall on a Sunday but honestly, Sundays are so stressful that it's just survival mode for the Sacrament.
Lilah loves to take a picture of Grandma and Doug's missionary picture on the wall. It's so cute!
Every year, grandma gets the kids books for Christmas. The kids enjoyed playing with their new books.
Mike usually dresses Annie on Sundays as I am not the earliest of risers. He even remembers the bow most days.
I managed to snap a quick family picture of us. 9am church has been so hard for me. I am not an early morning person and Tuesday-Friday I have to wake Lilah up for her van ride because she leaves at 0645. I work Saturday and Monday and have to be up at 5am which leaves Sunday as my only day to get sleep but with 9am church that hasn't happened. I am proud of myself for making it to church all year long. It was definitely thanks to Mike because I wouldn't even set an alarm half the time.
Since we didn't get to open presents before church, we got home, slipped into our jammies, and opened presents.
This was my Christmas present this year. I am excited to use it. Not sure when I'll ever have a day off with Mike so I could use it but hopefully we'll work something out before the end of the year.
The kids got playdoh, activities, games, and clothes this year. They have SO MANY toys it's hard to buy more stuff. They have been playing with their new games all week.
I didn't really think of Christmas dinner this year but I did but some extra veggies. I whipped up some yummy dinner though. We usually don't eat this* fancy.
Bacon brussel sprouts, green beans, corn, rice, and crusted tilapia.
Everyone loved it.
So yummy! and it was made in like 30 minutes which made it even better.
The kids love taking baths together. I love that they're still young enough to do this.
They always make the biggest mess. We even had to replace our baseboards in the bathroom. Those stinkers.
Annie loves that she can be part of the crew now.
Mike tried to have Annie walk and she refused. She just dragged her feet, haha! She only army crawls and refuses to use her knees. She sure gets everywhere though.
We hardly ever eat out because it's stressful, alot of work, and very expensive with inflation right now. But, the other day I thought it'd be fun to go to a restaurant. I told the kids that we needed to act FANCY. They did pretty well. The waiter could not bring our receipt fast enough when it was time to go though.
We also took Christmas down the very next day. I needed Mike to help me bring down the bins and we happened to have a day off together. Now that I am not working at the hospital, I got to take the Holidays off and I had a wonderful 3 weeks. I get very easily overwhelmed with a lot of clutter so taking down Christmas this year felt so good. It's interesting though because I love Christmas but maybe having the kids home for three weeks, by myself, it's just a lot. I think the kids enjoyed themselves. At least I hope they did. Because a lot of the Christmas magic-making falls on my shoulders.
I love a clean house so much. I love when the kids play and make messes. Those messes I do love. But most of the time Lilah just goes and dumps every single bin on the floor and tapes every toy together and shreds papers to look like confetti and that's when I get overwhelmed. I let them play all they want in their rooms and toy room but I love having at least one room organized and clean in my home and that's usually the living room and kitchen. Especially since I spend most of my day in the kitchen.
Like I said, I LOVE watching them play when they're actually playing with their toys. Lilah used to destroy every toy. I feel like she's been learning from David how to actually play with toys. It's so nice! Look at this awesome Zoo the kids made!
And with all of the medical shows we watch, Lilah made a little triage room. Haha! So cute!
And then she said she made a hospital. Cutest hospital I've ever seen!
Overall it was a pretty laid-back Christmas. I took all of the pressure off myself and just enjoyed my people. Most outings feel very stressful because the kids just fight and want to run off when there are a lot of people around. So, staying home felt so good. Home is my favorite place to be anyway.
