First Christmas in the New House*

**I’m cross posting this from Prosebox so I apologize that the pictures are HUGE.  Since PB resizes the images, it’s not an issue over there, but apparently it is here.  SORRY.  But at least you can see the pictures really good! LOL!**

 
**EDIT 2:  Ok so I’m going to take the big pics down on this entry.  Too big to read and most of you have already seen them now.

Also, I decided to make my main Prosebox book Friends Only, which is why some of you couldn’t see it.  I either accidentally missed adding you the first time (sorry!) or you haven’t told me your new name.  I’ll add an entry over there where you can request to be Friends Only.  Hope that helps!

I can’t believe Christmas is already over! It was definitely a whirlwind this year, although the time leading up to it was just about right. I was much more into the "Christmas Spirit" this year, decorating just a couple days before Thanksgiving and feeling more ready for everything (other than the usual last minute gifts). Being settled into our new home this year made it much more fun to get everything out. We spent a lot of cozy wintery afternoons inside, doing Christmas baking, watching movies, and listening to Christmas music and all of those things I had DREAMED about when we were in the chaos of last year, still in the building process and me in the newborn fog and just completely overwhelmed. What a difference a year makes! I also loved the evenings, when we could turn on all of our Christmas strands and the whole house was filled with the warm glow of twinkling lights. I’m going to leave all of our stuff up until after our New Years Eve party so at least I can enjoy it for another week. I’m going to miss it when it’s all gone!

I’ll go through the days (as I do every year–it’s so much fun to read back on and I’ve been doing a little back reading of years past this morning already) and throw in some house pictures while I’m at it!

Christmas "Eve-Eve", the 23rd, Nathan went down to the city for the day to do some last minute shopping, and I stayed home with the boys. I straightened up the house and baked some banana bread but otherwise lounged with the boys on the couch all day. I loved it, and it was a perfect lazy day. The sun was shining but it was again TWENTY BELOW ZERO outside, so it was a good day to stay indoors. I introduced Wesley to the movie Home Alone which I haven’t seen in YEARS. Jasper was taking a nap so I cuddled on the couch with Wes and we laughed our butts off. Then we watched part of The Polar Express but Nathan came home, Jasper woke up, and it was time to get ready to go see the cousins. My brother in law, Troy, and my father in law stopped by first with some of the kids, so we had a little "Happy Hour" while the kids played. Nathan mixed me a Disoronno and Diet Coke (sooo good) and it was fun to hang out with the men of my family for awhile! After that we headed over to my in-laws house for supper. MIL made spaghetti and the kids had some fun playing and getting rowdy as usual!

After supper Troy and Elise put their kids to bed and we headed home. There was some talk about going out for drinks with them, but Nathan and I were EXHAUSTED. We passed and decided to stay in after our kids were in bed and we ended up taking a bath (well, this time Nathan did and I just sat on the side and stuck my feet in and we watched TV for awhile) and went to bed.

Christmas Eve Day, the 24th, Nathan took Wesley to my in-laws first thing in the morning to play with his cousins for the day so I could focus on getting things ready for our Christmas Day dinner, which we were hosting at our new house for my side of the family the following day. I couldn’t get much done with Jasper around opening cupboards and pulling all the ornaments off the tree, so eventually Nathan came back and picked him up as well. As much as I wanted to hang out with my boys, I still had SO much to do and having them in the way just wasn’t working! I still had to make two pumpkin pies and put together the ingredients for my crock pot green bean casserole, plus clean out the fridge in anticipation for leftovers. I actually had a really nice afternoon, baking and organizing while the snow fell softly outside the window. I turned on a little Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and got almost everything done. Eventually Nathan came home with the kids so we could give Grandma and Grandpa a break and so we could get ready for church. I still had to get myself dressed and the boys dressed and iron shirts etc. Things got a little hectic for awhile. Wesley was being naughty and a typical three-year-old and was definitely trying my patience for awhile, but eventually we got everyone dressed and ready to head out the door at a quarter to five. Every year, we always go to mass on Christmas Eve with my parents. I just read and refreshed my memory that last year the kids were sick so I only took Jasper, but this year we had both kids and it was hilariously a disaster, in which the kids did.not.stop.moving the entire service, I had to take Wesley out to go to the bathroom and Jasper out when he accidentally bonked his head on the pew and started crying. Wesley kept saying he was SO HUNGRY and then he ate all the marshmallows my mom brought in their "church bag" of distractions. We were quite entertaining to the people directly behind us, that’s for sure!

Still, my boys were ADORBS in their matching formal wear! 🙂

After church we headed out to my in-laws for Christmas Eve Dinner (my parents go to a quiet dinner at my grandparent’s house in town; since they all come to our house on Christmas Day–we are lucky that everything just works out like that!)… we have Lutefisk and Swedish meatballs and potatoes and SO MUCH AMAZING FOOD that it’s hard to even button your pants when you’re done.

Santa came around 7:45 and the kids were so excited! How we usually do it is my FIL will go outside to "feed the reindeer" and toss out corn on the snow while the kids watch. And then eventually he will start waving and pointing and here comes "Santa" from deep in the woods. (This year we had a local friend of Nathan’s do it… they set it up ahead of time so he literally does come from out of nowhere in the dark woods) and he did a really great job. He has a bag of presents that usually includes the Christmas jammies for all the kids and books and even a little something for each of the adults.

After Santa leaves, then we have our annual party game of Christmas swap or whatever it’s called where we roll dice and eve-laws until about 9:30 or 10 and then brought the kids home. They were pretty exhausted so they went to bed fairly easily, and Nathan and I did a few more last minute gift wrapping and house cleaning before bed. I ended up staying up way too late going through old Christmas pictures!

Christmas morning the 25th, we head back to my in-laws for gift opening with the kids. This year our boys woke up around 7:30 a.m. and we let them each open one gift before we left. We had already loaded most of them in the car the night before so we told them that Santa knew we were going over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house so he just put them in there for us. Wesley opened his Legos and Jasper got a bouncy ball.

Then it was off to Grandma and Grandpa’s house!

I definitely lucked out–I truly love my in-laws!

After all the gifts were opened and things settled down, we loaded up the car and headed back for Christmas Day Dinner at OUR house with my side of the family. We had almost everything ready but I was still scrambling around until just about the last minute.

I set the table for the first time since we moved in!

 
We had ham, twice baked potatoes, grape and broccoli salad, green bean casserole, dinner rolls, and pumpkin pie for dessert.

Wesley and his cousin Mya and OMG DO I WANT ANOTHER BABY!???

And how cute are my parents? My dad is smitten with his first granddaughter. 🙂

Our livingroom was made for present opening chaos… I LOVE it.

And then you may have seen the videos on Instagram of our new Step 2 Rollercoaster, the kids loved it!

After my brother, grandparents and parents left, we had a little "downtime" just as a family where we hung out in the livingroom surrounded by the chaos and opened presents and just relaxed. We had invited everyone from Nathan’s family back out for leftovers and supper and games, but for awhile it was nice to unwind just the four of us. Nathan told Wesley a "secret" and suddenly he goes into our bedroom and comes out with ONE last gift from Nathan… for ME! It was the Bose SoundLink Mini! I had asked for it in passing a couple times but mostly kind of joking because we had told each other we weren’t getting anything for us and focusing on the kids, but as usual, we both still went out and got something for each other (I got him a Keurig)… So we played with that for awhile and listened to music and had a great time.

After that, Jodi, Jean, Elise, Troy, Amy and the kids came out and we played Rollick (look it up on Amazon–Such a fun game!) and we laughed so hard. I really want to play it on New Years Eve so I wanted to test it out to see how it was played and if I would change anything. It was easy enough for Kajsa to play yet fun for all ages.

WHEW… am I done yet? I didn’t know I would be so detailed but today (the day after Christmas) Wesley is with his cousins again and Jasper is napping, but they will all be out here shortly to play again. So I better sign off and save this entry while I still can…

Overall it was an amazing and blessed Christmas. I love being with family even though there are stressful times here and there. We truly have so much to be thankful for this year and I’m so looking forward to 2014!