Christmas

I'm going to start with Christmas Eve since I won't be doing 2 posts.  Christmas Eve started off just like any other day with morning chores, feeding and watering all of the animals.  Then the rest of the day was spent cleaning up the house, relaxing watching movies with the kids and tracking Santa on Norad.  The kids helped Jamie and I separately finish up the wrapping for each other and then they carried all the presents down to put under the tree.

Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve

The kids were extremely excited this year and by bedtime they were both off the wall.  We finally got them settled down and in bed around 9:30pm.  Jamie & I then enjoyed the peace and quiet for a couple of hours and went to bed ourselves knowing the kids would be up early.

Christmas morning came with Drew waking us up at 6am.  Very unusual for him to be up that early and to be the first one up too.  Growing up, my parents always made sure that all of us were awake before any of us could come downstairs so we have decided to carry on that tradition with our kids. 

We had Drew go back to bed for a bit while Jamie got up and went downstairs to turn on the lights and to get the fire going in the fireplace and the wood stove and also turn on the Christmas music.

Finally at 6:30, Hailey woke up and we let the kids come downstairs.  It was so nice to see them so excited and of course wanting to dig right into the stockings, which they always open first.

Hailey with her stocking

Drew with his stocking

Next we opened presents but we always take turns so everyone can see what each is getting.

Drew & Hailey Christmas morning

The kids got great gifts this year.  I was very happy to see that they got just the right amount, unlike past years where we got them too many things and they lost interest in them quickly.

Hailey got a camera with a scrapbook and scrapbook supplies, American Girl outfits for her doll, some crafts supplies to make hair bows, books and lots of clothes and shoes, her favorite.

Drew got his hard drive for the xbox along with 2 games, a Patriot's sweatshirt and sweatpants.  He also got an Under Armour cinch sak for a new school bag, new sneakers and a couple of books.

Jamie got lots of hunting stuff, a new calendar and some new shirts for work and I got some new shirts, a gift card for my Kindle Fire and of course my new 2012 doxie calendar that I couldn't live without, since we have such crazy schedules with appointments and sports.

Here are some pics of the us opening our Christmas gifts.

Drew with his xbox game

Drew & Hailey with Jamie opening a gift

Hailey with her camera and scrapbook

Drew with his hard drive for his xbox - can you tell he's excited

Hailey with some of her new clothes

Drew with his new nutcracker from Gramma & Papa

Hailey with her new nutcracker from Gramma & Papa

The rest of the day was spent doing the morning and evening chores, cleaning up and putting things away, the kids playing with their new toys and Jamie going to help a friend drag a deer out of the woods.

Christmas dinner was delicious. We had venison wrapped in bacon, Honey marinated venison with sauteed onions and blue cheese, mashed potatoes, eggs noodles, asparagus and corn, a little bit of everything.

Drew, Jamie & Hailey -Christmas dinner

At dinner we did something called Highs and Lows, which is when we go around the table and say what the high of the day was and the low of the day was.  Every one of us said the high of the day was that we were thankful to be together in our house and had a wonderful Christmas spending time with each other.  I was surprised the kids didn't say presents but I really think spending 5 months apart last year and having Christmas in a hotel put this year's Christmas into perspective for all of us.  It's not about what you get for presents or how many presents but being able to be with the one's that are most important to you during the Holidays.

 

Christmas is almost here!!!

This past weekend we went out to get our tree.  We always have a real tree and thankfully found a Christmas tree farm close to us.  It didn't take long for us to find a tree and have Jamie cut it down and load it up on the car.

Once home, we put it in the stand and let it sit over night because by the time we got home we needed to do the evening chores, have dinner and finally relax for the evening.

Naked Tree

Sunday, the kids and I took out all the Christmas totes to start decorating.  Jamie was in the middle of cutting up the deer that he had gotten Friday night.  The kids were so excited to pull everything out of the boxes and look it over.  First we got the tree done, lots of lights, ornaments and of course the candy canes for the kids to eat all month.  We then went ahead and decorated the fireplace. 

I'm really excited to have a real fireplace to have a Christmas morning fire in and not just have the Yule Log on the TV while Christmas music is playing as we have done in the past years.

Christmas tree and fireplace decorated

With having the fireplace mantel space to decorate we had some room on the wine hutch to decorate. I asked the kids if they would like to put their nutcracker collection there to display.  Drew and Hailey usually get a nutcracker from Jamie's parents every year for one of their presents.

Drew & Hailey's nutcracker collection

I got all the greenery and bows up on the windows like we have in the past.  We had some extra greenery left over this year and also some new ribbon I got and made a swag for the entrance from the living room to the dining room.  I wrapped the greenery with lights and some of the ribbon and then made 3 big bows from the leftover ribbon to dress it up.  I really like it and probably will add a little more to it when I get to the store again.

Homemade swag I made

The kids also wanted to decorate our little tree from last year.

Little Christmas tree

Last Christmas was a very hard time for us.  Jamie was living in TN and the kids and I were living in MA.  We did come to TN for Christmas and school vacation to be togethor.  I was thankful last year that we could spend Christmas togethor even with it being in a hotel.  This year is much different.  The kids are really excited for Christmas to be here. The kids were even singing Christmas songs while decorating the tree togethor.  We are looking forward to having our first Christmas here in our home.  I am very thankful this Christmas that all of us are togethor under one roof and won't have to be seperated ever again.