The Dudley Four: Family Christmas

On Christmas Eve we made sugar cookies while Little Bud was taking his nap (he decided to cut 2 molars over Christmas - and teething does not bring out his finer qualities). We went over to John's parents' house for a few hours Christmas Eve afternoon to celebrate with John's immediate family. When we came home, we finished our last Advent reading, read the last chapter in the little bear Advent book, added the last ornament to the Jesse Tree and the kids opened their last "calendar box" (as Big Sister calls her Advent Calendar). Big Sister also decided that we should relight our candles from the Christmas service at church and sing to Jesus. She asked us to light the candles in our Advent wreath, light the candles from church and take them to the window to sing, "Silent Night". It was a sweet family moment, and I'm sure will continue this tradition on Christmas Eve in the future.

After the kids were tucked quietly into bed, we remembered that Big Sister forgot to put out cookies and milk for Santa (she had mentioned doing this early when we made cookies). So, we got her back up to pick out which cookies she wanted to leave and which cup she wanted the milk to go in. Once we put the cookies and milk on the fireplace, Big Sister quickly went back to bed and was soon sound asleep.

When we were certain she was asleep, John and I snuck back in and completed "Operation Small World Room Makeover" (John had put the nails in the wall earlier in the day, so we just had to hang everything up, put her new dolls on their shelf, add the cover and pillows that Grammie made to her ikea chair, and put her new comforter on her bed). She woke up around 10 to go to the bathroom, and was so tired that she didn't notice anything different about her room. The next morning, she woke up around 6:15 (she told John the night before that she was going to try to wake up a little early to see what Santa brought her). Right when she woke up she let out a little scream and then came scurrying into our room. She snuggled with us for a few minutes and told us that she saw a scary shadow in her room when she woke up (which is why she screamed). Then, her face lit up and she said, maybe her room had turned into It's a Small World because now that she thought about it, the scary shadow looked kind of like the sun on the ride at Disney (after she got her Small World dolls from several different family members, we watched a YouTube clip of the ride, and she told us it would be very cool to have a Small World room). She ran back into her room to investigate, and was super excited to see the transformation! She couldn't believe we had put everything up while she was sleeping! Oh the magic of Christmas!!

Little Bud slept in, so John, Big Sister and I opened our stockings before he woke up. Big Sister helped John wrap the gifts for my stocking, and she was so excited for me to open everything that she insisted I open my stocking first. So sweet!!

Once Little Bud was awake, he opened his stocking (with Big Sister's help of course), and both kids opened their gifts from Santa. Big Sister was doubtful that Santa would bring her the binoculars she wanted, because she had been too shy to ask him when she saw him on the North Pole Express. She was so excited that he magically knew what she wanted anyways!

We took a break from presents to eat a little breakfast (we had our traditional baked peach oatmeal and cinnamon rolls - which I make a head and freeze, and they rise as they unthaw overnight on Christmas Eve).

Since we didn't have to be over at Papa Jack and Grammie's until 1:00, we took our time opening gifts and playing with the kids new toys. Overall it was the most relaxed Christmas we've ever had as a family. My ultimate wish for Christmas is to spend all of Christmas Day at our house, and have family stop by to visit throughout the day. I hate that we have to push the kids to open all of their gifts at one time; I would love for them to be able to enjoy each gift as they open it and be able to play with it until they're ready to open the next one. I treasure our Christmas celebrations with extended family, but at some point, I'm hoping that we might be able to move those celebrations to sometime other than Christmas Day. Big Sister's Christmas dream is to pack up our stockings and visit Papa Dean and Gigi and her sweet cousin for Christmas Day, since that's pretty much the only way she'll get to experience a white Christmas!

We decided to go with a less is more theme this year for Christmas, and were able to convince our families to go along with that plan (our kids are blessed with lots of family and friends who love them...and the presents can quickly add up!). They were given so many wonderful things, a lot of them were things for their new rooms, which they both have enjoyed so much! The first thing Little Bud does every morning when he wakes up, is point out all the fun cars, trucks, trains, planes and fire engines in his room! Big Sister loves having company over so that she can show off her new room and explain how we switched everything out while she was sleeping.