Christmas Recap 2018

January 01, 2019

Christmas Recap 2018

The Christmas season always flies by for me! We had so much fun as a big family (as my kids call it when our extended family is with us) and as our small family (just the six of us). We were all so thankful that I had my back surgery when I did because my doctor told me that I would be "90%" by Christmas and it was true. I'm feeling very good these days and I'm SO THANKFUL!

Ray's brother, Evan, and his wife, Kaitlyn, and their two kids, Ethan and Abigail, came and stayed with us for the week before Christmas and it was wonderful! Since we finished the basement (mostly), they were able to have their own space down there which was nice. It was really great to visit with them so much since they are living in California currently.

I'm not great at taking pictures when we are having so much fun because I'm just living in the moment, but here are some sweet snapshots of the week leading up to Christmas and a few days after...

So I signed up to be the "room mom" for James's class this year. I haven't done near as much as I wanted to (disclaimer - I wasn't expecting a back surgery!), but I did plan a really fun Christmas party for his class and with the help of lots of amazing parents, we had a great time! His teachers are Ms. Clayton and Ms. Fenner and they are wonderful! He is learning so much and they say he is the "model student" - Um... this is SHOCKING to me because we for sure have issues at home! But I'll take it... I'm glad he loves school and his teachers.

Who know what we were doing here... all my kids love cuddles and pictures!

Luke posing with his gift for his preschool teacher, Mrs. Sherri... She's a wonderful teacher and she loves Luke and he loves her!

Kathryn made her homemade carrot cake for me for my birthday. It was SO good!

We made Christmas cookies a few times and James loved decorating this year. He was very patient with everything and I loved to see him work so hard. This green heart was inspired by the grinch heart. They love watching The Grinch. The boys like to take all the Christmas decorations and hide them when they "play the Grinch" - their own made up game.

Unclie Evan with Abigail and Silas! Abigail is 3 months older than Silas.

Cousin time with Ethan! Ethan is 3 weeks older than Anna.

One night all the older kids went to Tanglewood to see the lights while Pop and Gigi stayed home with the babies. The two year olds got to sit in the front seat! It was the third time we went to Tanglewood and the kids are obsessed with it just like I was as a kiddo. We went on my birthday which is what we always did when I was a child.

Pop is the fourth and final kiddo in his family just like Silas is for us!

The weather was nice enough for us to go on some walks

We had a candlelight Christmas Eve service at church which was a new thing. Thankfully, no one tried to catch anything on fire. James tried to figure out where the "on" switch was on the candle because all he's ever seen are LED candles. He was a bit shocked by the hot wax that hit his hand... he wasn't really a fan.

Silas!

James was putting out reindeer food that they made at school. We were all laughing at this because he knows Santa is pretend, but he still thought it was fun to do this!