When we got home from my parent's house on Sunday, it was technically Christmas Eve. We had plans to have our neighbor over for dinner, go to Christmas Eve Service, and make our traditional graham cracker houses....but all of that had to be canceled as Colton still had a fever. But, making the best of it, we truly enjoyed a restful evening and no one was up sick! We woke up Christmas morning, and despite a mellowed, tummy-ached, Colton, we truly had a great family day.
Ready!
The girls were so excited to wear their matching sweater dresses from Grandma K that they put them on right away!
The boys enjoyed snuggling in comfy clothes!
Summer was up early and made us a Christmas sign!
As usual, we started our morning off with the Christmas story. Colton's tummy still hurt from the flu, so he cuddled with Daddy as Daddy read the story.
The girls loved acting out the story with the nativity as Daddy read.
Here is a video of our rendition of the Christmas story...
Then we read our last devotion from the advent Jesse tree devotional we did all December.
Baby Jesus was the last ornament to be hung on the Jesse tree!
This year was especially fun as there were more gifts under the tree from the kids than from us! The kids each brought their own money to a community "secret shopper"event in early December where volunteer teens took the kids individually around a room stocked with items they could buy, and helped them choose gifts for each of the people on their "list". When they were done choosing gifts, the volunteers took each kid to the wrapping room and the kids each came home with four wrapped gifts for the members of their family that only THEY knew what was inside! They had fun with that! I truly think their smiles were as big (if not bigger!) watching their siblings and parents open the gifts they chose as compared to opening their own gifts! It was really fun!
Colton giving daddy his DAD coffee mug!
And Larkyn chose the same one without knowing it! haha! Daddy enjoys drinking coffee out of both DAD mugs and the kids love seeing him do so!
Colton made us a plate at school
Nice pic photographer Colton!
Colton got me some heart earrings :)
Larkyn got me an ornament with a bell :)
Larkyn was a wild card with gifts and kept us laughing! She chose a squeaky smiling dog toy as Colton's gift!
Larkyn was also the most enthusiastic gift opener, exclaiming over the little doll Summer got her...
and states that the piggy Colton bought her is her favorite things she got for Christmas!!!
Colton chose matching earrings for Summer and Mommy
Larkyn got Summer some chocolate milk goo...?...!
Summer picked out a fishing lure for Daddy
Summer got a MOM necklace for me :)
We had so much fun opening the kids gifts!!! Then Mom and Dad had three gifts for each kiddo.
All three kids shared their "experience" gift of tickets to see Paw Patrol Live. I love Larkyn's face as she listened to Summer reading what the gift was!
From us, Colton got several cars for his collection, including The King, which he has wanted for a while!
New cars.
The girls got swimsuits for their dolls.
Colton got a Disney Cars encyclopedia that includes every car in Cars 1, 2, and 3 and includes facts about them. He loved it!
The girls got doll suitcases!
We spent the rest of the day playing!
With a break for a special Christmas dinner of everyone's favorite pesto chicken.
That evening we cuddled up with popcorn to watch White Christmas.
Unfortunately, Colton had round #2 of stomach flu that night, which meant we cancelled our trip to Chicago to see the Obermayers :(. We really missed seeing them :(.
Instead of driving to Chicago on the 26th as planned, we did what we would have done in the car...we read the new chapter book mom got to read on our 6 hour drive (Treasure Tree...a book teaching kids about the different personalities) over breakfast and cuddled up on the couch. Then we watched Cars 3, which Grandma K had given to Colton for Christmas. We played games. We cuddled. We enjoyed being together with no schedule to rush off to. While we REALLY missed being in Chicago, we definitely enjoyed our low key family time.
(beauty parlor)
(wrestling)
And, though we didn't get to make our traditional graham cracker houses on Christmas Eve, we DID get a chance to make them once Colton was feeling better!
Sorting our massive bucket of Halloween candy for supplies for the houses....
This year, Summer constructed her own, the boys worked as a team, and Larkyn and Mommy were a team.
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