I’m finally wrapping up our holiday season with a few of my favorite days! You can check up on parts one and two of our Christmas Things, if you didn’t get to read them earlier in the month.
I’m on record with Christmas Eve bring my favorite day of the year. One of the things I miss most about our old house is being able to lay in bed, after Santa made his delivery, and see everything that he brought. I love the satisfaction of knowing you just granted all of their wishes in a matter of minutes.
This year, I was afraid we’d have a few creepers, so I convinced Santa to make his delivery during Polly’s first nursing session of the morning. The big girls slept until almost seven, so it worked out perfectly.
My mom mom bought this cute Santa mug and plate for part of Polly’s Christmas. I managed to snap a photo of Scout before he caught a ride back to the North Pole.
Since she was up a lot earlier than the big girls, I let her test-drive a few of her gifts while I snapped pictures of everything that Santa brought. She was a big fan of her floor chair on Christmas morning, but it honestly hasn’t gotten a ton of use. This might be my one regret, but I did find it on super sale, so I won’t feel bad about donating it if we don’t use it too much.
Excuse Sophie’s bedhead, but how about that smile? She was just as excited about that Caboodle as I was!
I think we have a pretty modest Christmas compared to many (not that I’m comparing stacks — you do you!), but I wanted to rein it in ever more now that we’ve got three kiddos to shop for. We employed the “want, need, wear, read” philosophy (and actually stuck to it!), plus a few small gifts from Santa. It really helped me stick to my list and the girls had realistic expectations about what Christmas morning would look like.
My girls only asked for a few gifts and topping Sophie’s list was Sorry! I can’t tell you how many times we’ve all played since Christmas.
Daddy helped Polly open her gifts after the big girls were done. We were kind of excited she finally had toys to play with.
This time last year, I was not expecting three girls under my tree of Christmas morning!
I laid Polly down in the middle of the mess for a quick picture and ended up with this gem. It’s honestly my favorite photo of our morning.
Well, except for this one! I saw a few toddler elf photos on Instagram, so I decided to snag one of our tiny little elfin girl. I look positively amazing, but she looks adorable enough for both of us.
My sister might kill me for posting this one, but I love it! We always have a huge Christmas morning breakfast at my aunts house and, fortunately for us, we have a sidewalk through the woods between our houses. We walked up in our pjs and spent the morning with our favorites.
Lunch was early afternoon at my uncle’s house and this spread was my favorite. I knew I was cutting dairy out of my diet, so I enjoyed allthethings while I could.
No Christmas is complete without family photos!
This is wvat our our living room looked like for dayyyyys.
The day after Christmas, my parents and my sisters’ family came over for brunch and presents. The adults didn’t open gifts this year, but the kids had the best time exchanging gifts.
We made the kids get in front of our tree for a quick photo and Ella said, “I wasn’t told there would be pictures?!” 😆
See? Sorry all the time.
We haven’t hosted much since moving because our house hasn’t been “ready” — whatever that means. We threw caution to the wind and filled out home on New Year’s Eve and it was THE BEST.
We had party hats left over from the hospital and they were perfect for our NYE celebration.
These four spent most of the night watching movies in my bed.
They did venture outside for sparklers, though!
Our very last holiday celebration was with Josh’s parents after the new year. These kiddos were so ready to finally open gifts.
This was the only time I opened gifts the entire holiday and my mother in law made me feel so special. Of course, all of Polly’s gifts felt like they were for me and age bought things that she knew I would love: a new Wildbird sling, baby Uggs, muslin towels, and all natural baby products!
This is officially my favorite photo of the grandkids with Josh’s parents and the perfect way to bid our Christmas farewell. Until next year!
