A Merry Christmas Indeed – 2016

Never before have I seen my kids so excited to go to bed!

But this Christmas Eve, they were begging to get into bed at 5pm already!  Even though they’d been told by some friends that Father Christmas isn’t actually real, our kids set out his biscuits, milk and carrots like their presents depended on it.  I think they’re still dubious about the whole thing, but they rightly thought to err on the side of caution and play it safe anyway.

We’ll tell them the truth soon enough I just didn’t want to kill the magic on Christmas Eve of all days.  I’m the opposite of the grinch – I want to keep this magic alive as long as my kids are gullible enough to believe me 😉

However, despite getting into bed early, they still only fell asleep late.  I know that doesn’t mean much for most children, but for ours that meant that for the first time ever, we woke them up on Christmas day and not the other way around.  It was really weird, but super cute.  Walking in singing Christmas carols and wishing them Merry Christmas was actually greeted with sweet cuddles and sleepy “Merry Christmas Mom”s.  I usually get a kick in the ribs from Knox and a couple of groans from the girls, so this was definitely winning.

As we usually do, we had my Mom, brother and his wife over early to open presents together before we headed off to church.  Then we rushed home to make the sides for Christmas lunch while the kids asked a million times to swim and/or go to Ga.  We then finally headed to Ga where we enjoyed a lovely lunch together.  After that we were supposed to head to a 70th but due to some bad planning on our part we had to skip it.  So we chilled at home before heading to more family for more present opening at around 6.

It was a flipping busy day, but it was so great being able to spend time with family and friends remembering the precious sacrifice that Jesus has made on our behalf.  I also love that our kids have the opportunity to build relationships with so many awesome family members.  Something I wish that I had when I was growing up too.

So to commemorate our special day, I thought I’d share some of the festive pictures.