First Family Christmas

Christmas 2015, my how long we have waited for you!

It's hard to believe we've now had 9 Christmases together. A wonderful nine years (minus the last two years) of being together and making traditions for this amazing holiday. The last time my husband and I celebrated it together physically was 2012....and things were a little different....

We were awaiting the arrival of our first daughter. We had our closest friends over for Christmas Eve baking and Christmas movies. We spent a lot of time by the fire, going to see movies, and prepping for Elise's arrival. It was a time in our life I hope to never forget.

Two years later, we are two kids deep, in a new house, back in Oklahoma and we wouldn't want it any other way!

We kicked off this holiday season by having a very early Christmas at my in laws house. My brother and sister in law and our niece were in town for a short time and we all wanted to spend a day together with all the girls and do a Christmas. So we did! It was so much fun watching the girls interact and getting the most one on one time with our niece that we've had so far in her life!

The following week, we spent Dec 23-24 with my side of the family. With each of our families continually growing, it becomes increasingly difficult to get everyone together at the same time for one event. But somehow we manage and it's always worth it.

We pretty much pretended the morning of Christmas Eve was Dec 25th at my parent's house. The girls woke us up around 7, and we did all the presents and took so many photos. It really felt like Christmas. I had to remind myself many times that we still had the best part yet to come! My sisters really went all out for our girls. I love how thoughtful they are with their gifts to Elise especially. Lena isn't old enough to understand gifts, nor does her personality really give any hints as to what she would like anyway. But Elise is different. She definitely knows when someone gives her a gift and watching her eyes light up as she rips that paper off is nothing short of magical. I just about teared up watching my sisters watch her open gifts. I could tell it meant just as much to them as it does to us. I don't know what I did in life to deserve such amazing sisters/aunts to my kids, but I am SO thankful we have them in our lives. 

Christmas with my family never disappoints. We had a big breakfast together afterwards and enjoyed just lounging around watching Christmas movies and helping Ellie break in her new toys and gadgets she was so excited about. That afternoon, we headed back to our home to start our own Christmas together. The one my husband and I have waited 3 years for....

Before the girls went to bed, we had dinner together. Chicken parmesan, then we gave the girls their traditional Christmas Eve books that we could read together. Lena went to bed much earlier than Elise. Elise got to stay up and help us bake cookies for Santa and watch Elf. She was SO excited about baking cookies for Santa. She could hardly contain herself carrying the plate to the fireplace. 

After the girls were in bed, my husband and I got to work setting up for Christmas. I had always heard my parents and other parents talk about how they would be up all night Christmas Eve putting gifts together, wrapping them and just doing whatever they could to make Christmas magical for their kids. This is really the first year Elise has gotten into Christmas, so thankfully not much of this was necessary to do on Christmas Eve the last two years. Though I know Pops, Nana, Beebee and Poppy all have done it for Elise and certainly for their own kids in the past! As crazy as it sounds, my husband and I were really looking forward to spending that time together. We only had one real project to put together and the rest was wrapping and stockings. We enjoyed drinking together, just talking excitedly and imagining Elise's face upon seeing what Santa had brought her. I had a split second where I felt a little bad for not getting her much (3-4 gifts total) but I quickly remembered how much love she got from our families and that her birthday was the following week. Oh and she's almost 3, so no big deal. She was pretty damn excited anyway. 

I was a little worried also that my husband and I would be a little emotional spending this first Christmas together. We watched our usual It's A Wonderful Life while getting things ready Christmas Eve, and THAT made us both cry (typical of us!), but really....we were just so happy. Like faces hurt from smiling all day and not realizing it happy. Lots of big bear hugs, stolen kisses, and hand holding. Definitely weren't short on "I Love You"s either. I really wanted to just let ourselves feel all the joy we've been waiting for. We feel like we've definitely earned it. 

Christmas morning came around 7-7:15am. Lena woke up first and I nursed her while my husband got the coffee up and going. Elise woke up shortly after and was SO ready to see if Santa had come. She squealed with joy as she realized the milk and cookies she left for him were gone. I am a little jealous of her blind faith. It's so magical and innocent. I hope she can hold onto it for as long as possible.

Let the present opening begin!

Husband got a new American Apparel Hoodie. His favorite! He also got a new Xbox Halo game, some stylish new clothes, and a Qalo Ring to wear at crossfit. 

I got this nifty thing in my stocking! It's called a tile. It attaches to your key chain and has an app that you can use to detect it on your keys if you lose them! Also, if you have the tile but can't find your phone, one double click will make it ring and give you your phone's location. PERFECT gift for me. He knows me too well after nine years of gift giving.

A long time ago, before we even had kids. I had mentioned to my husband how badly I wanted something of value that I could pass along to my children. Especially daughters. My grandmother had jewelry that was split between her three kids when she passed away and I wanted something like that for my girls to have once I was gone. My husband remembered this after all these years, and now that we have TWO beautiful girls, he has given me a beautiful REAL string of pearls that I can pass down one day. Tearful moment for sure.

Lena only got 3 gifts as well and none of them were wrapped! She didn't seem to mind one bit. She sat and played with her gifts very intently while the rest of us did our thing. I love how she's been so much more independent lately. 

One of Elise's gifts was a little dress up chest with princess clothes and jewelry in it. Almost two days later and we still can't quite get her out of them! Job well done, I suppose!

After the main event, Nana and Pops came over to join us for a big breakfast and spend time with the girls. It's always wonderful to have family over for the holidays. Next year will be different and we plan on seeing more of our extended families and really just hitting all the stops. But this year, we wanted to be selfish and be just us. Thankfully, our amazing families COMPLETELY understood and allowed us our space. 

Christmas this year also brought more big news for our little family. We made the decision to get a puppy! We've been talking pretty seriously about it for months. We have missed Macy and having a dog in general terribly. We are definitely just dog people and we felt that something was missing from our life and our girls' lives.

This go-around, we are going with a golden doodle. It's a mix between a poodle and a golden retriever. This particular pup has a standard sized poodle for a dad, and a golden doodle for a mom. So it will be more poodle than golden, but that just means way less hair!

We are really looking forward to having a dog again. Hopefully one that can really be a part of our family, travel everywhere with us, sleep in our bed, and nap and play with our girls. We felt this would be a good time for it since we don't have plans to travel until closer to this summer. We wanted to acclimate our new pup to us and her new life before taking her with us to camp/hike in Colorado! 

This Christmas just couldn't have been any better. A big part of me felt the need to overcompensate and stress over making everything perfect. But once again, my husband sweetly reminded me that the only thing that matters this year is that we are together. We soaked in every single second. We already can't wait for next year and the year after that. I know we will NEVER take another holiday together for granted, and we feel there's just no better way to spend Christmas. 

I doubt this man will ever fully understand how much I love him, but I will try my damndest to show him every day for as long as we are blessed to be together!