Christmas!

Finally, my Christmas post! This year was our first year to host the festivities at our home, and it was really nice. I loved being home, in my bed, waking up with the presents under our tree, attending mass at our parish, and enjoying all things Christmas at our house. My parents didn't stay with us this year, but they came on Dec 23 to stop by and visit before heading to my grandmother's house. Then on the morning of the 24th, things got busy! Ryan's parents came over, my parents (and all four brothers!) came over, and we got busy cooking. We had a Christmas Eve lunch before heading to Christmas Eve mass.

Oh boy did I massively underestimate our arrival time to that! By the time we arrived, it was standing room only in the overflow mass! We snuck in to the church because if we had to stand, we'd rather stand in the church than in the gym! We stood in the back and actually had a pretty good view of everything!

After mass we came home, had some leftovers and took some pictures in front of the tree. The kids were excited but exhausted, so we had no trouble putting them to bed. I zonked out pretty early myself but Ryan and his dad apparently started a new tradition of staying up until 1:30am and drinking Jack Daniels on ice. ;-)


Christmas morning was full of fun and laziness! We took our time opening gifts, making muffins, and laying around in our pajamas all morning! Ryan's parents left about nap time, and we put the kids down before heading out for the afternoon and evening family events.


At this point I should mention that I received a gift on Christmas Eve, a new camera lens which allows me to take even more awesome pictures! Beth's big gift was a Our Generation doll she's named Lily, Luke received several handmade toys (not made by us!) like a tractor and bull dozer, and Jack received... some clothes? Poor guy didn't get much from us yet, but he's going to be getting a new car seat cover as soon as I find one on sale!

So after nap time we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house for a family dinner, where my sister and her boyfriend met up with us. Then my immediate family came back over to our house to open presents before heading to my grandmother's house for more presents and dessert!