Holiday Flashback

Ok, we're going to rewind a bit over here because it seems like I'm working a little backwards with how I shared our holiday season. I know this time of year can be so busy for many of us with the hustle and bustle of the holidays, winter break for most of our kids, getting back into a routine after they headed back to school, and focusing on our priorities and initiatives for the new year. 

I shared recently about some of my favorites from the past decade and what my thoughts are for the new year. I thought it would be fun to look back on our time together as a family and share more about what our Christmas and New Year's celebrations looked like. 

I think starting right before Christmas is a good beginning point since the fun kicked off when A went on winter break that Friday before and my brother in-law came in from Cali. My boys have the best time with Uncle Chris and can't wait to see him again. We have a trip set for next month to go visit him and escape one of the harshest months of winter on the northeast. It's so cute because the boys have a little countdown going on on their calendar. Eric and I were able to meet him and his girlfriend and one of our other good friends in NYC for the night. As much as I would have loved to see the tree and do all of the touristy things, I think everyone else had other plans in mind and wanted to head to Brooklyn to get more of an urban experience. I was onboard with that because it's never a dull moment with this crew. We hit up this really cool Korean restaurant, stopped off at a tiki bar for some mai tias, and then headed to a rooftop spot (which unfortunately the rooftop was closed). We got an Airbnb for the night and then made our way back home the next day. It was so nice to enjoy our time together and I didn't bother taking any pictures. Sometimes you don't need to #documentallthethings.

I had every intention of keeping it low-key when we got home, but my sister called me and asked me if we sold our Sixers tickets for the night. She twisted my arm to go (it really didn't take any effort for that) and before I knew it I was getting changed and on my way to Philly. What I love about where we live is that I can be in either NYC or Philly within an hour. It ended up being such a good game! They won, which is always a plus, and we got on the jumbotron.

The next day we headed back to Philly (I know what happened to keeping it low-key?) with some friends for the Christmas market. We didn't get a chance to go last year since C was so tiny, but we made it a point to check it out this year, and I'm so glad we did. They added a lot more and there were so many parts that felt magical. The boys got to ride the carousel, enjoy hot chocolate, and admired the light show.

The next day we all relaxed for awhile before heading back into Philly (I know, we sound nuts) for the Flyers game. This was my first time at a professional hockey game and it was great to see them win. It was a lot of fun and I would definitely go again.

The next day was Christmas eve and my brother in-law was heading back to Cali to spend Christmas with his girlfriend's family. Eric, the boys and I, headed out to walk around our neighborhood and deliver our Christmas card and some baked goodies to our neighbors. I don't want to jinx anything, but it has been a mild winter here and it was almost 60 degrees on Christmas eve and Christmas. If you caught my stories you might have seen A riding around on his skateboard with his santa hat playing his guitar. He was seriously adorable! He even sung some Christmas songs when we got to the neighbors houses.

That night we headed to our candlelight service at church, which in my opinion, taking time out from all of the busy things around us to reflect and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas is what its all about. My mom and Dad both met us for service so it was nice to have all of us together. We packed the boys pjs with us and got them changed for the car ride home so we could also drive around and look at all the Christmas lights. It was the perfect way to end the night before setting out milk, cookies, and carrots for santa and his reindeers. The funny part with that was, we usually sneak over after they go to bed to take some bites and drink the milk, but wouldn't you know, Coaty (our dog) got to the cookies and carrots before we could. He of course left the milk untouched so we helped out with that. Unfortunately Eric started to come down with something and wasn't feeling the best. We got all of our gifts down from the attic (our hiding spot) and placed them under the tree. Then it was, Mamma in her kerchief, and I in my cap, had just settled down for a long winter's nap. Ha! Not exactly. More like some nyquil, a box of tissues, and Christmas pjs in hopes that the kids wouldn't wake up too early. 

The next morning was of course, Christmas! The boys let us sleep in until 8am and then everyone was up with excitement. The baby started coughing over night and didn't seem himself so that was a little bit of a bummer. He was still adorable and got into the presents that interested him. We have kept with a family tradition that my parents did with us, which is reading Luke chapter 2 around the Christmas tree before any of the gifts are open. After that, we say a family prayer and then let the fun begin. We hosted dinner and decided to have it a little later this year. Since my sister and other family members have multiple houses to visit it was easier if we started dinner around 6pm. It ended up working out really well so we might stick to that in the years to come. We had a lot of fun catching up with family and getting to celebrate together. My brother and cousin hung around after telling stories and getting caught up with each other. I unfortunately started to not feel well and ended up falling asleep on the couch as we were all talking. Both Eric and I were down for the count after that. We had nasty head colds, congestion, fevers, yeah it wasn't fun. Both little nugget and C weren't feeling well either, so it was a mess in our home. A was the only one that didn't get sick. I think since it got a lot warmer the germs just went haywire and there was no stopping it.

The next day we had the baby's post-op appointment and were so happy to hear his surgeon is so pleased with results. We got the ok to take his no-nos off and he could go back to eating regular food. Hopefully if all goes well we should be in the clear with not needing any surgeries for another few years. The next few days consisted of us hanging out on the couch, watching a ton of movies, and trying to make it by. Lysol was our bff and since it was so nice we also opened some windows to try and get the germs out. The boys started to feel better and were anxious to get out of the house. Eric and I were still struggling a bit. Ugh, nothing feels worse then when you don't feel well and you still have to parent. #nodaysoff. I finally started to feel more like myself after a few days, minus the congestion (you might have seen my stories and the shenanigans with the baby nosefrida). We were a mess.

The boys had been asking to see Frozen2 for the longest time so I decided we needed to do something fun and ventured out. When we got to the movies they told us there was only one seat left (go figure). That wasn't going to work because we needed three. The next showing wasn't scheduled until 2 hours later which would have been past the price of the early showings (yes, I'm all about a deal). I asked the ticket guy if there was any way the seat was big enough to have the boys sit on my lap, and he told me to hang tight for a minute and that he was going to talk with his manager. He came back and said a 10:45am showing had just opened up and that he could get us into that. I was confused for a minute because I know there was no showing time originally listed for that and then it finally kicked in what he did for us. You guys, they opened a whole theater up just for us! It was amazing and seriously one of the nicest things, ever. The boys were sooo excited! We got to pick whatever seats we wanted and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. They even made an extra sale because another family did come in right when the movie started and got to enjoy it as well.

Thankfully by new year's eve we were all feeling a lot better. We were able to do our 12pm kids countdown which we've been doing for the past few years now. It's always fun to celebrate with the boys when they aren't tired and cranky. We have a little milk and cookies toast to celebrate and enjoy lots of confetti and noise makers.

My older boys went to my mom's house for the night and we put the baby to bed as some of our close friends came over for a little dinner party. It was 20s themed and we all had fun dressing up and getting fancy for the night. I had fun with the decorations and putting together the tablescape. You all know me and my love for parties. It was so nice to relax at home, enjoy good company, light some sparklers, play some games, and get into comfy clothes and enjoy a fresh pizza for a little extra late night fun. I think this is something we want to try and keep up with for the years to come.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that your new year is already off to a good start!

Merry Christmas From Us To You

It's here, the final countdown to Christmas. I know we're all thinking it (and have probably mentioned it), but I am always baffled at how quickly this time of year flies by. We enjoyed a lot of festive fun this weekend, and I realized I'm not really ready to let this season go just yet. While I'm excited about entering into a new decade and see what 2020 has in store. there's something very humbling, magical, and a strong sense of togetherness that this time of year brings.

I wanted to share some pictures from our first family photo shoot with a professional photographer. I have a lot of great pictures with my boys, and some amazing family moments captured, but it was so nice to let someone else get behind the camera, edit the images, and essentially take care of everything for us.

I will say, the boys were very well behaved for her (which I appreciated), and made it super easy for us to get some great shots. She did some fun things with us to get them to smile and laugh, and I really like how beautiful her images came out. I think the boys favorite part was when she told all of us that she was going to ask us a question and then wanted us to look at the person that we thought was the answer. She then asked, who's the stinkiest in the family? We all started laughing and immediately shouted out, little nugget.

I think what I loved most about all of this is how we have lasting memories to cherish and look back on. It made it extra special that these pictures were taken around our Christmas trees and will come with a story to tell as the years go on.

Eric and I finally got to do some of our wrapping over the weekend and I had a moment where I felt like what I had gotten for others wasn't enough. That maybe the boys would be disappointed on Christmas morning because there wasn't going to be a flood of presents sprawled out around the floor. It's not for any real reason that we didn't go over the top with gifts, I just think that we have taken a different approach and have been focusing on more realistic and practical things. The boys have so much (and in all honesty, don't use half of what they have), we have so many family members that have everything they need, so we are focusing on experience gifts instead. The more I thought about all of this, I realized how silly my quick moment of insecurities sounded. I explain to my boys all the time that Christmas is about celebrating Jesus' birth, it's about being together with friends and family, it's about sharing joy and kindness, that it's not all about the gifts, and here I was, worrying about the one thing I have constantly reminded them about.

Charlie Brown might have said it the best, it's not what's under the tree that matters. It's who's around it. And in our case, when we look out at these trees, we can take it literally. Sometimes I appreciate those moments of, maybe we can say—weakness. It's in those moments, even though we already know we don't need to feel this way, that we have the opportunity to take negative feelings and turn them into moments of reflections.

I think it's important to end this time of year with focusing on family and continuing to make memories together. So we'll be doing just that. As the Christmas season is drawing close to an end, I want to wish you and your families a wonderful time together, a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:14 

Elf On The Shelf North Pole Breakfast

Before I knew that a north pole breakfast was a thing, we always threw a welcome back breakfast for our dear friend, Alvin. If you've been following along for a while now then you know I have a lot of fun putting this breakfast together. It might be my favorite part of the whole elf on the shelf experience.

We usually have our elf come back the weekend of Thanksgiving but with baby boy being born right before we decided to hold off for another week. I have to say, it's not so bad having him come a little later because this whole elf thing is a big commitment, and mainly for the parents.

I know some people who wait and have their elf come back the week before Christmas. The more I think about it, they might be the smart ones. Regardless of when your elf comes, I think we can all agree it adds a little extra holiday cheer and it's so fun to see our kids reactions.

We first started this tradition when A was two years old, you can see our previous breakfast here, here, and here. We might have been a little anxious to get everything going because he didn't really get it at that point. I think three might be the magic age because we even see now that this year little nugget also really gets it. He's had some great questions and logical reasons to things about our elf.

Our elf usually leaves them a little message in the morning on a small chalkboard that I have. The one morning he addressed it to just A and little nugget. They both asked about why he didn't say anything their baby brother C. I had to come up with something really quick for that one. I went with the line that until he knows right from wrong Alvin will just be focusing on the two of them. Just like he didn't come to our house until A knew right from wrong. They bought it, or at least I think they did, because they haven't asked about it since.

Our poor elf has also fallen twice from the spots where we moved him, and coaty almost got him once. Crisis adverted with a magic spatula and a new dog toy.

Let's get back to the actual breakfast. We love us some pancakes around here and spending time in the kitchen on the weekends. Anything from keeping them simple to putting together some of our green pancakes. This year I went with classic pancakes, a little frosting, and some special candy cane shaped sprinkles. I picked up some powdered donuts and these fun candy cane lollipops. I always like to give our breakfasts a theme so this year it was the jingle jangle breakfast. Our elf brought them a few small gifts and also their advent calendars.

Our littlest elf made his debut but with milk being on his menu he was more occupied with that. It will be even more special next year when he'll already be a year and will hopefully be enjoying those pancakes just as much as we all do.