christmas eve and morning | holiday highlights

I'm not sure what it was this year that made this Christmas extra magical, but I can't remember loving Christmas as much as I loved this one. Even though Adam was ill (that is less than ideal) and none of my siblings were in town, it was simply wonderful. I loved it.

Here are a few of the highlights.



CHRISTMAS EVE
-We always start the festivities with a birthday party for Austin.
-The kids shared their talents with the family before we opened gifts.
-When I look through the photos it sort of feels like an opening frenzy, but it was nice and calm (to a point, it is Christmas) and we all took our time watching each other open gifts. It's possible to do since our family is so small. I love it that way.
-It's always a highlight to watch Andrew (Adam's brother with down syndrome) open up his gifts. It's so hilarious to see him discard the clothes -- he has no interest.
-When Megan got the mini pillowpet pig from Landon she attacked him to say thank you. Not entirely sure he knew how to deal with it.
-Jill liked the earrings and necklace I made her.
-Good food was constantly around -- we never walk away empty.

-Whitney generously gave multiple stuff animals to all her girl cousins. My girls were loving it!



CHRISTMAS MORNING
-I heard the girls around 6am so I joined them downstairs and we hung out until 7am. I was trying to hold them off to give Adam a little more time to sleep. He was not feeling well.
-We spent time talking about and remembering all the little things we had done throughout the month to make it special. Loved that part.
-Once Bella opened up her ipod touch (adam's old iphone) we lost her for the rest of the morning. Good thing it was the last gift she opened.
-Tess, poor girl broke her little toe, and had a hard time getting on the Rollerblades. She eventually did though, sheer will power, and skated throughout the house.
-The girls gave me glasses and Adam got me an instant camera plus found me Polaroid film.
-Megan never does disappoint, she loves everything she is given. We did however, have some tears over her lost kitty. It's been six months and she's still talking about it.
-I am always a huge fan of the handmade gifts the girls make for us every year.
-I finally found that gift I had lost, it was under the tree wrapped. What a great surprise. I'm loosing it.
-We had a big Christmas breakfast and then went to church and continued our celebration of the holiday.
-We Skyped with my sister.
-I loved seeing my girls give to each other this year. It is the first year they really did it on their own. I have loved watching the three of them grow into the best of friends.

It is nice that we spent so much time throughout the month of December doing things for others and remembering what Christmas is really about because it seems like these two days are chock full of gifts and then I remind myself that even though we are getting, we are giving as well. I'll say it again, I loved Christmas and am really sad to see all the good cheer end -- but then again, I suppose it doesn't have to.

I hope it was a magical Christmas for all of you.

Our festivities

I'm not even sure what day it is. With so much going on the past few days time seems to mesh together & it feels like another week has gone by. My sister is in town & I guess that's just what happens when she comes. I don't really pay attention to days or times & just go from one thing to the next until she goes home. It's been nice having her here, even if just for a little while. She's going to be leaving on thursday so it was quick, but grateful they're willing to do the 24hr round trip drive in order to spend the holiday with us.

Our Christmas festivities started on Christmas Eve with Adam's family. It took us about 10 years to figure out the best way to work the holidays with both families in town, but have settled on Christmas Eve with adam's family (I think they like having a low key day at home Christmas day).


Christmas Eve started & ended with good food. Sometimes I wonder how I could ever be hungry after eating such a big meal hours before, of course it could of been the hours on the couch opening gifts that worked up my appetite. Before we did that though, we read verses from the New Testament. The kids were all pretty patient except for the youngest who kept asking when we'd be done.


Christmas morning was, as always, a huge hit and a lot of fun to finally watch the fruits of our labor be enjoyed. Later my whole family came over for breakfast. I love this tradition. It's the perfect accompaniment to christmas morning--all of us together in jammies enjoying the celebration. Couldn't have been better. My favorite part was when my mom cried when I gave her my gift. I was very uncertain of all the gifts I made this year & honestly can't be sure I'll do it next year, however seeing my mom get emotional made me think perhaps I'm not giving myself enough credit. All I know is, it was a sweet moment.

All & all it was a great Christmas. A wonderful end to all the anticipation from the last 6 weeks. It is crazy though, as it always is, to see Christmas come and go another year. As much as I enjoyed it I am looking forward to getting back to life. To clean my house room by room & declutter like mad--one of my favorite new years traditions.

I've sort of been off the grid for a while now so I hope you all had a fabulous holiday. Seriously can you believe it's come and gone?

xo
Amy Gretchen

Christmas 09 | highlights

Christmas Eve

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- delicious turkey dinner
- a random power nap, suggested by jill, that was completely needed and did the trick (i didn't sleep well the night before)
- watching how excited Andrew was to open up his gifts
- seeing Megan walk around showing everyone her stash (as if they didn't watch her opening them)
- giving the gratitude books I made to Lori, Kathy, Jill, & Robyn
- gift opening being much calmer this year and actually getting to see what everyone got
- the gift of books (almost everyone walked out of there with something to read)
- Bella & Tess excited about their new jewelry

Christmas morning

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- sleeping in til 8am (my parents came over and had to wake us up)
- opening the gifts each of my girls made for Adam and I...I'm such a fan of homemade gifts
- the baby that wouldn't stop crying (Megan got a doll from Santa that cried...I didn't know it did that)
- adam helping dress the baby
- bella a little too excited to get the nintendo ds...is that possible?
- my parents loving the book I made for them
- tess attempting to ride her heelys all over the house (i think she's getting the hang of it now)
- cozy fire
- old barstools I received from Adam for my studio desk
- grateful to have found zhu zhu pets as they were as big a hit as you can imagine...she hasn't stopped playing with them
- big delicious Christmas breakfast with my parents and our friends

Our holiday

I'm not sure what it was, but I can't remember having a more pleasant Christmas than we had this year. Of course it could have had something to do with the fact that I was in my pjs all day just hanging out with family. It was simple, low key, and perfect...definitely worth all the crazy that ensued days before.



Christmas Eve was spent with Adam's family. It's been several years now that we've kept up with our Christmas Eve tradition. We get together in the afternoon, have a fabulous meal, open up our gifts to each other, and then usually play games and eat some more. What could be better than that?

Christmas morning we started around 7 o'clock, quite a change from last year when I had to wake the girls up because my parents were coming over and they were all asleep, but I wasn't surprised. They went to bed pretty excited about Santa coming. Poor Bella woke up feeling sick and threw up several times. She didn't look too bad, but her multiple trips to the bathroom weren't just for show. I felt bad of all the days it was Christmas she wasn't feeling well. Lucky for her it didn't last all day. After she ate something for breakfast she was fine. She kept telling me the OJ cured her.

It was enjoyable watching my girls excitement as each gift was unwrapped. I think I will miss that most when they grow up. Hopefully the Christmas morning magic will never go away...I'm crossing my fingers. I was happy they liked their homemade gifts and surprised how much they loved their new robes...that was the big hit. Who knew?

After gifts were opened and those blasted plastic packages & twist ties finally loosened my family (parents & sister's family) came over for breakfast. It's a tradition we started a few years ago and it's something we have loved hosting. From there we just hung out and stayed as we were...our_non_showered_pjed_selves. It was delightful.

And as for me, well, the gift Adam gave to me may have helped in making my Christmas magical...



A canon 5d Mark II. (jaw drop)

If you don't know what this is, it's a magnificent glorious piece of equipment that I have been dreaming of for two years now. When I opened the box I was speechless, completely surprised. Adam laughed as I held onto the box for quite some time as if someone was going to come take it away from me. I just couldn't believe it was actually mine, I never thought I would see the day. I haven't stopped smiling and don't think I ever will. As far as I'm concerned I don't need another gift again.

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas holiday. It's crazy to think it's behind us and another 365 days away. Bella got teary when she realized the day was gone and would have to wait a whole year to do it again. It's definitely hard to feel so much anticipation and then have it gone so quickly. A tricky lesson to learn as a child and one I'm still not use to.