On Christmas Eve day, we loaded up the hubby's truck and headed to Emerson to spend the day/night with my side of the family. I love that we have been able to work it out and have all FIVE of my dad/mom's kids in the same place, every year. I just cannot imagine not being at mom & dad's place on Christmas Eve and even more so on Christmas morning. There is just something about their house....
When we got to the farm, we unloaded mountains of Christmas presents (I love having so many nieces and nephews!) and relaxed until the rest of the fam arrived. As soon as all of the sisters were there, we opened a bottle of wine - well, two because I don't drink that sweet stuff they like - and had a pre-church glass. Then we headed to St. Paul's for the Christmas Eve service...I was a bit bummed that we didn't make it to the candlelight service, but this works out so much better so we can have our big dinner after church and not be rushed. We've been able to figure out the magic touch with Cruz at church, sporting events, basically anywhere in public - feed him. The.Entire.Time.
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| Our big family - St. Paul's Lutheran Church Christmas Eve service |
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| My loves |
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| My girls - poor DeLaney was not feeling well |
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| Cruz finally got a Christmas tree! |
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| My sisters & brothers (plural if I'm counting Oliver!) |
After dinner, we let the kiddos open one present (Cruz had to open his Christmas Eve PJs), played, watched movies and caught up. By little man's bed time, I was repeatedly told I
COULD NOT fall asleep with him (like I had a couple weeks prior) and had to come back out so we could all drink and play games. Whelp, this mama was feeling tired and after many attempts to bring me out, they gave up. They even tried sending the hubs in and I was able to talk him into going to bed with us (Score: Katie 1; Family 0). At about 2am, I had been kicked in the head by Cruz a couple times and woke up to loud laughter and talking, so I had to go join in the fun - a racy game of
Apples to Apples. We finally got everyone back to bed around 3am. I can't believe what a loser I've become...I used to be the life of the party!
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| Christmas wishes! |
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| Santa Cruz in his rocking chair |
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Dayvaney lost her 2nd front tooth
(On a side note her Tooth Fairy brings her $5...definitely inflation from the quarter I used to get!) |
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| Practicing walking...he took five steps on his own that night! |
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Kisses for auntie TeTe
(I swear, Tess, if your kids won't call me KiKi, then at least mine will call you TeTe!) |
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| My handsome Pops. |
On Christmas morning, we woke up nice and early so the kiddos could attack their loads of presents. This year was definitely more fun since Cruz could open his presents, would get excited at each of them and then focus only on the wrapping paper or boxes. Of course.
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| The "shoe pic" we got Sophie & Day |
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| Have you ever seen so many presents? |
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| Cruz helping Grandma open her gifts |
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| Loved his drum set...not so sure we love the noise that comes with it! |
After cleaning up, a quick breakfast and finishing packing, we headed off to Omaha for leg three of our Manganaro Christmas vacation.
Looks like you had so much fun!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe how big Josh got - whoa! He's a real grown up man now! I had to think twice about how that was in your family pictures. :)
Tory also has the drum set and loves it. I had to hide the actual drum sticks until she's a bit older though because she kept running with them stuck in her mouth - eek!