Christmas 2015

A totally unprecedented Christmas this year!

Hush's family was having a reunion in AZ and I am too pregnant to travel so he took Betty Lou with him to see that side of the family. Knowing they'd be gone I didn't want to have Christmas without all the children together so I talked Houdini into taking MJS for the holiday. That left me alone at home for 24 hours of relaxation! 

Of course we did our own family Christmas before everybody left and that was a great success. And it's been pretty difficult to be away from my tiny baby. I think I've only spent maybe two nights away from her in the past. The big kids and I miss her terribly and worry constantly, but all of her proof of life's have come back positive.  Hush is taking good care of her.

Baby girl has a consistent reaction to Santa: please get me out of here.

Christmas morning alone in my clean house reading my book, 35 weeks pregnant.  Once in a lifetime occurrence for me. I am never alone. I have forgotten what I do when I'm alone. Turns out, it's jobs.  This week I organized:

Linen closet

Hairbow drawer

Bathroom drawers

Nursery set up

Game shelves

Mimi's closet

All of the toys

Mimi's drawers

Silas' drawers

Lego area

Piano area

Bills

I'm hyper project girl. It was like spring cleaning and nesting all rolled into one.  I love when the clean out/throw away hormones hit.

The week leading up to Christmas looked like this:

M8, J7, S5, BL15 mon. BL would like to quit Santa's lap, please.

Amazon pulled this fast one. It was delivered right around dinner and guess who was the first to the door? Mimi. I tried to tell her it was for homeless kids but she didn't buy it. Eventually I caved and not only did I tell her we'd bought it for her because she has been such an excellent helper this year and totally earned it, but I let her open it and set it all up days before Christmas.  She was thrilled!

On Sunday evening Hush and I surprised the kids with "Fake Christmas Eve".  We had a fancy ham dinner with martinelli's and then went on a drive to look at the Christmas lights.  While we were out the kids spotted Santa's reindeer and became convinced that even though it was fake Christmas maybe Santa would come early.

At home we did our Christmas Eve program including the nativity, Christmas songs charades, a few Christmas stories, birthday cake for Jesus and then "Twas the Night Before Fake Christmas".  It was just our little family (little is relative, there were six of us) and it was super chill because there was no actual Christmas stress.  I loved celebrating the holiday this way!

The holy family.

Wise men presenting baby Jesus gifts.

Crèche 

Hush likes events to look iconic so he demanded a mug to gesticulate, dad glasses and slippers and to have the children sitting by the fire while he read Twas the Night Before Christmas.  I enjoy his anachronistic little tableaux.

Then we did the Christmas Eve routine with cookies and carrots and a note and the parents staying up far later than anticipated.

And Santa DID come!  This was the best stairs shot I could get.

One gift highlight were the sumo bumper boppers. Fun to crash into one another.

Present highlights:  Silas got a bike, Jude got tons of Legos, Mimi got the bedding set and alarm clock she wanted, Lou got tons of balls, Hush got a meditation seat, I got a megaphone.

And BL scavenged chocolate from all of the stockings which landed her in the bath.

Helmets absolutely required for those things.  They lasted about 6 hours. 

And Grandma Pam sent some homemade jammies that match her cousins.

Kids at the condo with Dx and his gf and her family. Battleship battles begin.

My favorite toy is Structures. Just 200 pine planks that you can build into anything. Teaches kids about balance and architecture, kinda like blocks kinda like Legos you can reuse indefinitely.