This weekend was my family's Christmas party and what a blast!
We started on Friday; we try to have family weekends once a month and we've learned that we really like to go up Friday evening instead of waiting until Saturday. This way we are already there early on Saturday morning but mostly because that gives my girls some one-on-one time with their grandparents before all their cousins come. So on Friday evening we met my parents and my sister for a quick dinner and then drove through the Christmas lights festival at Willard Bay. The girls were glued to the window, whipping their heads around to take it all in. Their favorites were Tinkerbell, Santa and the dragon.
On Saturday, we spent the morning playing with toys and getting food and activities ready for the party. The girls had a blast playing with the special Christmas toys like the Little People Nativity and Santa sleigh and especially the train around the tree. Spending time with family was wonderful and the party was wonderful. Our extended family is growing fast and it gets very loud and chaotic with so many tiny, energetic kids. But this year, it seemed like we handle the chaos particularly well. We split up the present opening (siblings exchanged before dinner, grammy and papa gave presents after dinner) and that made it a lot easier to watch my girls and see their excitement. Even dinner seemed less crazy than usual (not sure if that's because we were better organized and prepared kid plates before they came to the table or if because we were bribing them with presents). We had soups and sandwiches for dinner and a banquet of Christmas treats for dessert. The girls bounced around happily playing with their cousins and the baby cuddled in my arms, watching everything with big eyes and trying hard to stay awake for it all.
We had a special visit from Santa and Butterfly was bursting with excitement. Just like last year, she fawned over him and brought her own chair over to sit as close to him as she possibly could. We got some great family pictures and he passed out some treats. The highlight of present opening for my girls was when Grammy held them on her laps, covering their eyes while Papa brought out their gift. Butterfly received a Disney princess-themed, just her size, adorable salon and Ladybug got a wonderful baby center station, complete with crib, bath, high chair and sink. Their two cousins of the same age received similar play stations and all of the cousins went nuts playing and sharing and pretending together. Finally we moved the toys further into the kitchen and the kids played happily while the adults got to exchange gifts. We got really spoiled this year. Papa joked that last year was for the boys (they got gun safes, which as a concerned mom, I definitely appreciated) but this year was for the girls and he lined up me and my two sister-in-laws to open our matching kitchen aid mixers! They spoiled us further with beautiful temple prints for our homes and with other fun sentimental and thoughtful gifts (like a new version of a childhood favorite game and a memory card containing all the digital scrapbook pages my mom has created with pictures of our own kids). My husband and brothers got new tools as well (my dad, a talented carpenter with construction experience shares that interest with all the boys so it's almost become a tradition as each year the boys get some kind of tool from my dad).
it was a great party with lots of fun, laughter, great food and generous gifts. But eventually we packed up and drove home so we could sleep in our own beds and attend church in our own ward. After church I started getting us ready to go back for more family fun while the girls were sitting at the table eating lunch. I knew they were tired but needed to eat and then assumed they would nap in the car. But poor Ladybug didn't make it and she passed out at the table, sound asleep with her half eaten pizza pushed aside.
So we loaded them into the car again, backtracked our drive from the night before and returned to my parents house just in time for family pictures (Grammy picked out beautiful red velvet dresses for all the girls, Butterfly especially looked stunning with her auburn curls and bright blue eyes). We juggled through family pictures and then feasted on the wonderful Christmas dinner Grammy had prepared. We stuffed ourselves on Christmas ham and all the favorites to go with it, the kids racing through dinner to go play with their cousins and new toys. After dinner came one of the best parts of our Christmas weekend as Papa retrieved his scriptures and one verse at a time, we acted out the nativity with each child getting to dress up and play the role of an important character. Whether it was Mary or a shepherd or even the donkey, Grammy made each child know their part mattered as she helped them get into costume and play their part. Butterfly played an angel, eagerly and enthusiastically along with one of her older cousins. Ladybug was a reluctant sheep but too wound up to stay in one spot so she tossed her costume aside and bounded around curiously taking it all in.
What a wonderful weekend and great way to celebrate. Now we're home again and spent the day playing with our new toys and making caramel apples to deliver to neighbors and friends tonight. Around 1:30 today I admitted to my mom that the girls were still in pajamas, hadn't sat at the table for an actual meal yet and I hadn't even considered unpacking from the weekend yet. But I've been to Butterfly's salon seven times already and that every baby in the house has been well attended to all day. Eventually we did eat lunch and I put the girls down for naps but now we're at it again, still in pajamas, still haven't showered and still happy as can be as the girls play with their new toys.
...eventually we did shower and get dressed (just in time for daddy to get home from work). After a quick dinner we loaded the girls into the car and they watched mickey's Christmas Carol while we drove around delivering caramel/chocolate dipped apples. What a great day.
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