Monthly: December 2021 & Christmas

I started this post back at the beginning of January, and then school resumed and I wanted nothing to do with the computer once the work day was done... and here we are in March. 

December was really a lovely month. There were lots of fun plans on the schedule, and it felt like a normal Christmas season despite the pandemic. In some ways it felt like we were making up for last year's strange holiday.

 Todd and I went with friends to see "Hamilton" at the Morrison Center, and it was wonderful!

We had lots of family hangs - and spent most of it fighting over who got to hold Everett. 

We made Christmasy plans early in the month, since the weekends were quickly being filled and folks were going to be traveling. All the cousins got matching jammies :)

Santa came to visit the kids at church!

 

Liam participated in Academic Team this year and we were able to attend a match that Sage Valley won. It's not easy to get a good picture of what this looks like - since it's really just a group of kids huddled around several tables waiting for the chance to hit the buzzer.  

 

And then we celebrated mom's birthday - I think her best gift was probably this picture, I mean you can't really ask for better with 5 kids!

Carolina, Alice, and Whit were able to participate in the kid's Christmas program once again. 

And then all the family left to spend Christmas with elsewhere. It was a first for us to be "alone" at Christmas. But with our school break not starting until the 23rd it really didn't leave us with too much down time. I did get all of my wrapping done before Christmas Eve and we enjoyed one whole day of Christmas baking and movies. We went to Christmas Eve service then had Todd's cousins over for our traditional get-together.

Also see that tree?! It was SO beautiful and lasted for weeks, smelling nice the whole time. 

 

 

 

And then it was Christmas Day! Leading up to it I wasn't sure how I felt about a holiday on our own, I was worried that we would be sad or the kids would be difficult or disappointed with the smaller pile of presents. But we had the mindset that it would be a brand new, memorable experience and it turned out to be a perfect day! We slept in, stayed in pajamas all day, made a mess, played with new toys, watched a new Christmas movie, and went out for a drive (still in pajamas) to look at Christmas lights. The kids were sweet and kind which really made the day for me. 

Carolina got a matching fancy dress for her and her American Girl doll. 

Liam got the thing he wanted most, but didn't think he'd get - an Oculus headset.

The continue the theme of making the day unique and memorable we had steak fondue for Christmas dinner. It was the kids' first time, and they LOVED it. 

Afterwards, the kids pulled out their blankets and pillows and slept Christmas night by the tree. And the next day the Michaelson's came over to spend Boxing Day with us, so fun!

We got some lovely snow over the break, and enjoyed shoveling it and playing in it.

And then family returned!! We had had Christmas with the McConnel's before they left, and so we planned to have Knight Christmas afterward. It was actually so nice to spread out Christmas like this - the more the merrier!! It snowed like crazy that day, we were thankful everyone got home before the storm hit. But it was so fun to watch it fall and then spend a good chunk of the afternoon building a snowman.

The next day was New Year's Eve which we spent with everyone, which was great... and then led to some interesting weeks afterward...

But truly, this December was one of my favorites on record. It was really relaxed, but also just the right amount of full, and it felt like we just appreciated everything and everyone so much more because we had missed out last year.