Hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year's Eve and New Year's Day! We spent both doing pretty regular weekend stuff like taking a trip to Costco and then doing some laundry and being lazy around the house. Although maybe slightly boring, it was much needed and appreciated considering all the activities that went down last weekend.
I unintentionally took more than a week off blogging minus The Guys Behind the Blog post last week and while it was nice to unplug for a while (I didn't even touch my computer for four straight days - it was amazing), there's so much I want to share that I'm going to play a little catch up today. 2017 is going to bring some changes to the blog, but more on that later. For now, a little holiday recap.
December 24th, 25th, and 26th were a bit crazy for us since Christmas and Hanukkah fully over lapped this year. We spent the 24th celebrating Christmas with my brother in law's family (who we're very close with and are basically like blood family even though they technically are not). We spent the 25th celebrating with Seth's direct family. And we spent the 26th celebrating Hanukkah. It was a whirlwind three days and I'm pretty sure Mason got so used to opening presents that he thought every morning for the following few days that there should be more presents. Coming down off the holiday high is a bit depressing.
This post is going to be relatively picture heavy because really, that's the best way to share a holiday recap. I'm not going to share all the pictures because 1) you'd be scrolling through pictures for about an hour and 2) I'm not sure how everyone feels about their kids pictures on the internet. SO, without further ado...
Prepping desserts for the big day...
And baking fresh cookies for Santa!
December 24th - Christmas Eve
Seth spent the morning out with the boys seeing the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One. Mason and I spent the morning baking some muffins for dinner at my sister in law's and brother in law's and then made our way over to their house a bit earlier than everyone to start the party early. Christmas Eve is spent celebrating with my brother in law's side of the family and this year Seth's cousins came in from Arizona to celebrate with us so it was an extra big group of family, including nine kids (soon to be one more later this month!). It was insanely crazy and loud, but amazing and wonderful all at the same time.
We got home late that night, Mason put out cookies and milk for Santa, and Seth and I played Santa and ate the cookies and milk (Seth) and put together toys (me).
Making corn muffins to bring for dinner.
Appetizers.
Dessert table.
TONS of presents for the nine kids!
Mason insisted on TWO cookies for Santa and TEN carrots for the reindeer.
December 25th - Christmas
We spent the early morning hours of Christmas morning as our little family of three opening our gifts for each other. The majority of the gifts were for Mason, minus some stocking gifts for Seth and I, because we each got some larger gifts that we got earlier in the month. (Seth got a bed liner and a Tonno Cover for his new truck and I got the iPhone 7+ that I had been wanting so much!) After we finished opening up our gifts, we headed over to Seth's mom's house for breakfast around 9:30am and ended up staying and playing until around 3pm when we headed home for showers and to change in order to be back for dinner at 5pm. It was a relaxed yet busy and chaotic day filled with love, gifts, and tons of family... oh and MORE food!
Some fun Hanukkah hats that Seth's aunt and uncle had.
Nanny love.
The BIGGEST hug!
December 26th - Hanukkah
I was originally supposed to work on the 26th, but only because I wanted to. It's a crazy busy time at work and I thought I needed to go in to process some payments, but I was going to be the only one there and so I decided to take an additional day off. I paid for it the rest of the week, but I worked late, and got it all done, and that's all that my bosses really care about. It's all about give and take!
I'm so, SO happy that my work is so flexible because I got to spend the extra day with our out of town family going ice skating (Mason's first time!) and going to see Sing. We then headed back to my sister in law's house and celebrated Hanukkah with MORE presents and of course, MORE eating!
It was a whirlwind weekend filled with lots of presents and lots of eating and lots of family and was just perfect. It was crazy and chaotic at the time, but I wouldn't have it any other way and I'm already looking forward to next year!
And with that, it's officially back to reality and back to our normal schedule -- I'm off to work today, Mason is back to regular school, and lucky Seth is off work officially celebrating the holiday and hopefully watching the Rose Parade for all three of us.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
Omg girl! You guys had an amazing week of holidays! So much fun! Mason is so handsome in his glasses and looks so grown up! I can't get over it. :)
ReplyDeleteLooks like so much fun! I love your Carly dress. :) I saw you claimed an awesome outfit last night btw!
ReplyDeleteWow what a week!!! Okay, so 9 kids!?! That sounds crazy to me! It was loud with just 4 at our house! And pie in the face.. Chris got it for Noah and I'm the buzzkill who said no way lol. Instead we have it to a friend ;). And finally, that Thomas set... Noah's seen it on YouTube and it's so cool! His friend got one and while it's amazing I literally don't think it would fit in our house! I told my friend I'm happy he can play with it here without me having to have it in my house lol!!!
ReplyDeleteSo sweet seeing Mason in his glasses. I hear you on the being away from the computer too. I went DAYS without touching mine and it was amazing. We all need that mental break every so often.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had such a great holiday! It must have been pure madness with 9 kids running around but I bet it was so fun!
ReplyDeleteEvelina @ Fortunate House
What a fun celebration! 9 kids! So fun!!
ReplyDeleteSounds like the perfect Christmas!! So much fun and running around, it's definitely a chaotic time of year that always passes far too quickly. :) I just love that pic of Mason looking up at his great-grandma, so sweet.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a wonderful holiday! Celebrating Christmas with nine kids sounds chaotic, but super fun! Every time I see photos of you and Mason baking, it reminds me that I need to put a Kitchen Aid mixer on my wish list :) Maybe next year!
ReplyDeleteI hardly touched my computer while I was in AZ! Now I have to play catch up, but that's alright :)
ReplyDeleteYou had the BEST christmas and I loved reading about it and looking at all of your pictures!
I have hardly touched my computer, too. Looks like you guys had the best time celebrating the past couple of weeks!
ReplyDeleteI 100% stayed away from the computer/blog on purpose for almost two weeks and it was amazing. That break is so necessary and refreshing!
ReplyDeleteYou guys crammed in so much fun, so much food, and so many presents!!
Let's talk about: that gorgeous red tree. I'm swooning; your SHOES in front of that huge tree, where did you get them?; and I don't think I've ever had any legit/traditional Jewish food (I told you I've never had bagels and lox, right?) and those latkes are making me drool. Next time we get together we need to have a little taste testing of all the goodies you always talk about!!
Oh my goodness, so many gorgeous trees in one post! What a great few days that you had! I took some time off too, unplanned but so nice to just sit and do nothing while watching tv during naptimes. I can't wait to see what you have in store for us this year!
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