Christmastime

Posted by Laura Neuffer December 31, 2021

Christmastime

Christmas this year was cozy, happy, snuggly, sparkly, festive darn near perfect. We stayed home this year and tried to keep things simple but still did a lot of celebrating and had fun. And I'd say Elise had a great first Christmas.

I kept telling Matt that my Christmas gifts came early this year: perfect baby Elise, our beautiful house, and my dream car.

On Christmas and Christmas Sunday Elise looked adorable in her Christmas dress and tiny Santa hat - the same outfit that Lydia wore on her first Christmas / Christmas Sunday too! These pictures of our sweet, smart, smily girl make me so happy. She is literally my dream come true.

The Nutcracker

Lydia and I went to see The Nutcracker at a nearby high school with one of Lyd's best friend from school, Eleanor, and her mom Jenny! Lydia felt very special to be all dressed up and out with her friend at night. :) We stayed until right after intermission when she fell asleep in her chair. ☺️We're both looking forward to doing this again over the years!

Gingerbread house party

One afternoon we invited our Norwegian friends, the Nordmans, over to make gingerbread houses with us and Amberlie, Macie, and our new neighbors Jo and Sam. We turned on Christmas carols and lit a big Christmas candle and had fun! The kids ran around and played and ate candy while the adults did most of the decorating. :) Then we moved outside and let the kids play some more! I think all three little boys' favorite part was playing in Sam's electric car. :)

Parties

I lost track but I think Lydia was invited to 6 birthday parties during November and December. An especially fun one was a princess dress up party! Meanwhile Elise and I got to meet and chat with the other Kindergarten moms.

Elise turned 5 months old

On December 14 Elise turned 5 months old. I can hardly believe it! She's gotten so big and smiley and strong and fun. She's a delight and we love her!

Elise on the day she turned 5 months old!

Activities

We had a week-long break from school and Matt's work the week before Christmas. We tried to spend a lot of time at home, playing outside, working on house projects, and catching up on rest between Christmas activities.

One of multiple school parties

A school assignment that reminded us of The Church's Light the World campaign.
Lydia wrote "Keep hands to yourself. Wave smile help" 😊

Zoo trip

Wake up committee!

December Sunday best

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we had our traditional charcuterie dinner and video chatted with all of Matt's family. Then right before bed we read Luke 2 and A Night Without Darkness and each opened one present.

Christmas morning

...was magic. Lydia was patient and helpful as she handed everyone gifts and made sure everyone had something to open. The biggest gift was a CANOE from Santa! Santa left life jackets as a clue and a note - written as a poem! - about where to go to find it. We lucked out with warm weather so Matt, Lydia and Luke got to take it for a spin around the lake.

Sarah and Andy got ENGAGED!!!

The best news EVER. He proposed to her as they were opening presents on Christmas morning. Does it get more romantic than that?? ❤️ Andy is wonderful and he and Sarah make the perfect couple and we're SO excited! We can't wait to start celebrating. First up: getting the kids passports! I CANNOT wait!

Sarah, Ellen and I were LOLing about this being the mood board for the wedding 😂

Visiting Zac, Whitney, and the cousins!

The day after Christmas we drove up to Zac and Whitney's house! We got to meet cousin Tommy for the first time, who was just born last month. We spent the day with them, took a cousin picture in their matching outfits from Grammie Heidi, had a Christmas dinner, and the kids played and drove around in the toy car for a while. We ended the day by going into DC (with all 6 kids 5 and under - phew!) to see the White House Christmas tree! It was super busy (maybe because the weather was so warm) but we loved seeing the capital all lit up and decorated.