We did several fun Christmas activities leading up to Christmas that I really want to share here on the blog, however I think I'll start here with Christmas morning at our house and go from there!
Christmas this year (like the last 2 years) was spent at home in our pajamas and we LOVED it!! Jake and I always said that when we had kids, we wanted to spend Christmas day at home and thankfully we've gotten everyone in our family to jump on board with that. So we spend a whole day with each of our families on a day around Christmas and then Christmas day is spent at home with the kids, and it's wonderful.
Our "Santa" tradition is that Santa brings one unwrapped gift for each of the kids on Christmas Eve and fills their stockings with goodies as well. We wrap the rest of the gifts and those are from us.
We also set cookies, milk, orange juice and a carrot out for Santa and his reindeer this year. This was the first year we made sure to start this tradition because I felt like Jackson was actually old enough to get it. He is the one that requested Santa have orange juice as well (not sure where he got that from) and the carrot for the reindeer. :-) Christmas Eve was spent at my Aunt and Uncle's house and while we were there the kids decorated cookies, so we used those cookies for Santa. :-)
So when the kids woke up Christmas morning, the first thing they saw were their Santa gifts and they were both very excited!
Santa brought Avery a cute little pink kitchen and he brought Jackson a Paw Patrol Look-Out!
He also filled their stockings with a few goodies.
I decided to start a new tradition this year where Santa brought each of the kids a special ornament for the tree. It was in each of their stockings. Jackson got a Ninja Turtle ornament and Avery got a Minnie Mouse ornament. Each ornament was of something they are into right now. I may use a Sharpie and write the year on them somewhere. I thought we'd use them on our tree until the kids are old enough to have a tree of their own and they can take their collection with them. :-)
After checking out what Santa brought them, they moved on to opening the presents from us. :-) It was so much fun watching them open presents this year! Jackson was so excited to see what he got and with every present opened, Avery exclaimed "Wow!!" It was the cutest thing ever!! Thankfully we got it all on video, just as we do every year!
Avery trying to put on a pair of jammies she just opened. Ha!
Big brother helping Avery open a present. :-) He's so sweet.
Jackson opening his legos. He said this was his very favorite gift this year!
Avery giving one of her new Little People Princesses a kiss. :-)
Avery hugging her new Giant Minnie Mouse. This Minnie Mouse is taller than Avery is and she absolutely loves her. I'm pretty sure this was her favorite gift this year. At nap time that afternoon, I had to rock Avery and Giant Minnie on my lap. Ha! That was interesting.
This play-doh set was also a big hit!
After opening presents, the kids played with several of their toys while Jake and I put a few of them together. We also watched the Disney World Christmas Parade!
Jake made a big breakfast at lunch time and as he was making that, his Mom stopped by for a little while to see what the kids got for Christmas.
After lunch, I put Avery down for a nice long nap and we watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. We also played a few of Jackson's new board games with him.
Later that afternoon, Jake's mom headed over to his older brother's house to hang out with them and Jackson and I built a little city with of his new legos! We had the best time building it and he said multiple times how much fun it was to build that city and how much he loved me for helping him! So. Stinkin. Sweet!!!
Once Avery woke up from her nap the kids played a little more with their new toys and we watched a few Christmas cartoons.
Then Jake fixed us dinner and the kids ate in their new little desks that we got them!
It was such a fun filled day, one that went by way too fast!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
