{2016 Christmas Recap}

I know I am so behind on posting this, but better late than never right? We've had such a good {but busy} last few weeks and I am still playing catch-up. Nathan's company closes down for 2 weeks every Christmas so we had lots of family time. I love it something fierce. I didn't even attempt to try to keep up with blogging during that time. It's overwhelming, but I am glad I devoted that time to my sweet family. Those are moments we'll never get back.

Anyhow, back to Christmas. I'm going to be real honest for a moment. It flew by too fast and I feel like I missed out on just enjoying that Christmas feeling. We literally had something going on every night from November 29th on. We watched the whole 2nd season of Fuller House on Christmas Eve Eve and it felt like the first time I was really able to just sit and enjoy the glow of the Christmas tree. I think this year flew by faster than normal because we added a couple more elements to our already busy season. We are more involved in our church this year and we also had Cub Scout events throughout the month. But, despite it zooming by too quickly we really did have an amazing Christmas season.


I absolutely love how Christmas fell this year. I normally have to work on Christmas Eve, but since it fell on Saturday I was off. It was nice to not have to work on that day. And because it was on a weekend we got to go to church on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! Christmas Eve candlelight service is one of my favorite services of the year. And how amazing was it to be able to spend Christmas morning with our church family celebrating the birth of our dear Lord and Savior? Oh how I loved it.

But, I need to back up a little bit. Our Christmas actually started back on December 17th when we had Christmas with Nathan's Grandma and Step-Grandpa. We all gathered at their house and had an amazing {catered} Chicken Fried Steak dinner and quality family time. Nate's step-grandpa did something really special for Mason. He gave him a Christmas gift he received on Christmas from Santa when he was 4 years old. He's 94, so it is a 90 year old gift. He asked Mason if he would like it and would take care of it for him. Cue the tears! So sweet and so very special.

Our next Christmas celebration was with our Boy Scouts friends. We had a Christmas party on Sunday, December 18th at the Boy Scout's Den. We ordered pizza and everyone else brought snacks and desserts. Each kid brought a toy to donate to the Texas Baptist Children's Home. Also at this party we had our Bobcat ranking. In order to get this the boys must know their Scout Oath & Law, the Cub Scout sign, handshake, motto and salute. They got their colors and Bobcat badge for knowing all of these things. It was so exciting and Mason loved it!

The next Christmas celebration we had was Mason's Christmas party at his school! I took the day off since I am one of the room moms and needed to be there to help. Their party was almost 2 hours long and so much fun! We went with a Grinch theme and it was a blast! Mason's teacher took care of all of the food and drinks and the room moms coordinated the crafts and games. The kids had a book exchange, opened their gift from their teacher and feasted on some festive breakfast items. I brought kits for each kid to make a Grinch Ornament, Grinch Playdough, and Grinch Dust to sprinkle in the yard on Christmas Eve. Another mom brought snowballs for them to have a snowball fight with the class across the hall. That was a BIG hit! Another mom brought a saran wrap game in which each child got a little prize out of it. The class across the hall invited our class to get their face painted like the Grinch. I got to draw the whiskers on. The kids were hilarious! We loved every minute of this sweet little Christmas party! And after the party we got to have a lunch playdate with some great friends!

Christmas Eve was our next Christmas celebration and we shared that day with my parents, siblings and their families. We had some delicious barbecue, played some games and watched the kids tear through through Christmas gifts. It was such a nice time. I only managed to take one picture, but I think it sums up the day perfectly.

After Christmasing with my family we left to get ready for candlelight service at the Cowboy Church {church we used to go to}. We spotted some friends so we sat with them. This service is one of my favorites of the whole year. It's so special, powerful and moving. They called all the kids on the stage, read them a story and gave them a light-up candle stick. Safe and smart! We did let Mason hold a real candle, but we were cautious and helped him. Mason loved the service as much as we did.

 

 After supper we grabbed a delicious {ha} supper from McDonalds. It was the only thing open and we made it just in the nick of time before closing. When we got home Mason put the star on top of the Christmas tree. He wanted to wait until the night of our Savior's birth to put the star on the top of the tree! He melts me. Then we hung our Innkeeper's key and Santa's key on the door, put out milk, cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer, and put our our magic reindeer food.

Then we put the boy to bed! He actually fell asleep faster than years before and surprised the heck out of me. Santa didn't have a lot of prep work or building, so his job was fairly easy. And Max {our elf} borrowed my camera to take a picture of Santa in our house for Mason. ;) Such a good elf he is!

Christmas morning was pretty exciting! Mason had only asked for two things; the Lego Jokerland set {which he later got at his Nana's house} a book called Silver Packages. So, everything he got from Santa and us was a complete surprise. Santa brought him an XBox One S with the Minecraft bundle and a gaming chair! He was ecstatic and surprised! We let him open all of his gifts and he had a bit of time to play before we had to leave for church.

Checking out the bells on the porch and the reindeer poop by the reindeer food

Next it was time for church! Such a blessing to be in the House of the Lord on Christmas Day! Mason is allowed to touch Max on Christmas Day so he brought him and Cubby to church with us. Max wanted to celebrate Jesus with us. We had an amazing Christmas service!

After church we went straight to Nathan's parent's house to celebrate Christmas with them. We started opening gifts almost immediately after we got there followed by a delicious lunch. Mason racked up on new Lego sets! He got three fairly large Batman Lego sets and an awesome Jeep Lego set! He's obsessed with Legos, so it was perfect. His uncle JoJo and I each built a set with Mason. That evening we played games and stayed up entirely too late. It was so much fun, though!

And a few other random Christmas-time photos...

 

I pray that you all had a very blessed and magical Christmas!