Family Christmas, Durham 2016

Because we travel to see our families at Christmas, we always set aside a day before we travel so that we can have a “family” Christmas day. It’s an effort to establish some Christmas traditions in our home for our family (note: we enjoy traveling to see our families at Christmas; we also just like to have a “Christmas morning” in our own home, as well). Also, by having a celebrate-at-home day, we don’t have to travel with the gifts that we give each other. Every little bit of space in the van helps, folks.

The past couple of years, we’ve tried to do a “Christmas Eve” prior to our “Christmas morning.” We’re getting into a groove of sorts. We make appetizer-y, party foods for supper and watch a Christmas movie, letting Claire drink hot chocolate, even though it’s close to bedtime. We’re wild. We watched Home Alone this year, not because it’s a family favorite or anything, but because Brad and I were the game makers for the Boswell Family Christmas Eve (movie-themed) Party. Annnnnd the movie was Home Alone. We used Christmas Eve as another study prep session. We don’t mess around.

The morning of our Christmas Eve, we also took Claire to the museum- which isn’t out of the ordinary- but we went, specifically, to ride the train. Train rides aren’t included in our museum membership, so it’s a special treat to ride the train. Of course, it was 20 degrees during our ride… But it was very fun, none-the-less. She had a blast, and then we went to warm up in the humid butterfly house. I also let her watch the Curious George Christmas movie when we got home, which put us all in a festive mood.

Not too many people were crazy about riding the train with us in the cold...

For most of Claire’s life, she’s gotten a stocking and one present from us for Christmas. This year was no different (for both girls this time). We are so blessed with such a lot of generous friends and family that the girls come home with many, many lovely gifts, so we do a much smaller Christmas among ourselves. This year, Claire got two big sets of Duplos (which had actually been toys at my granddaddy’s house for several years and are now getting new life), and Lily got one of those wooden bead mazes for babies. Claire’s stocking had some cookies, marshmallows, mini play-doh cups and cookie cutters, a box of Finding Dory band-aids, and a headlamp (which is maybe her favorite of the bunch). Lily’s stocking had a set of 8 animal bath toys that are perfect for little gummy mouths. Everyone had a great time playing with their new treats, so we count it as a win.

Well, I didn't have the right size box or bag for Lily's gift. So this happened. Bless it.

Brad and I give each other a couple more gifts than we give the children, which I think Claire noticed this time around. We both have a good time picking out things we think the other will like. This year, I got Brad the book about the making of the Broadway show Hamilton, as he is a big fan + a GIGANTIC mug, as he drinks massive amount of coffee these days in preparation for his prelims + a book of Piano Guys piano music, as he is having the best time with our new (to us) piano. And stocking stuff, including the new racquetballs that he totally saw beforehand. Oops. He got me quite a few fun things AND A NEW COMFORTER FOR OUR BED! I’d been wanting one for a while, but a recent bout of lots of baby spit up + diaper overflows + ineffective washing accelerated that desire. Brad wins! He also sneaked around while we were at Harry Potter World and bought me me a GIGANTIC mug. Only mine is extra exciting because little, tiny Marauder’s Map footprints appear when the mug is full of hot liquid. So fun!

Comforter!

We were finished with all of our celebrating before 9 (obviously…we have very small children), at which point we ate some of Brad’s cinnamon rolls. GUYS. If you’ve never had Brad’s cinnamon rolls, you have not lived. They are fantastic! And after that sugar rush of a breakfast, I started prepping for our afternoon plans. I’d arranged for 3 of Claire’s little friends to come over to decorate cookies as a mini-Christmas party. I got zero pictures of the party, but it was a roaring success for little girls and parents. I can probably be talked into hosting another one next year. I was able to rustle up 4 aprons for them to wear, and I used my makes-actually-perfect-sugar-cookies recipe so that decorating went as smoothly as I could have hoped. I baked a batch of cookies beforehand so that they could cool in time to decorate, but I had a batch of uncooked dough ready for the girls so that they could use the cookie cutters that they wanted to. Then, I just did a switcharoo in the kitchen, raw dough for cooked, and we trucked right along. It was quite fun.

We had a really nice family Christmas, and especially enjoyed having Lily with us this year. It was a great beginning to our celebrations.