Christmas 2012

This Christmas was the first in our new home.  You know, the whole Christmas season is different at a new place.  Firstly, all my decorations had the perfect spot at our old home (which would make sense since I bought them to go in specific places in our old home) and they really just don't look the same here.  Secondly, our Christmas traditions had some changes too.  We are closer to certain places that make it possible and easier to include new traditions.  But we also decided that some old traditions that took place in Cache Valley would just have to be off the list now-days.  Thirdly, can I say that our new neighbors are fabulous and were super kind to bring by a little something (even though I was lazy and didn't do any friend or neighbor gifts this year)... but there are still some things I miss about our old neighbors, friends and former ward members.  And finally, our families are no longer close by (and will be at opposite ends of the state by next Christmas) so we actually have to plan ahead as to who we are going to go visit.
Since Eve and Porter were sick with the flu (thank goodness Jack got his flu shot and missed getting the plague) we ended up not being able to go visit family in Logan so the grandparents made the trip down to us. 

Grandma Wendy and Grandpa Rusty came down for Christmas Eve so we did Christmas #1 with them.

Poor Porter was so sick.  But snuggling with Grandma and Grandpa helps.

 

 

  

Thankfully Eve was feeling much better by the time Christmas Eve rolled around.  She had been sick with a nasty flu for the entire week before Christmas break started.  She ended up staying home all that week and the week of Christmas break.  It would have been a nice long and fun vacation if she hadn't spent most of her time sleeping the day away or being miserable on the couch.  I'm glad she looks much happier in these pictures.

 And to top off the day, it snowed... and snowed... and snowed.  At first, it just rained and I was so bummed.  I was sure the weather man had gotten the forecast all wrong.  But then in a matter of minutes, the rain turned to snow.  One minute I looked out the window and there was nothing and five minutes later there was snow everywhere.  It just dumped and dumped!  Yay!  White Christmas!!!  The next morning was beautiful!  Blue skies and sunshine and lots of fresh snow, untouched snow.  Where was my camera?

Grandma Wendy and Grandpa Rusty went home Christmas Eve evening.

We celebrated Christmas morning (Christmas #2) with just our little family.  It was really nice and peaceful to have a low maintenance morning with just us and the kids.  And can I just say how thankful I am for kids that like to sleep-in.  Starting at 9am is a perfect Christmas present for mommy and daddy

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 To help simplify our gift giving and avoid conditioning the kids to expect more and more random presents that they quickly forget about, we decided to go with themes for our presents.  I love the idea of four main categories:  "something you want", "something you need", "something to wear" and "something to read".  Each year everyone gets something from each of those categories.  We also expand upon those categories with different ideas each year.  This year we also did "something to create" and "something to succeed."  And of course they also got some stocking stuffers and Santa gifts- just for them individually and also for the whole family.  We also drew names and each picked out a gift for the person who's name we drew.  

I honestly love doing gifts by theme.  It helps me pick out more meaningful and helpful gifts rather than buying and buying more gifts just because I see something new.  There is always an overabundance of things to buy for each other so I like that I can feel satisfied with what I got for everyone when I've gotten something from each of the categories we decided to use and I know those are things they will appreciate.

In the future we might include "something to do" or "something to do as a family."  It will just depend on what we feel our family would benefit from and love the most each year.

I created simple tags for the gifts... no frilly bows to be smashed.  The tags included the name (color coded for easy dispersion of gifts) and the category.

 

Poor Popo was still so sick.  He was not at all excited about opening presents.

It really could have been a much bigger disaster.  Thankfully I have an OCD hubby that likes to clean-up as we go along.  

Grandma Deb and Grandpa Dave stopped by later that afternoon (Christmas #3).  I really wish I had taken some pictures while they were here.

By the end of the day, naps were much needed!