Christmas eve
I love seeing images from other people’s holiday celebrations. It provides such an intimate glimpse into their lives and homes – ones that we would never know otherwise. I feel it’s only fair to share a few of our own and I hope that you enjoy them.
Our families typically do the big holiday celebrations the weekend before the holiday. Well, that mainly goes for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Easter is usually the same weekend. When I lived in LA, we celebrated Mardi Gras, but it isn’t recognized much here in Houston. I’m getting off tangent here…
For Christmas this year, the boys’ grandparents came (2 sets out of 3) to spend Christmas eve and Christmas morning/day with them. On Christmas eve, my husband cooked a big gumbo for everyone. We had hot chocolate and drove around looking at lights, then came home to eat, and finally laid our heads to rest in anticipation of the next day. The next morning, the boys woke up to discover their gifts and had a grand time opening them and playing with their new toys. Aidan was really into it this year, and Oliver was quick to catch on to his brother’s excitement.
We are so thankful to have been able to spend so much time with family, especially since they live a few hours away. Above all, the greatest gift that the boys received, by far, was time with their grandparents. I’m so, so glad they were able to come and share such a magical time with us.
The boys got a few gifts each from us this year. I always try to keep it simple, but even I sometimes get caught up in the fun of finding and making little treasures for them. The silks used to wrap all of their gifts were a joint gift for the boys. The first gift opened was lovingly shared by both boys: a magnetic trucks and diggers book.
Aidan’s big gift from us was a beautiful wooden train from Palumba. Oliver’s was his first waldorf doll. It’s handmade by the amazingly talented Marie of Knecht Ruprecht. I still need to get a good photo of him with his doll. He adores it and so does Aidan.
The boys each got a bike from Grandmou and PawPaw, but they mostly just shared Aidan’s. 
Let me tell you, Aidan hardly took his bottom off of that bike seat the entire day. Notice the handlebar in the photo below.
We had a nice Christmas dinner (lunch to some of you) of sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, seitan with mushroom gravy, homemade rolls, etc. Basically the same as we had for Thanksgiving. Yummy.
Later that evening, Aidan’s best bud Ethan came by with his whole family in tow, great grandma included. We were all excited to have them over! We played for a while inside, then got bundled up for a walk outside to look at lights in our neighborhood. It was the perfect ending to the perfect day.
