Our First Christmas at Home

For the first time ever, we spent Christmas alone. It was strange and quiet but nice. 
We spent Christmas eve having fun and doing some of our favorite Christmas eve traditions. 
I had to get my traditional pj pictures. I know it wont be too much longer until my kids are too big for this but I love it too much to stop right now. 

This one is my favorite! Benson's little face is so sweet in this one. 

We also decorated Christmas cookies. I had baked them the night before so we were all ready. 
The kids love decorating cookies and worked really hard on them. Even Benson worked hard. Okay, maybe he worked hard on eating the icing. But he enjoyed himself. 

Tucker took it the most serious and worked so hard to make his little cookies. It was pretty cute to watch. He did a great job too!

  

 

Dad even helped a little here and there. 

I sure love this girl of mine. 

After cookies we relaxed for a bit. We watched a movie and then we decided to smash our gingerbread houses. This is a favorite Christmas Eve tradition. 

Tucker decided at the last minute not to smash his house. 

The rest of the kids didn't hesitate. 

They smashed their houses gleefully and enjoyed eating them. 

Then the Drake cousins came over for Christmas Eve dinner. 

We had a delicious dinner of tamales and burritos. 

The kids played with their cousins and had so much fun. 

Before they left, we sprinkled reindeer food all over the yard. The reindeer would have to be blind to miss our yard. There was so much glitter and oatmeal in our yard. 

After the cousins left, we had a special delivery from the pajama elves. The kids ripped open the package and dug in. 

After they got their Christmas pajamas on, they gathered around and we read the pajama elves book together. This was Benson's first time to really understand or even listen to the story. He loved it. 

Then we said good-bye to our elves. Benson gave his elf a big hug. He loved getting to touch the elf finally. It was a very tempting month for him. 

Bailey was sad to say by to "Sparkle" but excited to get to hug her. 

Tuck and Tanner each hugged their elves bye too and then we got ready for bed. 

The kids were finally asleep around 9 pm. Their excitement is so fun and we all couldn't wait for Christmas morning. Chris and I made it to bed by 10 pm, which is pretty early. 

Unfortunately, their excitement didn't allow them to sleep very much. They were up at 2:30 am and then again at 5:45 am. So our Christmas day started very early. 

The kids love sorting through their stockings. We could hear their giggling from our bedroom and it was so sweet to wake up to, even if it was a little early. 

Benson loved the scooter that Santa brought him.

After the kids finished with their stockings, they searched for the Christmas pickle. Whoever finds the pickle, gets to open the first present. 

This year Tucker was lucky to find it and he was so thrilled! We spent the next hour opening presents and it was so fun to watch everyone's reactions. 

We gave the kids one big group gift and they loved it. We gave them a new game, an airfort and a disco light ball.

Tanner got legos, a transformer and this new bow. 

This year our sibling gift was special because the kids used their own money to pay for their gifts for each other. We gave each kid $10 as well, but they each decided to spent $10 of their own money on their sibling. It was so sweet and special. I loved watching them pick out their gifts for each other and then getting to watch the reactions as they opened their gifts. 

Benson had Tanner this year and he gave him some Star Wars legos. 

Bailey had Benson. She got him a fishing pole, some hot wheels and a mini skateboard. Benson was so cute and gave her a big hug after he opened his gift. 

Tucker had Bailey. He got her a polly pocket and "Jojo" doll. 

And Tanner and Tucker. Tanner got him some "Minecraft" legos. Tucker loved it. It was so cute. 

Tucker also loved getting a new kindle. 

The kids declared it "THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER" so I guess it was a success. It felt weird not to be with family for Christmas. Nanny and Papa were going to come here this year, but with COVID cases so high here, they didn't feel comfortable. We totally understand. COVID is the worst. We were sad not to have family and to not get together. But we made the best of it. We had a quiet Christmas day. We did a facetime call with Nanny and Papa and opened their presents together. 

Then later we did the same with Mimi and Grandpa. 

That evening we had our Christmas dinner. This was our first time making Christmas dinner alone. It was a lot of work. But it was delicious and we all enjoyed it. 

So cheers to our first Christmas alone. It was a great, quiet day and we had so much fun!

Merry Christmas!