Santa Came {& It Wasn't On Christmas Eve}

    Like I mentioned in my last post, Santa didn't come to our house until the night of December 26. Somehow he knew we were going to be out of town on Christmas Eve, so he waited until we were home to visit Connor and Olivia. When we arrived at our house the afternoon of the 26th, Connor saw that his elf was waiting under our tree for him with a package and goodbye letter. Inside the package were pajamas for the kids, a plate for Santa's cookies, snacks for our movie night, and The Night Before Christmas to read at bedtime. That evening after the kids took their baths, we had a movie night and then Connor left cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer before going to sleep.

Christmas 2017 {Christmas With Mimi}

      We had a very Merry Christmas, and hope you did too! It was a little different because Santa didn't visit us over Christmas Eve, he decided to wait until we got back to our house on December 26. Connor didn't mind because he didn't really know any better. So our traditional making cookies on Christmas Eve was done on Christmas day so we could take them back with us to our house. Confused yet?! Hope not! 

     Since this was Olivia's first Christmas, we had to take a couple pictures in the morning wearing our pajamas. She was so happy! Afterwards we made sugar cookies!

Christmas Day

    We had a really great Christmas, and I hope you did too. Connor woke up at about 7:15am {gasp!} and wanted to go straight downstairs to see if Santa came. I beat him to it so I could catch his reaction {see below}. He was so happy and couldn't wait to play with his new firehouse and firetruck set. We were able to get him to wait a bit before opening all his other gifts by feeding him breakfast. If it was his choice he would have opened all his gifts in 5 minutes, but we wanted to make it last a little longer.

My happy boy!

Christmas Festivities

     I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone. We have had a really fun month reading a new Christmas story each night and finding Hoho The Elf in a new place each morning. Hoho even joined us on our family vacation to Switzerland! How special is that?!? Here's what he's been up to the last month....

Day 14-15 In Texas: Christmas With Pappy and Girls Brunch

Day 14: Saturday 12/27

    Today was our Christmas with Pappy and Carol. We woke up early and ate breakfast in our room so we wouldn't wake anybody else up in the house.

Day 11-13 In Texas: Christmas Eve and Christmas With Mimi

Day 11: Wednesday 12/24

     Today was the day to say "see you later" to my parents. It's always tearful, but knowing that we are going to see them in a few months made it a little easier. We packed all our bags, put them in the truck, and took a few pictures before leaving.

Day 8-10 In Texas: Christmas With My Family and Time With Big Grandpa

Day 8: Sunday 12/21

    As soon as everybody woke up in the morning, Ellie and Timmy started begging us to open their presents from us. We told them we would do it the night before, but since we didn't get home until late, we never got a chance. Since Nick was going back to Corpus today, we went ahead and did it first thing in the morning. 

Santa Came On New Year's Eve?!?

     First off, Happy New Year! After being away for 18 days and a loooooong flight home, we are finally back in Italy. Our flight got in at 5:30 yesterday morning, and a friend picked us up at 7:30. After we dropped her off, we had to run to the grocery store and buy gas coupons. All 3 of us were cranky by the time we got home and Connor still wasn't feeling well. He has been sick with a cold {the same one that we have had for about a month and a half and seen the doctor twice for} and upset stomach off and on. Right after we walked inside our freezing house, he threw up on himself and me. Ick! We took a shower and then went to sleep. Six hours later and we all woke up. We needed that long nap! We were pretty hungry by this time, so I made dinner and Connor finally ate a good meal {he has been really picky the whole trip and not eating a lot}. After we cleaned up, we watched an episode of Downton Abbey and Connor fell asleep on me.

My sleepy boy!

Merry Christmas

   I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! We have been visiting with family the last couple of weeks, so I haven't posted much. As soon as we get back to Italy, I will have a lot to share! :) Here's our Christmas cards we sent out to family this year. I hope you like them! They are my favorite ones we have sent so far. 

Front

Our {Dallas} Christmas

    Today we had our third Christmas. This time it was with Mimi, Chrissy, and Ryan in Dallas.

 Chrissy got new glasses, so we were having fun and trying them on. C looks pretty darn cute in them!

Our {San Antonio} Christmas

     We had a rough night with Connor, so we took our time getting up this morning. Plus, Santa came when we were in North Carolina, so there was no rush to see if he came ;) 

 All ready to open presents.

Our {North Carolina} Christmas

    Merry Christmas! Well, kind of. As I mentioned in the last post, we are having our Christmas early because we are going out of town and don't want to take all of our presents. 

     We were up quite a bit last night with Connor. Thankfully, he didn't wake up for the morning until 8:30. Not too bad for his first Christmas. Aaron made a comment today saying that for the next 15 years we will never be able to sleep in on Christmas again. He's right, and I'm okay with that! I love waking up early to open gifts and can't wait for Connor to play with all his new toys. 

    We didn't stay in bed for very long before we went to see what Santa brought for Connor.

Those must have been some really good cookies!

Connor checking out what Santa brought him.

Santa got him this wooden toy with all sorts of fun things to do.

He liked spinning the letters.

Whoopsies!

    While Connor played with his new toy, I made breakfast. It was quick and easy.

    After we ate, Aaron separated the presents. We opened ours first, and then helped Connor with his.

 

    Aaron bought Kylie a bone, but it was so messy that she had to eat it outside. When we checked on her a few minutes later, she was covered in it. Needless to say, she had to get a bath tonight. 

She liked ripping the tissue paper to pieces.

    Aaron and I decided to get each other small gifts this year since we are spending a lot of money to go back home for the holidays.

Connor got his daddy Dominoes

 

I got him Risk: Battlefield Edition. He saw it when we were in Minnesota and really wanted it.  

He got me a Brighton charm and spacer for my bracelet.

After we opened up our gifts to each other, we opened up presents from my mom and all of Connor's.

My mom got me Brighton earrings and other little gifts.

 You can never have too many socks.

 Connor started getting frustrated right about now...

Aaron bought him some clothes.

 Grandpa got him 2 new tractors.

 We took a quick break for a bottle and then opened more presents.

 We loved the Notre Dame hat, sweatshirt, and sweatpants my sister and brother-in-law got Connor.

 All of his new toys

 He got a ton of new pajamas.

New clothes.

Christmas as a family of 4 is so much more fun than when it was just the 3 of us!