I don’t know why special occasion posts are hard for me to write. They feel a little forced, sort of like writing a “What I did for Christmas vacation” school report. I’m much better at everyday kind of posts. But nonetheless, these are special memories and this is the place I write about memories.
We filled the days leading up to Christmas with fun activities like walking Christmas tree lane, hot coco at Starbucks, and Christmas movies. Baking and decorating sugar cookies is something they look forward to each year, and every year I decide that next year I will ban sprinkles permanently. Somehow, when I see those darling tubs of holiday sprinkles I just can’t resist buying them!

This year’s Christmas tree was rather large. As you can tell the children grew bored making popcorn strings so the bottom half of the tree was left looking quite bare.
A few days before Christmas I try to wrap some little presents to stick in their stockings. They get the biggest thrill out of seeing those tiny gifts peeking out of the top.

Christmas morning came. I had anticipated being awaken by 3 very excited children way before dawn, but to my surprise they all slept in. Finally at around 7:00am I got up and started making coffee and getting breakfast ready. It didn’t take long for them to all start piling out of their beds
G claimed his place by the fire as J started passing out presents.
I made them all hooded towels this year. My friend Trisha makes these great hooded towels and had given them as baby gifts to both my girls. Miss E’s towel was well worn from years of use, and the boys had always wanted on of their own. I thought it would make a nice gift for them and they were so fun to make!
The last thing to be opened is always the stockings.
The present opening aftermath.
Our traditional Christmas breakfast is braided blackberry coffee cake, bacon, orange juice and coffee. I make the coffee cake the night before, keep it in the fridge, and just pop it in the oven to bake while we open presents. The bacon also gets cooked in the oven at the same time, so we have a warm breakfast cooking while I enjoy watching present opening.

Miss E loves coloring these days so we got her a lot of art supplies for Christmas. She sat down right after breakfast and began to create.
Christmas night we usually head down to my parents house to celebrate with them. All 10 cousins, fill the house with laughter and lots of noise
They instantly head to the Christmas tree to scope out any presents that might have their name on it.
Love this guy! He posed for me while I took a picture of him in his Santa hat holding the platter full of steak.
My parents gave each of us our own wooden robot toys and the kids got a kick out of posing them while we ate dinner.
My dad carving the Christmas meat.

It’s at this point in the evening that my pictures stopped. Between enjoying the wonderful meal and helping the kiddos open their presents, there was precious little time to take pictures. It was a good Christmas! We are beyond blessed!
And this guy right here… he turned 7 the day after Christmas. My boy with the long lashes, sweet smile, and quiet ways. He has such a big, tender, and generous heart. Legos and Starwars dominate his play right now. He builds such wonderful things! For Awanas he memorized and recited all of Psalms 23. He just beamed with pleasure the first time he said it straight through without any help. I’m so happy I get to be his momma!