Our Merry Little Christmas | 2017

Well, we are in full depression mode here as the Christmas decorations have come down and were back to school. Except for today because we are enjoy our first snow day of the year! (Fist bump for taking a chance and turning off all alarms.)

I can’t bring myself to take the trees or stockings down, but it does feel nice to get my house back in order (kind of).

We had the best Christmas this year, full of cuddles, a nonstop fire and lots of movies and hot chocolate. {and coffee!}

We started the celebrations on the 23rd with our very first Nutcracker experience! I have always wanted to take the girls and this year we finally got it together and made it. 

It did not disappoint! Both girls made it through the whole way and it was the nicest afternoon spent with my favorite ladies. (Minus Hazel, because obviously)

Harper has been wanting to do ballet for a little while now, and I am happy to say after 7.5 years of being a girl mom, I finally signed up my first girl for the winter session! 

We spent Christmas Eve having a lazy morning and then for the first time in history, we made it to Christmas Eve mass. Our besties were in the kids play and we personally knew Baby Jesus, so it was not to be missed :) We ended the day at Lita's where we ate our little hearts out and made it home and to bed in record time. It was the perfect way to start off Christmas!

It's borderline annoying how much my only brown eyed/brown haired girl looks like him. 

Hazel was ecstatic with her wrapping paper!

After the girls fell asleep we started the most stressful Christmas Eve night ever, one of us always keeping watch for little nosy Nelly's peeking out of their door. I made it to bed a little after midnight thanking myself for setting the girls wake alarms for 8:00. I know.. SO cruel.

We were so excited to see the girls run down the never ending stairs of the new house (one day soon I'll post about it...we moved!) and the 17 minute video we have of Christmas morning brings all the feelings. 

I'm sure everyone and their mom got these Instax cameras but holy moly they are the cutest things ever!! We basically went through 4 rolls of the film which I come to find aren't the cheapest thing in the world, but one of my favorite gifts this year for the girls!

That's my girl!!

"I have candy?"

So apparently they don't make these with stickers anymore, haha! If this is at all a clue to how little patience I've always had, I used to remove the stickers and super glue them in the correct place. Well done Rubiks cube people. Well done.

Santa must have accidentally purchased the "large" soccer goal" by mistake. 

And look at Hazel showing some emotion! Baby dolls seem to be the only thing this kid actually plays with so she got a brand new one just for herself! No missing feet or hands! Just give Reagan some time...

We ended the night with the most delicious Chinese food that Mama joined us for which was the perfect end to the laziest, most perfect day. 

Our tradition of the elves staying to watch them open their presents stayed strong this year. Plus an additional day thanks to Daddy making a call to the big man in the North Pole so they could stay another night to sleep with the girls. 

That sad little smile!

It was the most gut wrenching thing to witness. Quinn couldn't contain her tears and you would catch her every so often staring out in space and then breaking down in tears at the thought of saying goodbye to her elf. 

It was a sad night saying goodbye, but she sent them with notes and a beautiful picture of herself and Corn and off they went.

We promised we would still hide her stuffed Corn, which is much less stressful because if Mommy & Daddy forget, its not a big deal!

I had to put the Christmas countdown in the basement immediately because the sight of it was just too sad. 

Here's to a fresh start of 2018! I organized the pantry yesterday and I'll enjoy the lasting days of being more organized as it slowly fades. As it does every single year.