Our Christmas miracle this year was that the kids slept in until almost 8am which nevvvvvverrrrrr happens.  That, and Andrew and I got to bed before midnight after elfing for quite a while putting together Nelle's kitchen.  Who knew those things take so long to put together?!  

When we started hearing the kids stirring on Christmas morning, Andrew popped up and started my coffee, citing he only did it because that's what happens on the coffee commercials on Christmas morning...the scent would beckon us out of bed.  He also started a fire that would last us all day, 

while I drug myself out of bed and opened the blinds.

The most beautiful sunbeam was just starting to peak through the bare trees in our backyard into our bedroom, and it stopped me in my tracks.  This gorgeous start to my morning I most certainly don't notice on most days when I'm already behind when my feet hit our chilly wood floors and start making to-do lists for the day in my head on top of the to-do lists already there from the night before.

Christmas is for noticing.

How coordinating Christmas church outfits are probably the cutest thing everrrrrr.

How Henry started to believe this year.  He couldn't get over that "Santa ate my cookies!" we had left out the night before.  

How onesie jammies make them both seem small again.

How Henry knows our copy of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas is special and handled it with extra care and admiration.  

His face when he saw what Santa had left...and hers when she eyed what she wanted to destroy first.

 

How we're in the phase of wanting to play with everything the second the first shred of paper is ripped off the box.

 

How Nelle is really afraid of the Christmas tree and is just starting to warm up to it, now that it's time to take it down.

How your house instantly seems five million times smaller when boxes and ribbons and toys 

start taking over every surface and one swoop through a room doesn't even put a dent in it.

It was a wonderful, wonderful Christmas.  

Not quite ready to come out of our toy/cookie-induced haze, but soon.

I think I've finally gotten all of our Christmas cards addressed and stamped...

there may be some that end up arriving the day after Christmas this year.  

Which is kind of fitting for our year.  ;)

From Henry's hot little hands carrying these to the mailbox to your virtual inbox...

a very merry Christmas to you!!

And can we just talk about these gorgeous photos my dear friend Bethany made for us this year?!  I look forward to our photo shoot swap for months and waiting for the very end of November to photograph each others' families in the same night at the same location had me more than a little nervous but it was lovely and some of these moments are just so us and so perfect right now.

It's already a tradition for us to get our family photos done at least once a year.  Then I can be in at least one photo with my family.  Ha!  But, I may have to make an early New Years' resolution to make a family album out of these (and the last two years' of photos she's given us) because I just feel like they deserve to be featured in more than just a few prints on our walls.

I think Bethany and I share a passion for capturing emotion and the little details of each family in a classic way that you just can't get from a quick 15-minute mini session.  (Also, she has two boys similar in ages to my monkeys so she gets it.  Like really gets that a shoot with two littles like ours is hard work.  You can see her session I did for her here and do click through because they are some of my all-time faves!)  The end result is an intimate glimpse into our life right now.  It's a genuine part of our story as a family. 

We're off to make more of our story when our Christmas celebration starts this afternoon with church, 

Christmas jammies and the reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

We took the kids to see Santa last night, and I'm not sure what I expected.  

Henry was beyond terrified last year, and Nelle was less than a week old so girlfriend was happy to be held and snooze/poop away. 

(Yes, her first blowout was at our Santa visit, albeit not on Santa.  That probably automatically lands you on the naughty list for a while I'd think.)

We went straight to the Santa line in case it held a wait for us, but thankfully it was just a couple of minutes.  

Enough time for me to pep talk Henry up sitting on Santa's lap and telling him what he wanted for Christmas this year.

"Trucks and toys."

Duh.

Well, no one cried, but no one was particuarly excited either.

Until, we walked around the rest of Botanica for Illuminations.  

Oh my gosh, watching all the lights coordinated with the music through Henry's lit up face was just what I needed this holiday season.  

Not that we don't have soooo much to be thankful for and we are so graciously excited about celebrating the reason for the season, even if our advent calendar only lasted three days until Henry started pulling all the little pieces out, trying to steal the baby Jesus and maybe we lost a wise man for a bit.  

It's just been a particularly busy, exhausting, trying work/parenting season, and we. are. pooped.

So, we haven't crafted anything with my kids' feet or handprints on it.  Nor do we plan to.

And I think we'll make one kind of Christmas cookie, instead of a platter full of choices.

And tonight, I'll sit by the fire, watch Home Alone and wrap presents 

and hope Henry doesn't unwrap them like he did the one lone gift I had actually placed under the tree earlier this year.

As we walked through a twinkling winter wonderland last night, 

Henry's face was the perfect reminder that the beauty and magic of this season are simple. 

 

He would have watched the trains for an hour.  Which is kind of great because I think some choo choo and train tracks might be in our future. 

And a $1 hot cocoa can go a long way in making a little boy happy.

And sticky.  Of course the sticky.

Savoring this view and the rest of the simple Christmas season.

The night before Thanksgiving Andrew and I had just gotten the kids to bed and started making pies together to take with us to the farm the next morning.  We had just finished packing Henry and Nelle's bags where each day's outfit was packed individually in a labeled plastic bag 

in hopes of keeping things a bit more organized for our four days away.  

(I forgot all of Henry's socks and absentmindedly wrapped Nelle's photo shoot headband in my seven-year-old niece's birthday gift.)  

Henry's tot cot was already in the back of the car, and we had started to pile up packed bags full of clean diapers and folded clothes, 

and road trip snacks and toys, which always makes Franklin's blood pressure go up a bit. 

As I rolled, rolled, rolled out my pie crust, 

even though part of me really wanted to be done with holiday trip prep instead of standing in the kitchen baking, 

I was thankful for the task that made me stop.

I always over-schedule, over-commit, and I realized why the holidays have come to mean so much to me these past three years.  

They are the perfect pause to force me to stop and just be.

To enjoy my family, and homemade desserts, and matching stockings, and Christmas cards that arrive every day, and the traditions both young and old, and my littles seemingly growing in the blink of an eye when compared to last year's holiday season.

 

I don't relax easily.  If I'm watching TV, I feel like I should be doing something else too.  Every night.  I can't call it a night until the kitchen is cleaned and the toys are put away.  Every night.  It always takes me at least twice as long as Andrew to fall asleep.  Every night. 

For someone like me, these special days, even with all of their extra prep and to-do's, are a break.

A gift with no-guilt for not being productive and doing laundry and sweeping the floor under the high chair.

 

I'm learning that their is value in time for ourselves and time to do nothing. 

And so, on Wednesday, Andrew took off work to celebrate our girl's special day, and we only celebrated.

With her first donut breakfast, lunch with just daddy and mommy, naps, a long winter's walk, and an extra treat before bed.

 

Wishing for more days like this one that one little candle stick.