Our Christmas Overview | 2023 Edition

Ahhhh Christmas.
We count down the days and anxiously lament how long it’s taking to get here – and then in the blink of an eye, it’s over.

Despite a bunch of sickness going around (Leander was sick for a solid 2+ weeks, Braelynn had two rounds of a cold, and Derrick had some sort of cold/flu/something), we still squeezed every last drop out of our holidays.

We celebrated for 10-full days – with tons of delicious food, delectable desserts, new books, games, and movies, new toys, and lots of relaxing time spent snuggled up together on the couch.

I must say: I really LOVED how Christmas fell this year (with the Eve falling on a Sunday, and the Day falling on a Monday). It just felt like we had an extra day to celebrate and enjoy – both Christmas and New Year’s! If I had to pick, I think I would have it land this way every year! It was just so relaxing and stretched things out just enough to feel like we weren’t in such a huge rush to squeeze everything in.

I have lots of memories and thoughts and photos to share, so if you’d like to take a stroll through what our holidays looked like – here we go!

CHRISTMAS EVE EVE

Christmas EVE is traditionally spent at Meme and Grandpa’s house for breakfast and gifts, but since December 24th fell on a Sunday this year, we pivoted and did Christmas Eve Eve at Meme and Grandpa’s!

Since no one had to rush out to do “normal” Christmas visiting and there was no Christmas Eve services to get ready for, we all had a much more relaxed and chill morning! It didn’t feel like there was a timer ticking in the background – it was SO nice!

Unfortunately, that’s when Derrick wasn’t feeling well, so he stayed home and missed out. Poor Leander was still stuffed up and coughing, but he had already been sick for 10+ days at this point, so we felt like he was so close to being better that he could come (which is why he looks a little red-eyed and runny-nosed in some of these photos!)

Of course, my cousin Nate stole the show when he brought his new German Shepherd puppy, Gunner, over! Oh my, he is just the sweetest, fuzziest, most adorable thing ever! Braelynn was beside herself.

We came home that night and had our “traditional”, candle-light, Christmas Eve dinner. Thankfully, Derrick was feeling much better after getting some good rest and was able to cook us some delicious steak.

CHRISTMAS EVE

On the “real” Christmas Eve, we hosted an Abbey-family-Christmas, as Paul and Naomi, PJ, Cameron, and Alex were able to come over and spend the day with us! They were in town, staying with and visiting Naomi’s family – and thankfully, they were able to come visit us for a bit! We exchanged gifts, ate a lot of delicious food, played games for hours, and had such a fun day! The kids did not want their cousins to leave, ever.

After they left, we did our traditional Christmas pajamas photos! The kids were so tired by this point in the evening though, so we kept things short and sweet.
We did pajama photos, unwrapped the last of the Christmas books, the kids put out cookies and milk for Santa (even though they both know that Santa isn’t real – they still love the tradition of it), and then they were off to bed!

Last year, Braelynn and Leander exchanged gifts with each other before going to bed on Christmas Eve – so we continued that tradition this year. It’s always so sweet to see them present gifts to each other, and by doing it on Christmas Eve, it separates those gifts from Christmas morning gifts, making them extra special.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Derrick and I sat and talked while we were waiting for the kids to go to sleep on Christmas Eve and we decided to approach Christmas morning a bit differently this year.

We still put the gifts out and closed the doors to the dining room, so seeing the tree and gifts would be a big surprise, but this year, we took it one step further and moved our dining room table out of the dining room, and put one of our couches in the dining room. That way, we not only had more space, but we could sit on the couch while opening gifts (which was so much more cozy and comfortable than sitting on the floor!)

We also decided that we would do a “one-by-one” gift opening process this year. All I can remember last year is everyone tearing through their gifts at a break-neck pace, and I felt like I missed out on seeing half of the gifts my kids opened.

So, we slowed things way down this year. Opening gifts took a solid amount of time – and it was SO good. Everyone got to see what everyone else was opening – it was exactly what I wanted and it make me so happy.

If you recall, all Leander asked for for Christmas was “Candy Cane Pencils” – he was SO excited to open them up!

But of course, the highlight of the gifts, was Braelynn and Leander each getting new bikes! They each had grown out of the bikes they’d been riding all summer, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get new ones! They were the biggest surprise ever!

And for once, we weren’t upset about not having a white Christmas at all! Temps on Christmas Day almost hit 60º – which meant Braelynn was able to take her new bike out and ride it right away! It was such a beautiful, spring-like, day (the birds were chirping and everything felt so fresh).

Then it was on to my parent’s house for Christmas with my family!
We decided to change it up this year and planned for lunch instead of dinner (which worked out to be the perfect decision since half of us were sick and just wanted to spend the day cozied up at home anyways.)

My parents, Ruby, and Steve then came over to our house for dinner that night.
(And we played several rounds of Hues and Cues, a game I got for Ruby! It was so much fun – we played it a lot last week! I love that it’s a challenging game – but it was VERY simple to understand and everyone from Braelynn to my Dad could play it!)

CHRISTMAS WEEK

The week between Christmas and New Year’s, Derrick had off (mostly – he still worked from home a little bit here and there – guess that’s what happens when you’re a District Supervisor). Since we were all still getting over various sicknesses, we had the laziest week of our lives.
We slept in every morning, laid around reading books and watching movies, the kids enjoyed playing with all of their Christmas gifts, and we snuck in one last quick visit to Kennywood with my Mom and Ruby!

NEW YEAR’S WEEKEND

On Friday, my parent’s hosted my Mom’s side of the family for their annual Christmas dinner and gathering – followed by what is always a rousing White Elephant gift exchange.
It was really so wonderful to be all together – collectively we missed my Grandma being there, but her memory was definitely honored as we all laughed and enjoyed time together. All I could think was: she would have loved to see her entire family together like this.

On New Year’s Eve, we invited whoever was feeling well-enough to come over to hang out at our house! We played lots of games, ate lots of food, and the kids BOTH stayed up until midnight to ring in the New Year! (We tried to put Leander to bed, but he just couldn’t handle everyone else still being awake and downstairs playing games, so we let him come back down to hang with us.)

I told you we played a lot of this game! It’s a good one!

We spent New Year’s Day playing in the (whopping) 1″ of snow that we got (somehow, Braelynn was still able to build 2 snowmen – she’s a wizard when it comes to snowmen!) and we spent the rest of the afternoon/evening over at my sister Ellen and Jonathan’s new house! We taught everyone how to play Cover Your Assets and ate our weight in delicious food – it was the perfect way to round out the holidays.

And now, we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming! Happy New Year!