I'll Be Home for Christmas

This year was the first year that we got to stay home and have our very own Christmas. I guess, technically we stayed home for Christmas in 2007 because the twins were less than a month old and had only gotten out of the NICU a week and half earlier so we definitely weren't going anywhere. It wasn't the same though. That year, being home was thrust upon us and I wasn't ready. My Dad was so sweet and sent us a tree so it would feel more like Christmas at our house. It's the same tree we still have, although a little worse for the wear.

This year, we embraced having a Christmas at our home without the hassle of holiday travel. It was simple, and lovely and so fun.

I enjoyed getting our house ready, putting up the Nativity and hanging stockings.

(I've learned the fastest way to get Marc to do something like putting hooks under the mantle is to just start doing it myself. If he sees me with a drill, his danger sensor goes off and he happily comes and takes over to prevent disaster. I always get the job done, it just takes me a few tries sometimes. Marc prefers if there is only one hole.)

The snow had melted the week leading up to Christmas but, like magic, we woke up to this on Christmas Eve morning.

Christmas Eve is doubly special for us because it is also Marc's birthday. We were having too much fun to take very many pictures, but we spent the day with good friends. We had dinner together which ended up consisting of mashed potatoes, asparagus with bacon, jello salad and rolls because the turkey decided that it did not want to cook in a reasonable amount of time. We had the traditional root beer tasting in the evening featuring 12 different kinds of root beer. We also attempted a Christmas puppet show about Christ's birth. Our boys were not terribly cooperative. We all worked on a Christmas puzzle together and sang Christmas carols. For dessert we had Marc's peppermint ice cream birthday cake, some homemade Buckeyes and the turkey which had finally been cooked to a safe internal temperature.

Christmas morning was awesome. The boys waited patiently while Mommy made sure everything was ready and Daddy dragged himself out of bed. They didn't get us up until 6:30. It could have been so much worse.

Just to be mean I made them take another picture or ten on the stairs, but then we finally went in to see what Santa brought.

Again, we were too caught up in the joy of the moment to do much with the camera, but we did get a couple of candids that were too good to pass up.

After everything was done, we had the boys pose with their loot and we took video of them telling us about their Christmas. This is a tradition from my family- one that I hated as a child. (Sorry Dad!)

But I think it will be fun to look back and see what they were interested in each year.

My bet is that there will always be a lot of books in the pictures.

We just can't help ourselves when it comes to the written word.

Every Christmas I always feel like we've gotten them too much that they are going to be spoiled brats, but every year they are so grateful, so excited, so happy.

I still think we should try to cut back but I also feel like we must be doing something right. We loved being home for Christmas.