Our Small Family Christmas!

When you don't live in the same town as any of your family (or even in the same state as part of them), you likely spend your holidays traveling. That's how it always was for me growing up, so when Chris and I got married, it didn't feel strange that we were never home on major holidays. That didn't change when we finally had children. As much as I love the idea of being at our house for Christmas Day, I love being with our extended family even more. 

This year was our year to spend Christmas with Chris's side of the family. Because his parents only live about 45 minutes from us, it would have been possible to do our small family Christmas on Christmas morning, then travel out to his parents' house for the rest of the day. However, Chris and I like to have an entire day set aside for celebrating our small family Christmas. We like to take a long time opening gifts, have our traditional Christmas meal, and spend the evening just being together. 

We set aside Saturday, December 23rd to be our small family Christmas day. The kids were counting down and looking forward to this day for weeks. They loved that we were doing Christmas early, and I can remember having those same feelings when I was a child (we always celebrated Christmas early because of traveling, too). 

Side-note  - *We actually ended up being home on Christmas Day this year due to illness, but we didn't know that would be the case so we still celebrated on December 23rd. *

The evening of December 22nd - after we got all the children in bed - Chris and I set up everything for the next day. I know every family has their own traditions regarding gifts, but we wrap everything. I typically get all my wrapping done several weeks before Christmas because I hate to feel stressed out about gift-giving. It's something I enjoy, so I do what I can to ensure it stays enjoyable. Also, last year I began wrapping each child's gifts in their own wrapping paper. I love this, and it makes it so easy to know what gifts belong to whom!

All set up and ready!

There's just something about the anticipation of Christmas :-).

Our kids are early risers, so we expected they'd be up and ready to go at sunrise on Saturday morning. And, sure enough, they were! Chris and I were actually awakened that morning by Brianna running into our room and proclaiming, "IT SNOWED!" Of course, this was an exciting event for all of us! It was our first snow of the season, and the timing of it couldn't have been more perfect!

No excitement here, haha!

Brenson, Brooke, and Brecklyn were all still battling sickness at this point, so we didn't play in the snow. That was disappointing, but I still wanted pictures!

After snow pictures and muffins for breakfast, it was time to open gifts. I honestly think I get just about as excited as the children do for gift opening! 

Brianna, Brenson, Brooke, and Brecklyn

We always begin with stockings first.

Brecklyn

Brenson

Brianna

In our house, stockings always include a new toothbrush, a box of bandaids, and just one or two other little things. I love how happy they get over the small things in their stockings!

Brooke

Brenson

Brianna

Brecklyn - bandaids are her favorite!

After stockings, we have the children each give Daddy a gift from them.

Bren got Daddy a four pack of little lanterns.

Brianna got Daddy a pair of bluetooth headphones to use at work.

Brooke

Apparently, Daddy was excited, haha.

Brooke got Daddy a new lunchbox to take to work.

And, a few little kisses :-).

Brecklyn

Brecklyn got Daddy a casual shirt to wear at home.

After Daddy gets his gifts, it's Momma's turn. 

Brianna got Momma a new blouse.

Brenson got Momma a giant puzzle.

I love puzzles and was pumped for one this big!

Brooke got Momma some new socks.

Brecklyn got Momma a new phone case and two keychains.

The next thing we do is have each child take a turn giving all of their siblings a gift. We don't do anything big for sibling gifts (I keep each gift around $5), but they love picking things out and giving gifts to their siblings.

Brianna giving her sibling gifts

She got the twins their own pair of play glasses this year (no doubt so they'll leave hers alone, haha). 

They loved them!

For Bren, Brianna got him little PJ Masks figurines.

Bren gave each of his sisters a bracelet. If you can't tell, Brianna loved it!

Brooke with the bracelet Brenson gave her.

Brooke could hardly wait to give out the gifts she picked out for her siblings!

Brecklyn was thrilled with the Sophia figurines from Brooke.

Finally, Brecklyn handed out her presents.

I thought it was so cute that Brooke and Brecklyn were telling each other "thank you" and giving hugs.

Brecklyn got Brenson a set of head lamps. Her camera face is hilarious in this photo!

You can see why it takes us a long time to open gifts, but we want to enjoy the process. We also want our children to learn to be gracious gift givers, to be patient for their turn, and to be polite while others are opening gifts. They do really great with all of these things, and they love being the givers almost as much as being the receivers of gifts :-).

After the children have all given out their gifts, it's time for "Santa" gifts. We typically begin this process by giving each child one gift to open, then allowing them all to open that one gift at the same time.

Brooke

Brenson

Brooke and Brenson

Brianna

Brianna is so much fun to give gifts to because her reactions are always BIG. And her faces are very expressive!

Brecklyn

So cute in her new raincoat!

Brooke didn't open her raincoat until several minutes after Brecklyn. When she saw what it was, she said, "I got one too, Momma! I got one, too!" :-)

After about three rounds of opening one gift per child, we let them just go crazy opening the rest of their gifts. It's always so much fun to watch them just tearing into their gifts at their own pace!

Legos were a huge hit with Bren this year!

Brianna received very few toys this year, and she was thrilled with her gifts! It's a sign that she's truly growing up. Her gifts included a hairbow, a bracelet, 

a bathrobe, and a new pair of shoes!

Bren is all about the binoculars!

This bow and arrow set was one of Bren's favorite things. He also received a bathrobe that he didn't take off for nearly an entire week!

Of course, Brianna still received a few new toys. Shopkins are a big interest of hers right now.

Despite what it looks like in this photo, the twins were very happy with their new Calico Critters.

Brooke was tearing into her gifts like the big kids and so excited for each one.

Brecklyn was taking her sweet time with her gifts. She liked them, but she wasn't just going crazy like the other kids.

During the gift opening, we never worry about picking up trash. I think it's a big part of the fun to just let wrapping paper and boxes be everywhere. The kids always love it, too! After all the gifts have been opened, I have the kids lie down in the paper and we take our traditional "in the wrapping paper" photo. Every year, it ends up being one of my very favorite photos from Christmas!

Family Christmas photo! 

Just look at my babies' sad eyes. It's pretty obvious in these pics that they weren't feeling well. All the snow and gift opening excitement had really worn them out :-(.

At one point after we had finished opening gifts, I went upstairs for something. As I was coming back downstairs, this is what I saw:

Everyone was wrestling and playing in all the Christmas paper. They were screaming and laughing and giggling, and my heart couldn't help but feel so full in that moment. 

We spent some time playing with new toys, had a quick lunch, naps for the little ones, more playing, then our traditional dinner that evening. Our small family tradition is to make stew meat gravy and mashed potatoes for Christmas dinner. I love this meal because it's fairly simple, not too time consuming, and TASTY! 

After dinner, we decided to go look at Christmas lights for just a little bit. We didn't want to have the children out too long since several were battling illness, but we didn't think it would hurt to go out for a little while. It was COLD that evening, but we never got out of our van, so we stayed nice and toasty.

We saw several houses that were very impressive! We love the ones that have their lights set to music.

Even with kiddos not feeling 100%, it was a really great day! The days that we just stay home together soaking up time as a family truly cannot be beat!