Christmas

I hope you and your family had the most joyous Christmas.  We had a pretty good holiday spending time with some of the family.

We began Christmas with candlelight service at church

Santa came

But, left Xander a letter instead of a big gift this year.

He left Xander a stocking with the newest Dog Man book, so Santa all is well.

They played with Santa gifts until everyone was ready to open the rest

Sterling discovered a box the same shape as Santa's gift, so she was confused at why I'd buy her the same gift as Santa

And shocked when she opened it and it was another set of Descendants.  But not the same ;)

Too much tape?

The kids played separately with their new toys and Sterling put on the cutest friendship show

We've had constant fighting since, but we've also had some of the sweetest moments.  

Christmas Eve

How do we only have three days left in December?  We started Christmas Eve opening sibling gifts.  Back in November, I took them to Target where they spent $15 of their own money and picked out gifts for each other.  They thought long and hard about what the other would want.  I think they both had hidden agendas.  Xander wanted to play with the zip line with Sterling's Lego set, and Sterling wanted to play with Violet with Xander's Lego set.  

They loved their gifts

Seriously, they played all day without a fuss at each other.  Everyone was shocked that we didn't have to break up any fights or separate them.  It was the best.

After they played all day, right before dinner, they got started on their gingerbread houses from Sterling's elf.

Xander took so much time thinking about what he wanted his to look like.

All done and eating the frosting

All was calm and bright on Christmas Eve.  Just the way it should be!

Merry Christmas

Christmas looks a little different for us this year.  We are missing our favorite person, but know that we'll celebrate big when we see him next.  We are spending time with family and enjoying every minute of it.

Our last picture with all four of us until we see him again

Wishing you a Christmas that sparkles with moments of joy, love, and hope!

Merry Christmas

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, friends!  I can't believe we only have 4 more sleeps until Christmas!  Are you ready?!  This year has flown by and I'm hoping for the same for 2019!  The sooner 2019 comes to an end, the sooner our favorite person gets to come home.

We're sharing a roundup of our favorites from the week and linking up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci.

{One} I woke up to a sweet girl bringing my favorite breakfast to me in bed.

{Two} We finished up our Christmas shopping and as we entered Cabela's, the man directed us to Santa Land.  I didn't know they had such a thing in that store, so it quickly became everybody's favorite.  We even received a free picture!

Made crafts

Mailed letters to Santa

I wish Sterling's would come true 😉

This guy moved up in gymnastics again.  He's now on the boys team and is so excited!

{Three} Seeing their elves make a mess in the bathroom was soo funny

{Four} Getting vacation started early

{Five} Finding elves and surprises in the car on our trip morning was the perfect way to start off the trip

{Six} Being able to hold their elves for the day was pretty awesome too

{Seven} When we road trip, I just want to get to where we are going, so we often do the whole drive thru option so we can get the dreaded drive over with sooner.  Well as we pulled up to the option, there was a huge play land inside.  So, we took 30 minutes out of our drive so they could play. Best, most surprised decision ever made.

It was a new BK, and there were no other kids in there.  It was our favorite stop before getting to Nana's.

{Eight} Elf brought this game, Set, and it's so much fun. It's a family favorite right now.  It took a few card flips before Sterling got it, but now she's requesting it all the time.  She's quick too!

{Nine} Making Christmas cookies with Nana is always a favorite

{Ten} Hey mom, something's wrong with your coffee machine.  It's overflowing my cup of hot chocolate.  

Can you spot why?  We had a good laugh out of this one!

{Eleven} Sterling had her first bloody nose this week.  After we cleaned her up, she let me take a picture.  Seeing all that blood was not her favorite.

We're so excited to spend Christmas with family this year.  We had plans to stay home, but last week we decided we'd enjoy it with Nana and Papa.  It's not any fun spending the day alone, so I called and booked Lulu her hotel stay, and started planning our trip.

Have a great weekend!