Christmas! (Better late than never.)

Christmas this year was nothing like I had envisioned it to be. I imagined being all moved into our new house, decorating, walking around our neighborhood to see all the Christmas lights, hanging our own Christmas lights, starting new Christmas traditions with the girls, and putting up our fake tree. Yes, I said FAKE tree. I like my tree to look perfect and not make a mess in my house, so we have a pre-lit fake tree. I actually really love shaping the tree to look just so. For those who have seen me do crafts with Aubrey you know how anal I am when it comes to creative things. I want them to be perfect, and doing crafts with kids is NEVER perfect, and I go a little insane. I am so bad, I actually fix what Aubrey does. I am working on trying not to do that, because I really don't want her to think she isn't doing it well enough. I'm really trying, PROMISE. 

Ok. (Focus Mel.)

Back to my original topic.

So Christmas wasn't exactly what I imagined. We may have a lot of our own Christmas's ahead, where we can do all those things I envisioned (at least I hope so). It was just really nice to have Christmas like I used to when I was little. Baking with my Mom, opening ornaments on Christmas Eve with my family, decorating a real fresh delicious smelling (Charlie Brown) Christmas tree. Somehow my Mom is the opposite of me when it comes to decorating and crafting. She loves things just the way they are, and feels bad for the tree's that aren't so pretty and has to save them. Needless to say she is awesome at crafting with Aubrey and lets her do things her way. Lol.

Anyways as I was saying, Christmas was just so wonderful. We got to spend time with Greg's family and mine. Christmas Eve we went to Mary's Church to hear her sing. I was really looking forward to it, Aubrey just loves singing.

We then went home and opened ornaments with my family, and Greg put together the kitchen the girls were getting for Christmas. Aubrey had a bit of a rough time going to bed that night. She is terrified of Santa. She asked my brothers and Greg to protect her from Santa, and to make sure he didn't come in her room. We tried to explain that he was nice, but Aubrey wasn't buying it. She is pretty darn smart. If you really stop and think about it, it's pretty scary that a big fat old man, that you don't really know, is coming into your house while you are sleeping. I don't blame her one bit for being scared.

After getting her to bed, we all just hung out, chatting and watching Christmas Vacation (one of my family's faves). We then put all the presents under the tree! I couldn't wait for the girls to wake up and see that Santa had come!

On Christmas Morning, Aubrey ran straight to the tree. She was so excited. We wanted to wait for everyone to arrive before anyone opened anything. Marc had been at his in laws house for Christmas Eve and morning. So it wouldn't be until lunch time that we'd be opening gifts. To pass the time we made Crockpot Hot Chocolate (http://pinterest.com/pin/120260252520507787/). It was the most AMAZING hot chocolate I have ever had. We put extra milk in it because it is very sweet. While we were doing that, the boys went and played our family's traditional basketball game (growing up we either played basketball or football on Christmas day, so fun!). Aubrey had a blast watching them play. She was being very patient about waiting for Uncle Marc. She would ask every hour or so if we could open gifts now, and we'd remind her we were waiting for Uncle Marc and she would say "Oh yeah, not yet. I remember now.".

When she saw Uncle Marc arrive she was SO excited, it was finally present time! The next two hours were a blur of flying wrapping paper and gift bags. Addi opened one gift and played with it the entire time. Aubrey opened the rest of Addi's, most of Greyson's and her own. She had a blast. It was so fun to watch.

Addi using her gift from Uncle Greg in Snoopy's dog bed. A quick and cushy ball pit!

She's ready for rain!

We then ate a yummy meal, put the girls down for quick naps, and squeezed in a family game before heading to Greg's Mom's house. I was a little worried about cutting the girls naps short, but they were was so excited about seeing their cousins that they were great. We got there and Aubrey instantly started opening her gifts, then the kids ran off to play in the playroom. They had a blast. We then had a delicious dinner, after that all the kids were done. They were so funny, rolling around on the ground deliriously. 

The cousins went home, and the girls went to bed. We then decided to play yet another game (can you tell we love games, we love anything competitive. LOL). We headed to bed a little after midnight. We were so exhausted from such a long, fun day. It was truly a fantastic Christmas. Aubrey still talks about how much fun she had. 

While opening gifts was fun, I think the best part for our little family was getting to spend it with our families. 

So yes, It wasn't exactly the Christmas I envisioned. It was even better.