Well, late again, but let's talk about Christmas. We had the privilege of hosting this year, and I was super excited. It's a lot of work, but definitely worth it to have a good old fashioned family Christmas.
Quick back story that you can feel free to skip: We used to host Christmas at my house growing up every year and I have such fond memories of all the traditions we used to have. We moved out of that house when I went to college, and my mom and aunt moved to separate places (I grew up living with both of them). We had been storing all of the family Christmas decorations at our house as well, so when we moved, we transferred them all to my grandparents house in Bastrop. And then it caught on fire. So this year, we pretty much had nothing. All of our stockings, my aunts and uncles lost all of the ornaments that had been around since they were kids, and mom and I lost all the ornaments from my childhood as well. Not to mention, our very special tree topper, a ton of various decorations, lights, dishes, etc.
So my goal this year was to try my best to make it as close to how it used to be as possible. With my aunt living with us right now, it made it even better since we used to do it together anyway, along with my mother of course. We did all of our traditional recipes and activities, and I had a blast. Hopefully everyone else did too.
Here it is by the numbers, just for fun:
51 presents purchased and wrapped (just ours, not from the whole family)
17 stockings restored/sewed to replace the ones we lost in the fire
2 Christmas trees
3 ornaments re-made for mom to replace a few that I made in elementary school for her
19 strands of lights on the house
99 items on the Christmas grocery list
14 people at Christmas dinner
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| My mom and aunt making popcorn balls. Just how I remember it, them frantically scrambling to get them formed before the caramel cools while screaming "ouch, ouch, hot, hot, hot." I may have done this recipe purely for the entertainment. |
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| Everyone decorating the tree Christmas Eve |
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| Ethan and Nana decorating the tree |
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| Ethan had the honor of putting our new special Erin angel on the tree |
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| Presents. This wasn't even all of them yet. |
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| All new ornaments, but still beautiful. |
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| My aunt found the stockings from the siblings' childhood. They were in bad shape, so we restored/replicated them as a surprise. |
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| And also made 10 more new ones for the rest of the family |
Christmas morning was wonderful. It was so great to see Ethan really get it for the first time. He was so excited, he kept gasping as he opened presents and saying "what is it, what is it?!?" He loved his wire maze from Santa, which was actually the exact one he asked for, and he also got books, balls, trains, and a bike from Santa too. The rest of us spoiled him rotten as well with a new train table, more books, clothes, an easel, a microphone, and a million other cool things.
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| Opening his stocking |
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| His wire maze |
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| Christmas morning chaos |
Unfortunately, that was the extent of my picture taking, but the rest of the day was lovely as well. We had a lot of snacks, played games, tinkered with our new gifts, and had a lovely ham dinner.
Cory and I gave each other Kindles (we had no idea), and my mom spoiled me with my very first Le Creuset (in purple!), and I loved every other gift I received as well.
It was a great Christmas. Next year, we'll hopefully be back at my grandma's in her brand new house.
