This year was easily the funnest year so far in this Francl house. I mean, there is no Christmas better than one you experience when you're 3 years old. So. Fun!!!! Here is how it went...
Christmas Eve - The Francl Side
On Christmas Eve, Chase worked 1/2 a day and then headed to his parents' house after Connor got up from his nap. It was, perhaps, the longest 1/2 day of Lily's life. We had been to Chase's parents a few days before, and she'd scoped out the presents under the tree. There was a present for her, and it was wrapped in Frozen wrapping paper. I think by the time we left the house at 2:30 on Christmas Eve, she had asked me at least 1,000 times when she'd get to open her "Frozen present." We talked again, and again, and again, and again about exactly what would happen after Connor woke up and Daddy got home.
But all that anticipation is part of the fun!
We got to Grandma's, ate supper, and then it was FINALLY time! See how excited she is:
(Just to clarify about the jammies she's wearing... We always take the kids jams when we go to Grandma's house and stay till bedtime. Often the kids fall asleep on the way home. On Christmas Eve, as soon as supper was over and we were cleaning up in the kitchen, Lily volunteered to changed into her jams because it was getting dark. I think that part of her thought process was that putting on jammies would help speed the present process.)
Connor enjoyed the fun and mayhem that is Christmas at Grandmas too, though without the intense focus on opening presents:
We are blessed to have family close by who we get to enjoy. And we are grateful that we have the privilege of exchanging gifts as a way of showing love with them. I feel like Christmas and presents often get a bad wrap - either they are accused of signifying the commercialization of Christmas, or they are a huge stress for the buyer to purchase and unliked by the receiver anyway. And those things can be true and, sadly, often are. But for me, for us, gifts are a way we show love to those dearest to us, just as God did that first Christmas when He gave us the ultimate gift: His Son.
Christmas Morning - The House of Francl
I love Christmas morning when it can be lazy, unrushed, and led by the kids. At about 8, Lily woke up and came into our room to let us know she was up. I asked her if Santa had come and filled the stockings. She trotted out of our room to check and was back right away to let us know that, indeed, Santa had come! I told her that was wonderful, but she needed to wait until Connor woke up before we could open them.
She walked back out to the living room to gaze at the stockings, and we heard her say to herself, "Happy Christmas Lily!" :) It was SO fun!
I remembered how much I hated the "waiting"time on Christmas morning, waiting for siblings and parents to get up. It was SO HARD to wait! So I offered to let Lil watch PBS Kids on my Kindle while she snuggled in our bed until Connor woke up.
He got up at about 8:30, and the festivities began:
We started with the kids' stockings, and it was marvelous. They sat on the couch together and Lily gave a running commentary. "Oh! I have another present in my stocking. [As she unwraps it] I wonder what is in it? Wow! It's a...." Beside her, Connor would play with whatever thing was pulled from his stocking (I didn't wrap his things). By the time they were done, Lily and Connor sat on the couch, surrounded by all manner of fun odds and ends, completely content.
We took a break for breakfast, and then headed back to the living to tackle the tree:
It was one of the funnest Christmases because of the kids, but also because of the presents Chase and I got for each other. He got me a TV for our bedroom, a gift I didn't really know I wanted, but I have TOTALLY enjoyed since we got. And I got him a step stool that he's been asking for for months. (I got him a WiiU for his birthday the week before, so the step stool was very well received, and he admitted how oddly excited he was to finally have a step stool.) It was just one of those Christmases where we nailed the gifts - things we wanted that we didn't really even know we wanted.
We were done with gifts by the time Connor went down for his first nap, so during the rest of the morning and early afternoon, we got cleaned up and ready for the next Christmas...
(Lily, sporting her new Frozen outfit - I can't even tell you how excited she was to wear it!)
Christmas Evening - Dad's
On Christmas evening we headed to my dad's house for Christmas with him and my siblings. He always cooks us a great prime rib and all the fixings, and we stuff ourselves with way too much food. Then there's gifts and games.Being our 3rd Christmas in 2 days, Lily was well-rehearsed with the presents portion of the evening. She "helped" everyone open their presents, and did a fantastic job taking turns and being patient.
By the time we made it through dinner, presents, and a game, the kids were spent from all the excitement, so we headed home with one Christmas left on the horizon.
The day after Christmas - Mom's
Christmas at Mom's with my siblings usually starts with a big brunch in the mid-morning. It couldn't come soon enough for Lily. And then the poor dear had to wait through brunch until her brother woke up from his first nap. Fortunately, he didn't sleep very long!
Mom does stockings for each of us, and then gifts under the tree, too, so it is pretty exciting and takes awhile. By this time, even Connor knew the drill and really enjoyed the whole thing.
Lily, was clearly excited. Also she was the one with the most presents under the tree. In my my mom's defense, Lily was SO easy to buy for this year! She is developing and learning so much, and the things you buy for her are, well, cheap. So it really looked like she got a lot (and she did!).
Connor thought he had a pretty good haul too.
After presents, we all just relaxed all day until we had cheese fondue and chocolate fondue for supper. Then we packed up and headed home.
Wrapping up 2014
One of the gifts Lily got was a snow shovel, and she was thrilled with it! But there was no snow to scoop. The forecast had chances of snow in the couple of days following Christmas, and we have had more fun with that little shovel than any other thing she got this year:
She does dink around with the shovel some, but Lily is actually really helpful with it too. She scooped the sidewalk 1/2 way to the neighbor's house. It takes her a little while, and it's not quite as clean as if Chase or I did it, but it's not bad! She did all of the scooping in the picture below herself:
And if you have snow and have to scoop it, then you really ought to sled! So we did. We met up with cousins and uncles and grandpa who had arranged for the side-by-side to drive us back up the hill. Lily and I did one run down the big hill that ended in a spectacular head over heels wipe out (including many tears, though no real hurts). After that, I pulled her around on a very shallow slope on a sled and we watched the cousins fly down the hill and wipe out. Until Lily's toes got cold...
The only solution for cold toes is huddling in the truck to warm up. So that's how we spent the second 1/2 of the sledding experience. But by the time we left, Lily was warm and agreed that she had fun!
The last Sunday of 2014, we got to celebrate the baby dedication of dear friend. He's the little guy right next to me in the picture below. In my current network of friends, these 3 girls are some of my closest and dearest friends. They know my schedule, keep me accountable, call me out when I'm being ridiculous, and support me when I can't keep going on my own. These girls are amazing and I hope you have friends like them in your life. And you'll notice in the picture that each of us is holding a little boy. In the span of about 18 months, each of us was blessed with a little boy! And in another 3 months or so, we'll have a 5th boy - the girl all the way on the right is just starting her 3rd trimester! So fun to raise our families together and learn and grow in this stage of life together!!!
There is one more story from 2014 I want to share, but I'll save it for another post. To close this one, I'll just share this little gem (I can hardly take the cuteness!!!):
2014 wasn't perfect, but it definitely had its high points and blessed the socks off of we Francls. Cheers to 2015 and all that it will hold!
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