Christmas 2014

Christmas this year was pretty different from most other years! We had to try and get to a million different places while still trying to have a few moments together as a little family. It was crazy at times but we made it all work out. Christmas Eve we spent time together just the four of us. I wrapped the remaining presents, cleaned the house, made sure the girls had their Christmas PJ's on and let the girls unwrap a present each. Scarlette opened her "Anna" doll and was super excited about it! 

While I was upstairs putting a memory card in the camera, Scarlette took it upon herself to open one of Lexi's gifts, what a nice sister. 

The girls with their "Christmas Eve" gifts.

mmm... I love babies!! Especially my own hah.

Please ignore my frazzled appearance...cleaning my whole house took ALL day lol.

Lexi with her "flap" books and Scarlette with Anna.

Lexi absolutely loves books with flaps! 

After they played with their gifts for a bit, it was time for bed! Santa didn't get finished at our house till 2am last year and he didn't want to make that a yearly occurrence. Thankfully, I am pretty sure Santa was done at 11:30 pm this year. 

Growing up we always got either a CD or a DVD in our stocking.  We would then watch our movies after all the Christmas festivities were over and continue the movie marathon on boxing day. Definitely a tradition I wanted to continue. 

Scarlette got Cars 1. 

Lex got Pirate Fairy...correction...Scarlette got Pirate Fairy

Mom got Pocahontas...correction...Scarlette got Pocahontas. 

Dad got Guardians of the Galaxy and Quality Street. Dad was in charge of Mom's stocking and she got squat haha.I should have known.

Santa brought Lexi some drums. 

Scarlette got a Frozen Guitar, lip chap and a microphone from Santa.

Oh Christmas Tree!

Christmas morning we had to wake the girls up around 8:30. I still don't think they really "get" Christmas. Scarlette never asked to open any gifts before Christmas and she didn't go to bed excited hahah maybe next year... 

So here is the list of loot for journaling purposes. Skip ahead.

Scarlette: Anna doll w/Sven and mini olaf, Anna and Elsa bracelet + Socks, Frozen guitar + microphone, Anna and Elsa magic clip dolls, Ariel barbie that changes color in hot/cold water, matching game, grocery cart + Frozen purse with necklace and rings inside from Great Grandma Lyons, Kitchen set and food from Grandma Hendry, Pink rocking horse from Grandpa Hendry and a beautiful church book from Grandma/Grandpa Maclean with music and pictures. Spoiled rotten. 

Lexi: Drums, books, monkey toy with gears that stack and spin, a beautiful red Christmas dress from Great Grandma Lyons, shared kitchen set from Grandma Hendry and shared rocking horse from Grandpa Hendry. Lexi kind of got the short end of the stick this year....too many baby toys already haha!!

Me: Piano bench....anyone in the market for two computer chairs haha?? Also, a new TV that we bought on boxing day haha. Grandma Lyons got me this super cute mustard clock that I had been eyeing. My mom got me a Lulu jacket and PJ's that matched her and my sister. My dad got me a Bose speaker thing that uses bluetooth with my iPhone. Andrew picked out a cute little ring that said love on it for me.

Andrew: Sweat pants and a new hoodie (we call it his lounge wear!) TV and food storage from his parents. My Mom and Dad both gave Andrew money which we put in with our money for the TV....he totally looks like he is also getting the shaft as far as gifts go haha. 

OK so my sister in law Anna had her baby right before christmas and my in-laws went to be with her while she had the baby. We decided to do a little get together with the Macleans on Christmas day in place of the dinner my in-laws usually have. After the girls opened their gifts I started making parts of the meal that I was in charge of and also listening in on my brother Austin, who was skyping my Mom. I wasn't going to have time to get all the way over there, make the meal and get all the way back so I had to FaceTime with Ciara in order to hear what he was saying. My parents had split time with him so the second half of his call was made to my Uncle Ron's and Aunt Paula's house ....seeing as they live in Riverstone we quickly drove over there to see him for that half of his Skype date while my part of the meal was cooking. He looked AWESOME! I was SO excited to see him. Scarlette sang him twinkle twinkle and he thought that was adorable. She has changed so much since he left and it was nice that she wasn't being a grump face while he called. Lexi was just a newborn last time we skyped him so he was pretty excited to see her too. After we were done chatting with Austin we came back home and had Joe, Sam, Miram, Barry and Emma over for lunch/dinner. We had ham/funeral potatoes/buns/salad and cheesecake. The Maclean's are definitely the type of family that just likes to chill out and chat which was nice. I had a bit of time in between dinners to clean up the kitchen and get the girls ready before heading over to my Grandma's for dinner. The girls played while we ate and had treats. Anyone who knows my grandma knows she makes a spread for any get together...and by spread I mean...like 15 different dishes haha! She had a huge turkey which was delicious, as well as a million different other things to choose from. We visited for a bit over there and then headed home so I could spend some time with my Dad. Scarlette started coming down with croup that night so instead of staying home we loaded up Lex and left Andrew and Scarlette at home and headed over to my Uncle Ron's house for dessert and games. I absolutely love it over there. If anyone ever wants to know why I want a bunch of kids it is because of them. Their family is so awesome. I hope one day that I have my 5 kids come over with their spouses and have big games nights like they do. We played five crowns, had dessert and chatted a bit. It is so fun being over there. When I got home Scarlette was sleeping and Andrew was watching his new movie. I love that guy. I can get him to do a few Christmasy things with me but in the end he always ends up in his lounge wear, watching a movie, stuffing his face with Quality street. This is 5 years running people haha!! Anyways, that was pretty much it for the day! I did learn an invaluable lesson though that I really wanted to record. It is basically the reason why I was so anxious to get this post down. Christmas can be such a stressful time and I admit that I always get wrapped up in the running around, picking the perfect gift, trying to get to a million places and see a million people all in one day. BUT. Christmas is about Christ. It is about Family. It is about LOVE. As I was running about Christmas eve and Christmas day, trying to get my house ready and food on the table for our guests, I couldn't believe my ingratitude. Some people have absolutely NOTHING on Christmas day. No Christmas dinner, No presents under the tree, No family to share it with. I had a million different options for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I had invitations to a bunch of different places and I was getting stressed out trying to make it to every single one. I then changed my thinking. I am SO blessed to have all the family I do. To top it all off, all my family lives close, so I get to see everyone. Andrew and I have been blessed by the Lord and were able to get Christmas gifts for the kids and each other. We had so much food stuffed into our bellies that day that we could have exploded. Next year I am definitely looking at Christmas differently. I am blessed to have an amazing family, blessed to have so many material things, blessed to be able to bring joy to my children and blessed to be able to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my home. I'm so excited for what this new year will bring for us Macleans!