Christmas 2019

You can see our Core Crew Christmas here!

On the 24th we head over to Zach’s parents house for the day and night.

For several years the guys played in the Cat Creek Classic football game on the morning of the 24th.

Sadly that tradition ended and instead they have now started to play golf that morning.

While I miss getting to watch Zach play in the Cat Creek Classic it is nice having the morning to get things packed up and ready to go while he’s off golfing!

This year Kye was included in the tradition which was really fun and they had a great morning together.

The other kids and I headed over to Mrs Charlotte’s at nap time.

I put Spear down for a nap and the girls played with their friends and cousins and I napped myself.

Whew the Core Crew day wore me OUT and I knew I wouldn’t sleep well that night (for some reason I never sleep well the night before Christmas…I always thought it was b/c I’m at my in-laws but I actually think it’s a “thing” like just nervous energy about the big day the next day!) so I napped hard.

I got up about the same time the guys got back and the festivities began!

The kids had a scavenger hunt and then decorated gingerbread houses.

It’s so nice the kids are old enough to handle all that stuff without help haha

Poor Kye got back from golfing and did not feel well.

He had a 102 temp! UGH.

I swear someone is ALWAYS sick at Christmas.

He was pretty pitiful and just wanted to rest a bit.

Spear got up from nap and just wanted his PAPA.

He loves loves loves Big Papa and just wanted to be with him the whole time and ride ride ride 🙂

Casey and Aaron brought a fun family tradition from his family and we roasted donuts over the fire and put ice cream on top.

SO yummy and fun!

And I love the cousins telling their Christmas secrets 😉

We also fed the reindeer with our reindeer food.

Everyone got ready for bed and every year Mr Rusty tracks Santa to see where he is on his journey around the world!

This year I worked with a brand for the girls and I’s pjs (unicorns? Sign us UP!) so Kye picked out pjs for the boys and he was SO pumped about matching with Spear and Daddy – so sweet.

Every year before bed G-Mama also reads The Night Before Christmas.

The big kids all sleep on air mattresses on the floor in Mr Rusty and Mrs Charlotte’s room each year.

They love the cousin time!

Kye was loaded up on ibprophen and was feeling better – he never ended up needing to go to the dr. He just had a virus or something because he’d feel fine with meds! Not 100 but also not terrible.

After the kids were in bed we went ahead and opened the adult gifts.

It helps cut down on time in the morning and allows more enjoyment in the adult gift opening when it’s not part of the chaos.

While we were opening we got to talking about Love Languages and it was so cute Mr Rusty and Brad took the tests as we were opening gifts to see what theirs are!

I got the new iPhone 11 Pro before Christmas and I guess it automatically tries to take pictures in night mode when it’s dark and the lighting was super bad on Christmas morning before the sun came up.

I was so bummed to find out that basically NONE of the pictures I took turned out all morning!

Thankfully Zach took video and you can watch the whole thing from all of our favorite moments of the morning here:

The kids were all so excited!

Britt was super sure that there was no way Santa would get her a balance beam and a bar and she was THRILLED.

Tessie and Spear loved everything (big win from last year) and Kye had the best reactions! He was just SO excited which made me so happy!

We brought three gifts each for the kids from us (we opened everything else on our Core Crew Christmas) and they had their gifts from their cousins and G-Mama and Big Papa to open.

It all went GREAT!

Cutting back was much easier than I thought it’d be and there were no issues at ALL with the kids feeling like they got less or being disappointed or anything!

It was all great and I loved that we saved one surprise gift for them to open over there 🙂

We got Kye a Paperwhite, Tess Cinderella’s Castle and Britt…a trampoline!

She has been wanting one SO BAD and Zach was hardcore against them but we found a spot in the yard where it could go without having to worry about killing grass so we decided to make it a surprise gift 🙂

You can see a video of all their reactions here!

We always eat Christmas cookies while opening gifts – it’s one of my family traditions that I make sure happens every Christmas morning 🙂

Zach and the boys loved their matching pjs…and we even managed to get a pretty great family pic too!

The gift opening was all pretty quick and we had a good bit of downtime before heading over to Big Daddy’s.

Can Christmas Spirit Zach please stick around all year?

Everyone got ready and loaded up all their stuff and we went to have the traditional breakfast with Big Daddy, Little Mama and the other extended family members.

Big Daddy has had some health struggles this year. He is 92 and that sort of thing is just to be expected at that stage of life.

My Christmas tradition the last few years?

BAWLING my eyes out when I see Big Daddy on Christmas morning.

I just felt so overcome with emotion of thanksgiving that he’s HERE and that I could hug him and hear his sweet words.

I had a friend say recently that God fills the Gaps and He filled SO many in my life when He blessed me with my Big Daddy.

Picture overload – sorry not sorry 😉

I love seeing the way he LOVES my babies and every single one of these pictures is simply special to me.

I found Kye’s Star Wars sweater last year after Christmas (the girls dresses were from post-Christmas deals too) and this year I found a matching sweater for Spear!

These two are so sweet together