My favorite thing about Christmas is that the kids get so distracted by the new toys that I actually have moments of QUIET that I don't have to sell my soul for.

Teen went to a friend's house so it was just us girls most of the day and it was actually quite lovely! In the morning we purged their closet and Lil Miss was surprisingly helpful! She pointed out the games that had missing pieces or that she just didn't play with anymore so we were able to get rid of those. I also helped them organize and make pretty the rest of their room while putting away all of their new toys.

Then I made a deal. I told Lil Miss if she "gave her salon to a sad little girl who didn't have one" = donate this HUGE AWFUL looking plastic thing that she never plays with, then I would open up this "color me playhouse" she got from her Gramma. Well ... I had no idea what I was in for.

OH.MY.WORD. It's huge. It's 3 feet x 5 freaking feet and 4 feet TALL. It's tall enough for Lil Miss to stand up in. It's big enough for all 3 girls to sit in comfortably. It's so large, one of them may have to move in and start using it for a bedroom.

On the bright side though, they ADORE it. They had SO much fun playing in it that it's hard to hate the thing.

Well ... it WAS hard to hate it ...

Until they started to color it.

Oh how my OCD hurts.

Seriously. Thinking about possibly putting this monstrosity somewhere I will have to look at it and knowing that it's appearance is in the hands of a 6 year old who thinks the Gingerbread House Look is CLASSIC is making my eye twitch.

I had hope at one point. DH can't walk away from an artistic opportunity ;) So when Lil Miss was getting ready for bed, he got out his sharpie and decided to give the house a "distressed cottage look" with some "exposed brick and broken stucco". I heard "cottage" and thought HEY! Maybe this won't be a total eye sore!

And they were so cute working on it together :) I had visions of adorable cottage looking playhouses running through my head. Until Lil Miss decided she liked the Gingerbread House Look better ...

And started to color EACH SHINGLE A DIFFERENT COLOR.

EYE.TWITCHING.

On the upside, it might fit right in. It looks like the only place in the whole damn house where this thing will fit would be where the Christmas Tree goes in the living room. So next year we might just be decorating and singing carols around the Christmas Playhouse instead of the tree. But hey if we add a wreath and some lights to the GIANT GINGERBREAD HOUSE we could always take family pictures in front of IT and use it as our Christmas card.

Christmas morning came oh so quickly to our house!

We set the alarm and woke the kids up at 6am so they had time to open stockings and Santa gifts before heading to their other parents' homes.

Lil Miss didn't seem to mind ;)

After opening their gifts and DH left to take The Boy to his mom's, I started the cinnimon rolls (our standard Christmas tradition :) and the kids started playing with their new toys. I LOVE Christmas for that! The kids will just play and play ...

and play ...

and play! ALL DAY! I barely hear a PEEP out of them!

Poor Flower Child was fighting a pretty good fever and was pretty beat, but she seemed to perk up after awhile.

Meanwhile Lil Miss curled up with daddy ...

and he played with HIS new toy too ;)

Just before my girls left to go with their dad I had DH take a few pics for me ... I can't believe how big they're getting :) They are so beautiful and I just adore them so.

And shortly after they left I had my annual Christmas Meltdown, complete with tears. I don't know what it is, but it get so quiet and I realize that they are off having Christmas with another family, and they aren't HERE ... with ME ... where they SHOULD BE. It's totally selfish and I don't like it, but there it is. I get all sad and cry and overwhelmed with the craziness of the house even though it didn't bother me when they were there :-/ Egh ... it just sucks. It's hard to explain.

So I poured myself a glass of champagne, changed into my jammies, and took a nap LOL

It helped ;)

Christmas Day for us came a day early this year. Today DH went to get The Boy early and I finished up some last minute gifts.

As soon as the men folk got home, I sent all the kids to get dressed and we commenced with present opening!!

Lil Miss just about broke her face from smiling so much when she got this color-your-own playhouse from her gramma :)

Flower Child is loving that she's starting to get 'older kid stuff' and LOVES her bracelet ... and the money ;)

The Boy enjoyed his Air Hogs aaaaaaall day ...

And Teen literally CRIED when she opened her phone :)

*I* literally cried when I opened this :)

It's my grandmother's wedding ring. She and I were VERY close and I used to LOVE trying on her ring. She would let me dress up in all of the family's wedding dresses and wear her ring :) She died about 13 years ago. She and my grandpa had the most amazing relationship. It's something I've always looked up to. Recently I find myself in a very similar life situation as what she had. I've felt very close to her, come to understand her in a way I couldn't before. My mom had her ring but couldn't wear it so this year she finally passed it on to me :) I just can't express how much it means to me :)

The kids ran through their gifts and finally got to MY gift to them :) I made each of them a blanket. Now, it wasn't a hard blanket to make, but I did OBSESS over each one to the point of exhaustion so it means a lot to me ;) I had them each open them at the same time and it was SO cute! They were SO happy with them! It made me so happy to see each of them look at their blankets and know how much thought and time I put into each one :) They are GREAT kids!

Lil Miss playing with her stuff :)

My pretty simple table set up.

I have been pinning and pinning and pinning all kinds of ideas for Christmas tablescapes and THIS is what i did lol.

It's not bad I guess, just kind of ... boring. Maybe next year :)

MMMMM one of my favorite things about Christmas is PRIME RIB!! DH asked if I wanted to just do turkey this year to save money and I think he must have looked over at me because he said "I guess not then." lol I am just SO DONE with turkey lol

My sweet baby girl :)

After dinner and some yummy pumpkin pie, the kids got wrapped up in their new jammies and it was about time for Nana to head home. I'm so glad she's able to come out for Christmas :) Hopefully this time next year, she'll be living in town!

Then it was time to get ready for Santa! They each picked out a good to put out for the big guy and it was time to head to bed! Another thing I love about our set up this year is that all of the gifts are DONE except the stockings and Santa's gift so I only had 2 things to wrap and I was DONE!! I filled the stockings, set out the gifts and was ready for be bed! Which was a good things since we have to get up at 6am Christmas morning to make sure The Boy is off to his mom's on time :-/

It was an AMAZING Christmas :) I couldn't ask for a more sweet and loving family, this was the BEST year yet!

Possibly my very favorite Christmas photo ever :) Wishing everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

This year we have our older kids for Christmas Eve, meaning they go to their other parents early on Christmas morning. Honestly, this is my favorite set up and I wish we could have it this way every year.

The only issue really, is that I LOSE A WHOLE DAY of preparation! I have to have everything made, hot-glued, tied, wrapped, assembled, cooked, and baked A WHOLE DAY EARLY! So on Friday, the 23rd, it was basically our Christmas Eve and I was in a TIZZY I tell you. It was a scene.

So after dinner was thrown at the kids and I had a moment to spare, I set up a fun little thing for them to do while I finished up some things.

I saw the cutest idea on Pinterest for a Gingerbread House Party using graham crackers! So I picked up a box plus 2 cans of frosting, and a few different candies for decorating at the dollar store, and we were set!

They were having SO much fun and being so creative! I KNEW the hubs would get a total kick out of it too so I issued something of a challenge heh.

He was ALL about it ;)

Lil Miss's house had some ... structural issues ...

But it looked like it tasted just as good.

Teen and her house ...

Love the walk way and the door knob ;)

Flower Child and her house ...

Complete with snow covered tree, bushes, wreath on the side of the house, and on the others side, a witch ... lol

DH and his split level A frame chalet LOL

I love the wreath and the candy cane forest, not to mention of course the pretzel shingles ;)

This was SUCH a fun project! Listening to them coming up ideas for it was so cool, and it kept them busy for HOURS! It was relatively inexpensive so I might just keep some of these supplies on hand for vacation moments of boredom :)

So that was last week ...

This week looks pretty similar minus all the fun birthday stuff :)

But with all of the stuff that needs to be done I decided we needed to take a moment and enjoy something simple and holidaysy.


In our little town we have a park that gets all dolled up for the holidays and it looks just BEAUTIFUL. A bunch of businesses and schools in town make a donation and in return, get a small tree, put them up in the park, and decorate them! I wish this picture did justice :) Now we've lived here for several years but we've never gotten out and actually walked the sidewalk and checked them out, so when Lil Miss asked to do that this year I thought it would be a GREAT opportunity for a little Christmas fun :)


My older girls are with their dad for a few days so it was just us 3 tonight and it's fun to do special things just our little family.

So after dinner, we went to Starbucks across the street from the park to grab dessert and a coffee for the walk.

She was SO excited! So was I to tell the truth! It was chilly but my peppermint mocha more than helped! It was foggy but it made the lights glow in such a beautiful way :)

This tree was donated and decorated by Lil Miss's school :) and it was her favorite!

Until she found the pink one donated by the Women's Center ;) She LOVED that one, it was her other favorite ;)

DH's favorite was donated by the Lyons Club, and it's hard to see here but it was VERY pretty with blue and silver.

My favorite was donated by the hospital and it was just so pretty to me, decorated in ALL white!

And this was Lil Miss's OTHER other favorite, donated by the Tractor Supply Company ;) It was very cute with it's string of lights in the shape of shotgun shells LOL

I'm so glad we went, it was nice to just take a moment and enjoy some time together smelling the roses ... I mean trees ;)