Family | Christmas 2018

January 8, 2019


Our family celebrated Christmas in California with Grammy, Opa, Aunts and Uncles, and little cousin Anders this year. It was so much fun to see the children interact with one another! Chelsea, Alexa, and Barrett adore Anders, and Anders tolerates Alexa's intense hugging, haha!



Christmas Eve, we had a little program with music, some dancing, and some story-telling, along with the story of Jesus' birth, of course! I let Opa explain the tradition of Krampus from his childhood in Germany, which might have been a mistake since my girls are a little sensitive to scary stories, but after some consoling words, they were fine. We got them in bed and once they were asleep, we watched some old home videos that had me literally CRYING for laughing so hard!


Christmas morning, there was no snow (as you can imagine), but there was A LOT of rain! Andrew and I kept the kids in our room with us for as long as possible to give everyone else a chance to sleep in. They ended up watching literally an hour's worth of "Baby Shark" on Amazon Prime. Haha!

Aunt Lauren played Santa and handed out the presents! We were blessed with wonderful gifts from loving family which kept us all occupied for the rest of the day. I always find it entertaining to watch Andrew have just as much fun with the kid's toys as they do.

 Chelsea made blankets for Alexa and Barrett and seeing how much Alexa loved and appreciated Chelsea's gift made my heart so happy!
 
 Kara got Andrew this really neat VR cardboard box + Google App and all of us enjoyed giving it a try!


The rain stopped about midway through the day which allowed the kids to get outside for a bit - And totally wreck their clean, new Christmas clothes! It was worth it to see those happy little faces and let them make some memories together before Lauren and her family had to head for home.


The next day, we spent more time exploring our Christmas gifts then took ourselves to the beach later that evening. It was about as close to perfect as you could get. Chelsea contented herself with searching among the rocks and sand looking for the prettiest shells to take home, which we eventually hot glued to some white picture frames to give as gifts to Grammy and Gramma Edi (our "bonus"Grandmother). Barrett did a little exploring as well before climbing onto Grammy's lap to watch the sunset. Alexa did her thing, sometimes following Chelsea around, sometimes leading Barrett around, and just finding joy in the moment (a gift I believe she was born with).


Andrew and I reveled in the moment, taking pictures, watching the kids, making sure they didn't get hurt or sucked out to sea. It was a perfect evening. I'm so glad I brought my camera!


The rest of the week we caught up with old friends, played together, ate yummy food, and just enjoyed time with family, and we did end up making another trip to the beach, this time, one with plenty of sand to build sand castles with!

Tip Top is a MUST every time we visit Oceanside! Best breakfast food and meats around!


The drive to and from Oceanside was probably the best we'd ever had! Andrew's Grandma Wilson gifted us a travel  bag for Christmas with plenty of coloring and toys to help fill up the kid's time between naps and Alexa's asking, "Are we almost there?"


We are so grateful to have family that welcomes us to their home in California. I always feel so loved at Grammy and Opa's house and I know my children do, too. Family is what it's all about friends, and I'm so grateful that both Andrew and I grew up in such great ones! I was sad to miss my family this year for Christmas, but were able to spend a little time with them before we left at my nephew's wedding, and we plan to spend plenty of time with my parents before they head off to serve the Lord on another Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints mission, this time, to the Manhattan Temple in New York! Hopefully, we'll get some time to spend with them while they're there this fall, too! Crossing my fingers and saving my pennies!

Credit goes to Chelsea for the awesome phone pics!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Thanks for dropping in!




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