Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  From my darling Hubby and our two boys and me…the gal with the eye glitch in the picture.  For the love of picture taking.  Do I HAVE to ruin a good family picture by crinkling up my nose and squinting ONE eye??  *Sigh.  It’s all I’ve got folks.

You see, we’ve been Christmasing and offering good tidings since the Sunday before Christmas.  And we’re still Christmasing through the New Year.  We have one more Christmas on Sunday.  It’s one of the perks Hubby gained when he married me over fourteen years ago.  To get to attend five hundred Christmases.

We had our Christmas with his family on the Sunday before Christmas.  Then, on Christmas Eve, we attended our church’s Christmas Eve service.  Upon returning home, low and behold…Mrs. Claus had stopped by and left a package!

Before bed, the boys put out Reindeer feed and Grinch dust (to ward off the Grinch from coming to our house) on the front lawn.

Christmas morning was full of surprises…

After opening stocking stuffers, they opened their gifts from Santa.  FYI:  Nate

wanted an Xbox 360 sooooo badly.  We told him we weren’t getting it for him.  Watch the next series of pics…

Maxim was not into the whole Xbox thing.  He really wanted Santa to bring him guns for Christmas.  Long guns.  Short guns.  Any. Kind. Of. Toy. Gun.

Christmas Day was full of opening presents and squeals of joy from the kids.  Hubby was thrilled to get cologne and some workout clothes.  I was excited to get some boots I’ve always wanted and a darling vest and cardigans from Jodi K’s.

But this Christmas was different.  For the first time in my life, I didn’t celebrate Christmas Day at Grandma Helen’s with my mom and our family.

Every year, we’ve always gone to Grandma Helen’s on Christmas Day for lunch, to open gifts, play games, and be with family.  It’s all I’ve ever known.  Get up on Christmas morning.  Open gifts and eat breakfast.  Get ready (and wear your new Christmas sweater or boots or whatever you got on Christmas morning).  THEN.  Go to Grandma Helen’s (& Grandpa Caleb’s, when he was living) to be with LOTS of family.  It has always been busy, but it’s the best and Hubby, the boys, and I have always done this since we’ve had our family.  And for 41 years, I’ve always done this.

But right before Christmas, Grandma Helen was not feeling well and was in the hospital.  She got out before Christmas, but she was very weak and still needed to regain her strength.  So, we postponed Grandma Helen’s Christmas until Sunday, January 4th.

We’ve been praying a lot for her and Grandma is recovering.  We are excited that Grandma is doing better and anxious to see her and the whole family on the 4th to celebrate Christmas!

Our Christmas day was spent hanging out with the boys and playing with all of their new things.  Not to mention…I was in pajamas until 5:00.  Then, I put on yoga pants to go outside with Hubby so we could watch the boys on their Razor 360 and Flicker scooter.  Now, I don’t want you to think I was all ambitious and such because thirty minutes later, my pajamas were back on.

Also, I don’t want you to think our Christmas was perfect.  No.  There were a few melt downs and obstacles…one of them being ALL of the WORK I did at trying to make the PERFECT breakfast casseroles.  Only to have the reaction be this…

I had made this casserole on Christmas Eve night, along with Skier’s French Toast casserole.  Two casseroles that would be ready for us to enjoy on Christmas Day.  Welp.  The boys couldn’t stand either one of them.  Hubby.  Bless his heart.  He thought they were good.  In my defense, they were good…it’s just that our boys don’t care for anything that has the word casserole at the end of it.

But that’s the beauty of Christmas.  It’s not the perfect gift or the perfect meal.  It’s about remembering that being with loved ones is what it’s all about.  Whether it be the week before Christmas or two Sundays after Christmas…it’s being with family and showing them how much you care.

Well, as I mentioned…we still had more Christmases.  Saturday, we went to my mom and Papa’s to celebrate with them and my brother and his family.  It was so nice to be together.

 

The next day, we went to my dad’s to celebrate Christmas.

Every year, I get Dad a Buck knife.  My brothers, Ben and Zach, always roll their eyes.  Maybe because Dad has SO many Buck knives already.  But I get it.  It’s like boots.  Or cardigans.  One can never have too many.  So, I always get Dad a new knife 🙂

Sunday evening, we came home and now.  We’ll have Grandma Helen’s next Sunday.  I feel so blessed to celebrate the season with our loved ones.

On a different note (and because this is about the longest post EVER), we have another elf in our house.  I realize most elves go back with Santa on Christmas Eve, but no…not ours.  Elfie always sticks around for another week or so after Christmas.  Just to make sure the boys know that he is still watching them.  And because we think Elfie just LOVES being at our house.

Well.  The day after Christmas, Maxim said the sweetest thing.  “Mom, I think I’d like to buy a girl elf for our house.  Because Mom, you are the only girl in our house.  So, we need a girl elf.”

Maxim gave me his money he had been saving and when I went to Von Maur (maybe to do a little exchanging of perfume because I didn’t quite get the exact one that was on my list), I bought a girl elf.

And so, Peppermint Patty and Elfie are hanging around…bringing more joy and fun to the Patterson household.

I know.  With sweet elves like this, who wouldn’t want them to stick around for another week or so??

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.  And now as we say goodbye to 2014…we say HELLO to 2015!  May the New Year be filled with many blessings and lots of joy!

Happy New Year!