Christmas Day 2018

Merry Christmas! We enjoyed a quiet, calm, and sweet day together. I treasured the family time even more than in prior years because this has been our first homeschooling year when the workload is so heavy that I feel our daily family time torn from us every day and week, with so little time for me to read aloud, play games together, or even for the kids to play free outdoors.

I had laid out clothing on Christmas Eve so that I could quietly dress my three little boy Early Risers downstairs while letting my Midnight Mass crew continue sleeping upstairs. We were out the door by 6:30 a.m. for a 7:00 a.m. Mass--and were, in fact, returned home before any of the family had even woken for the day!

In the basement cry room during Mass

We opened stockings and sibling Secret Santa gifts before pausing for a formal breakfast. Then we opened gifts till late morning in my Properly Regulated Fashion in which only one person opens at a time and everyone watches and appreciates.

A menagerie of wee animals from grandmother

Hand-painted stationery for Mama from Margaret

First young lady's purse and sunglasses

We received many books and it never gets old watching how my children want to stop opening gifts in order to read their books. Later begins each family member's Christmas Day Dilemma of which book to read first.

Pausing to read aloud to the little guys

One-year-old enjoying an empty box and a straw the most!

We received a number of outdoor/active toys . . . Thomas was a blur hopping on his wee pogo stick.

Clowning around

Knight in shining armor

New big boy backpack from Grandpa

 

The brothers played a joy-filled game of pick-up rugby in the sunshine . . .

 . . . and the various children climbed their new rope ladder. Now the three-year-old can get as high as his siblings!

We adults were counting the minutes until one o'clock when we enforced a whole-family  nap!

Waking refreshed from a mama-and-baby nap

We munched popcorn and hot cocoa with homemade whipped cream as an afternoon snack before a family game of horseshoes.

The children played more of their new board and card games while Chris and I prepared dinner.

Thomas playing his matching game with Daddy

Margaret reading aloud Joseph's new book to him

Dinner menu:

• Beef brisket
• Fettuccine Alfredo
• Sweet potato casserole
• Cranberry sauce
• Green peas
• Green salad
• Rolls

Dessert:

• Homemade gingerbread cake
• Cheesecake sent from grandmother in NYC

Daddy's wonderful brisket

We are so very blessed simply to have family together in one place, a husband with vacation days from work, and all our children healthy. As we continue to pray for our little friend Julienne in the hospital, we are deeply appreciative of these "little" (not so little) blessings.