I made a new rule when Quinn was born. We stay home for Christmas. I want Quinn to have Christmas morning at home after Santa has been to visit and for us to have a family Christmas in our pjs. I think I became even more of a homebody when I became a mom. I love being at home with Q and Jeremy and even little spastic Ella. Here's how we spent Christmas this year.
Christmas Eve
During the day we just hung out at home and played w/ Quinn's Craigslist Christmas gift.
This was our first time to ever go to the Riverbend Christmas Eve service. I have always wanted to go ever since I worked at the church, but never really got a chance. They make all three services family-friendly (short and sweet) so that the whole family can go (babies included). Quinn loved going to big church and did pretty well all things considered. She didn't try to grab the candles or catch anything on fire, and she never screamed or interrupted the pastor. We even got to see some old friends after the service! Matt and Kathy have moved back to the Austin area and we are really excited to hang out with them more so Q and Harper can be good friends!
That night we hung out at home with my mom and Emily, ate tamales and queso, played with Quinn, read some books and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. I love the Jesus birthday cake tradition! My family always did that growing up and I want to make that a tradition for our family. It's funny how I've become so sentimental with traditions since having Q.
Quinn loves her tree! Her Granny (Jeremy's mom) gave us a white tree
last year and said maybe we could use it for Quinn. It was absolutely
perfect and I ended up calling it the diva tree because of all the
bright colors, bows and sparkles. Quinn can see it from her crib just
outside her room in the playroom, and every morning she looks for it and
puts her hand out as if she's presenting her tree to the world.
Christmas Day
Christmas morning, we went downstairs and let Quinn open her gifts from Santa and played for a bit. Not surprisingly, the books were her favorite. She got a little Pride and Predjudice book and "B" is for Baylor. Jeremy got me some red corduroy Toms for our last day of 12 days of Christmas. Quinn enjoyed the book that came w/ the Toms...apparently she's going to learn how to start her own business.
After having some family time at home, we headed over to Nannie Mae's for brunch and hanging out for the day. Quinn was the only one to get dressed for the day since she had the most precious dress to wear. Jeremy and I didn't even shower...awesome! Nannie Mae made an awesome breakfast of waffles, sausage balls and fruit and we were all stuffed!
After we ate, we opened presents and Quinn got an awesome new swing for us to hang outside w/ her new climbing toys! Auntie Em made her some felt Baylor clips and a cute headband. Of course, she found a box and that was her favorite thing!
The rest of the day we hung out at Nannie Mae's and played piano with Auntie Em, watched cheesy movies on ABC Family (one of the things I miss about having cable) and played Yahtzee. Little Miss Independent Q wanted her own dice, so we found some for her to play with until she started putting them in her mouth. Mother of the Year award for giving my child something to choke on.
It was such a relaxing Christmas Day. I love our new tradition of staying in Austin, being at home for our Christmas morning and hanging out all day with nothing to do. I have a feeling Christmas will get better and better as Q gets older. Seeing the sparkle in her eye when she sees Santa, the excitement in her face when she sees Christmas trees and telling her the story of Baby Jesus has been such a joy!
4 comments:
Just curious but how to you handle the balance of seeing Jeremy's family at Christmas time. You have local family (helps your "rule") so it is easy for them to be involved in your holiday. Does Jeremy's family get the same access? We are trying to figure out how to work out our holidays so both of our families can be involved. Neither of us is interested in having one family be more involved/around more than another.
Awe - Baby Q is so stinkin adorable! Loved getting to see y'all even though it was so short. Looks like a fabulous Christmas!
BTW - Jen, my parents have always been cool with celebrating on xmas Eve and so has my sister's family and then both me & my sister do xmas day with our hub's families. Fortunately, they are all within 1.5 hours so it works. Also, starting this year, all kids on Matt's family's side are in Austin so we get to implement the "christmas in our own home" rule as well. It's nice to just divide the days. Not sure where your families are located. I have several friends where this is a big stresser every year at Christmas. Hope all is going well w/you guys :)
Kathy thanks, it was so good to see y'all too!
Jen, we are crazy and we try to see both families at Christmas. Not necessarily on the day or Christmas Eve, but we travel to see them either before or after. Since we both come from divorced families, it makes it really hard, but we've done it so far.
My hope is that we can make the holidays a little more simple in the future as Q gets older. I cherish our own family time and I want to make our own traditions.
It's hard to make it fair for everyone. Someone told me when I got married that when it comes to holidays, someone will always get their feelings hurt. You just have to do what's best for your family and move on.
Good luck!!
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