Christmas this year looked much different than normal. We celebrated early with Rocky and Leina by driving and meeting them half-way for a joint celebration for Carter's birthday and Christmas. We missed getting to see them and everyone else at Christmas. My parents came on Christmas Eve and the kids were so excited. They asked over and over if Oma and Opa had left yet. Ty had to work but got to leave early and was home around 2pm so he was home when mom and dad arrived. We ate dinner in the backyard like we did for Thanksgiving. The kids each picked a Christmas song to learn in Spanish to do a little Christmas Eve performance for everyone. We practiced as part of our distance learning every day at the end of the day. They were so excited about it and Carter was proud he could sing his song even with his eyes closed. Then when it came time to sing he got freaked out and ran off. I think with it just being the two of them instead of a whole class of kids, he just freaked out.
We watched church service online and mom gave us candles for the singing of Silent Night at the end of the service. After church we played a game where mom read The Night Before Christmas and we passed a present every time she said the word, "the." Shortly after that it was time for bed and the kids set out cookies and milk for Santa. Carter had a tough time falling asleep this year. He kept getting up freaked out that Santa was never going to come because he couldn't fall asleep. I checked that he was asleep a little after 10:00 and then started eating Santa's cookies. Carter woke up and came into the kitchen while I was eating the cookies. Luckily I was wearing a mask and had one bite left so I popped it in my mouth and he didn't say too much about it because Ty grabbed him and walked him out of the room. After that I laid with Carter for a while to help him sleep because I'd been awake since 5:30am and I really needed him to go to sleep so I could start setting out presents! I was up much later than I would have liked, but he was finally asleep and we were able to get everything ready.
Christmas morning Carter woke up at 5am and Ty sent him back to bed. We hadn't gotten to bed until midnight thanks to Carter's struggles to sleep. Carter played quietly in his room and then came back out around 6am saying he was hungry. Ty got him a blueberry muffin and sent him back to his room. At 7:00 he was up again so I got up with him and we checked to see if Santa had arrived. Elise was awake around 8:00 and Carter was so excited for her to see everything. We opened Santa presents with Oma and Opa and then the kids played with them while we waited for Jeremy and Thomas to arrive. Thomas arrived around 10:00 and Jeremy came around 11:00. The kids loved getting to see them open Santa presents. Then we moved into the living room and opened the other presents under the tree. The kids opened theirs and then we took a clean up break. The rest of us opened our presents while the kids played. We finished around 2pm. Then we all got ready to run. Dad, Thomas, Jeremy, and I ran together at trails by our house. Carter wanted to ride his bike and Elise wanted to run too. Mom came to help the kids. Elise ran with Carter on his bike for a while and then wanted to walk. So mom walked with Elise while dad, Thomas, and I helped Carter on his bike. Jeremy continued on. We did a loop with Carter and then waited at the playground for mom and Elise to get back. Once they returned they headed on home while dad, Thomas, and I took off to run some more. We met up with Jeremy and all finished out together. Dad got his leg caught on a thorn and Thomas had a rock he stepped on, pop up and hit him in the shin. So dad and Thomas both finished with bloody legs. It was warm enough I got to run in some of my new Oiselle shorts which I was super excited about!
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| Ready to head out for our run. |
Elise is right, family is the best gift of all. I still had a wonderful time, and I think everyone else did too.
ReplyDeleteIt was a wonderful time!
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