simply christmas

I suppose it's about time for a Christmas recap :)

We've really just been enjoying our holiday time this weekend. It's just been the four of us the past three days hangin' out, playing games -we all got lots of games- and enjoying the afterglow of Christmas.

I should back up a little for prosperity's sake;
We started celebrating Christmas on Wednesday... we had the Swinigans over for a Christmas Brunch -for dinner. Christmas Brinner if you will. Christmas Eve Eve Brinner if we're being technical in the title. :) We ate lots and opened a few presents and just really enjoyed hanging out before the whirl of the holiday really hit.

Thursday, on Christmas Eve, we joined the Laughlins at Kasey's mom's family's celebration... huge Christmas party (80+ family members) complete with Santa! We enjoyed some dinner and lots of visiting with the Laughlins and the Merritts. It was fun to be included in a big crazy family at Christmas... we felt like we were at home!

Christmas Morning the kids actually slept in... after seven a.m. anyway! Sawyer didn't come down until after 7:30! That there is what you call a Christmas miracle!
We were done with presents by 8:30 and seriously spent the rest of the day (rest of the next three days really) never leaving our Christmas pj's and just hanging out together playing new games and snacking and watching the snow outside. Yes, snow! It was a mere inch or so on Christmas, but it's basically been snowing constantly since Christmas morning and it just puts me in such a good mood! We had up to maybe two inches today, on Sunday.
And that's basically been our whole holiday weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday;
playing games, eating candy, playing games, watching Christmas movies, making oatmeal, playing games, baking cookies, playing games, eating pizza, watching more movies, playing games, easy bake oven baking, napping, playing games, skyping with family, reading new books, cuddling, snacking, playing in the snow, drinking hot chocolate, eating cookies, playing games, napping, eating candy, playing games, doing puzzles, watching more movies, playing games, more eating, more playing games.
Just the four of us.
Oh and we did a little shopping today and went to church.
Being reminded that there is a world outside of our four walls...

It's just been so nice with all the to-do lists and the decisions to make and the job/moving worry we had filling our weeks before Christmas to just hunker down with our little family and forget about all of that and focus on the celebrating... to focus on the peace and the joy and the jolly and the fun and the rest and the renew and the everything else of what Christmas is for us. Together.
I've really enjoyed this time out.

Ryan's got this whole coming week off too, so I'm really looking forward to just extending our holiday that much more! I'll have the baby here tomorrow, but after that he'll be off on vacation too so it'll once again be just us.
I think at some point we're going to try and head out to Columbia to visit the Laughlins and their family while Dan and Amanda are in town. And then also I believe at some point the Robertsons are coming here to stay with us for a night or two -not quite sure on the definite plan yet- and we're so excited they're able to join us this year for our big New Years Day Dinner with friends!!

I'll get through some pictures tonight and get them posted tonight or tomorrow.
If I don't get too sidetraked playing more games this evening... :)