Our Christmas Holiday and Heading Into 2019 {vlog}

Happy New Year! I’ve taken the last two weeks to enjoy time with family and it’s been such a nice break. With it being Rosie’s first Christmas and Lucy full of toddler fun, we had a really good holiday. I’m doing a little recap here of our three days of family dinners and there is a vlog at the end of the post too. I hadn’t done one in a year, but I do love being able to look back at them from when Lucy was younger and I’m sure the girls will love them someday too.

Christmas Eve Eve

We went to Garrett’s parents’ on the 23rd and had a great early Christmas with the family. Everyone was happy to see Rosie and how much she’d grown, and the excitement Lucy had for Santa coming was a joy.

The highlight of her night was getting a huge walking dinosaur that roars and has red eyes that light up. You can see quite a bit of him in the video, ha!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we spent the morning getting Lucy’s “big girl” room made up for company staying over for the night. She was so excited to see the bed setup that she insisted on naptime stories in there.

In the evening we headed over to my parents’ house for a big Christmas dinner.

Rosie wore the same dress that both Lucy and I wore for our first Christmases too. 33 years ago my Nana got this red velvet and lace dress from Holt Renfrew and it’s stood the test of time.

Before dinner we headed down to my parents’ basement for games of crokinole, pool and pinball.

Lucy was right into it all and we had to convince her to not take all the billiard balls that rolled around the table, ha!

Upstairs the table was set to fit all 23 people – the table stretched from the edge of the living room, through the dining room all the way into their family room in the nook.

The centrepieces were carnations and greens in wooden containers and glass hurricanes, repurposed from the flower arrangements we did for my cousin’s wedding this fall.

We had a great meal, did a $10 gift exchange and then headed home to get the little ones to bed in anticipation of Santa’s arrival.

It was nice to head back to our own farmhouse at night, tucking Lucy in with “visions of sugarplums dancing in her head”. Having a baby around the holidays was really nice too – those middle of the night feedings are much more enjoyable under the lights of the Christmas tree.

Christmas Day

Somehow I didn’t get any pictures of Christmas morning, but there is some of it in the vlog below. We opened stockings and a few gifts at the farmhouse, then went over to my parents for brunch and more gifts. Then it was back home for afternoon naps for all.

In the evening, all the grandparents and Garrett’s uncle came over for a quiet Christmas dinner. We all had a great visit together and Lucy had a chance to play with all the new toys with everyone.

Dinner was so easy. I had some appetizers ready and then everyone brought the leftovers from our previous Christmas dinners together. It was such a good meal (the best of both families!) and no one had to deal with piles of leftovers in the fridge for days on end.

The rest of the week was spent hanging out with family, enjoying our new presents and eating way too much chocolate.

New Years Eve

We had a low key New Years, with a chocolate cake baked by Lucy (check out my “Baking with Toddlers” highlight on Instagram Stories). The only thing we had actually planned was to have fireworks in the evening and of course it was raining, but Garrett was such a great sport and set them off in the yard, with me and the girls staying dry on the front porch. We also let Lucy have a few sparklers and they were a big hit. The best part – the kiddos were both asleep before 8pm and Garrett and I were able to have a little date night at home with dinner and a movie. The best way to start the New Year is always with him by my side, so it really doesn’t matter what we do, it’ll be fun. 🙂

I hope you’ve all had a lovely holiday season and are enjoying 2019 so far. Happy New Year!