Christmas was good this year. I worked the morning of Christmas Eve and then Justin and I went to the gym just us around lunch time. During Harper’s afternoon nap, the older girls and I made sugar cookies with the new gingerbread cookie cutters they had given me for Hanukkah.
I went the easy way out this year and had Justin buy readymade Pillsbury dough and while part of me had some heart ache with it, I’m so glad I did because the girls had a blast rolling and pressing the cookie cutters and then rerolling, adding more flour. There was flour all over; it was a mess but I didn’t care because I hadn’t slaved over making homemade dough and we had a great time making the cookies. I hadn’t planned on the girls bathing before Christmas Eve service but they had so much flour on them that I didn’t have much of a choice. I gave them a quick hose down in my shower and by the time they were done, I had not much more than a half hour to get ready for church myself! Somehow I managed and that included curling my hair! We took family pictures in front of the tree as planned.
We went to the 5:00 p.m. Christmas Eve service that was a kid’s service and as expected Emerson was very into the service and quiet and listened intently the whole time. She is like a little grown up! As expected Avery was listening to the service, but constantly moving and talking. And Harper pretty much was the same as Avery in terms of constantly moving and talking….she mostly sat with Ludmila and told Ludmila what she was thinking. It was a kid’s service though so they weren’t the only kids talking.
After Christmas Eve service, Ludmila went to celebrate Brazilian style with some of her friends and the Justin and I took the girls to P. F. Changs. As much as I love cooking, it takes time and sometimes that cooking comes at a price of me spending quality time with my girls. So when I told Justin I wasn’t cooking Christmas Eve, being the good husband that he is, he was fine with that. The girls were well behaved and the food was good. I’d say it most definitely was a good choice. We went for a lap around the mall after dinner to “walk off dinner” and the girls had a blast looking at the window displays and posing for pictures on the benches. 
The plan when we got home was for the girls to put on their Christmas pajamas, brush teeth and go to bed. Harper refused to wear her Christmas pajamas and we didn’t force it. The girls went to bed fairly easily as they probably did not want to delay Santa coming.
Justin and I had done all the wrapping of presents earlier in the week so literally all that we had to do Christmas Eve was set out Santa’s presents including the stockings. It was so stress free…it was great. That left time for me to prep breakfast so that all I had to do was pop everything in the oven in the morning.
Christmas morning Emerson woke up first around 7:30. She was okay waiting to go downstairs until closer to 8:00 as long as I put on a show for her. Avery and Harper woke up about 15 minutes after Emerson and I managed to keep them content upstairs for a few minutes while Justin made some coffee for the adults and put the breakfast casserole in the oven. At 8:00 it was time. The girls slowly made their way downstairs and I think were actually surprised to see Santa had left them something because in talking with them before we went downstairs, I told them that I didn’t hear Santa even though I tried to listen out for him. We agreed if he didn’t come it was because he probably gave gifts to other kids and he would come next year. They were actually okay with that and thought Santa hadn’t come. So they were in a little shock when they did see something. Justin captured it on video. They slowly made their way to the playroom to see if Santa had eaten the cookies and drank the milk (which he had) and left them a letter in response to theirs (which he had). 
Then the girls noticed that he had filled our stockings with things and not coal! Everyone got different things geared towards each person…Santa knew just what to get everyone. The girls got a kick out of the fact that Santa left Mommy panties in her stocking….five pairs of panties and one piece of chocolate!
After opening our stockings, we made our way to the living room and the girls opened their presents from Santa. The older girls got IPADS and make up! Harper got a cash register, a purse, and a Doc McStuffins X-Ray camera. All three girls got a sled from Santa. 
Avery keeps asking when it is going to snow….none of us could answer! We then opened some more presents….from Mommy and Daddy, from Ludmila, from the girls. We opened presents in an organized fashion so that everyone gets a chance to watch each person as they open up their present. We opened presents for about an hour and then took a break for breakfast. Breakfast was great. We had a strata with mushrooms, spinach, onions, cheddar, and parmesan. We had fresh fruit and REAL bacon that I made in the oven and was the REAL deal!!
After breakfast we opened some more presents, but still not all. While the girls were having fun playing with their new toys and IPADs, the weather was an unbelievable 72 degrees and we took advantage by going for a family walk in the neighborhood. It was muggy and felt like 100% humidity. It felt like a muggy day in the summer after a rain…it certainly did not feel like Christmas day. After our walk, I made the girls a small little lunch and they iced and decorated with sprinkles the sugar cookies that we made the previous day. Again, the kitchen was a mess but the girls had fun. Harper was so messy that I asked Justin to give her a bath before her nap but he didn’t hear me say I wanted him to give her a bath so he just put her down. Later Justin told me that Harper had been very upset with him and kept telling him “Bath”! While Harper was napping, Avery, Emerson, and I did puffy paints. I love how personalities shine through with each person’s artwork. Here is mine (that york terrier eating from the bird feeder is really a bird)!
This was Emersons…she ended up taking hers and placing it against a second piece of paper for a unique look.
This was Avery’s….her’s took a good five days to dry!
My parents and Grandma Adele came over at 4:00 and we opened the last of the presents including presents from Mary, Russell, Michael, and Caroline. 
Those presents were spot on for each of the girls and were a huge hit!
Dinner was Christmas Italian style! Last year I made an amazing dinner of beef tenderloin with an avocado, garlic, aioli sauce with an arugula salad and mashed potatoes. While the meal was excellent, Justin, Karolin, and I were really the only ones who truly enjoyed it. For the price and the effort, it just I decided it just wasn’t worth it to make that again. I had a whole frozen baked ziti and homemade marinara sauce leftover from a few weekends ago. So I decided we would have that with chicken parmigiana. My mom helped me make the cutlets and I made some garlic green beans and dinner was not only delicious, but everyone enjoyed it. Even Avery ate some plain pasta and plain chicken cutlets! I didn’t do appetizers and I didn’t even make dessert. I pulled a few things that I had in the house out and called it dessert! While I do love cooking, it was nice to have an extra few hours spending quality time with the girls.
Overall Christmas was great this year, although it didn’t feel entirely like Christmas. We certainly didn’t feel all that stressed out with the process of buying gifts….over the years we have mastered that process and with one full day of shopping Thanksgiving weekend combined with lots of Amazon purchases, we are able to take the stress out of buying gifts. And certainly the simplified meal added to it. But truthfully I think the 70 degree weather was the real winner as to why it didn’t feel completely like Christmas this year. My favorite part of Christmas….being able to witness the joy and innocence that the Christmas spirit instills in my three girls.