We had a very merry Christmas.  We spent the week prior decorating gingerbread houses, listening to Christmas music, and admiring our door of holiday cards.

Christmas Eve, we started with our annual pictures by the tree. My serious loving Emerson!

My sweet do your own thing Avery….

And my loving crazy goofball.  

Trying to get all three looking and smiling at the camera for the same picture has proven to be a continued challenge over the years…at least it makes for some good laughs.

Pics with Larissa…

Love this picture – this little goofball has continued making my heart happy and smile since she came along five years ago!

Pictures with awesome and handsome Daddy.

Mommy with handsome hubby!  Not too shabby for almost 40 year olds!

Our happy little awesome family.

Our happy little awesome family plus one!

Seriously, why can’t we all stay still and smile for the camera?  At least it makes for some good pictures!  Nice height Ave!

At church, Harper brought true meaning to the song “Silent Night”.

We went to PF Changs for dinner – our fourth year in a row of the tradition.  Food was delicious, service not so great.  Without really even complaining, we got 25% of the check and a $25 gift card.  They made it right in the end…so whether PF Changs or another restaurant will be our go to for next year, is still up in the air.

I totally bought Christmas jammies for the whole family this year.  Me and the hubs!

The girls…

Pics with Mila, who joined us by the way at PF Changs.

Hope that toe taste nice Eme!

The five of us in our jammies…

The girls placed their letters for Santa along with a note about who has been on the nice list.  And of course cookies for Santa, which the girls baked that afternoon with Larissa; carrots and reindeer food, which Harper made at school.

Christmas morning, the girls patiently waiting to go downstairs. Harper had gotten sick that night after she went to bed and despite two rounds of throwing up and diarrhea, she rallied Christmas morning.

Santa was good to all of and left a few things in our stockings that made us laugh and be joyful.

More pictures with props that Larissa had brought home from her Brazilian Christmas Eve celebration the night prior.

And finally after several hours of opening Santa presents and several pots of coffee, it was breakfast time.  The menu included a sausage, pepper, kale, and mushroom strata, bacon, fruit, and orange citrus scones.  All were delicious!

More present opening after breakfast…this time gifts to each other.

Harper gave Mila some socks that said “John Lemon” and had a picture of John Lennon as a lemon head.  Mila taught Harper the names of all The Beatles several years ago…she would pronounce John Lennon “John Lemon” so when I walked past these socks in Bed Bath Beyond, I knew they would steal the show.

The girls got coupons for a day in D.C. and a movie theatre day.  We went to D.C Thursday and spent time at The Museum of American History followed by dinner at Dogfish Head Alehouse in Falls Church.  Friday we went to see The Return of Mary Poppins. We brought home pizza instead of eating out as I was starting to get achy and could feel myself coming down with the virus that had plagued the entire household the week prior.

The girls did not buy each other presents so we came up with this gift that they could chose to sign if they were ready to make the pledge.  They all took some time to think about it and within several hours, all three had made the pledge.   They took it seriously and have really overall been getting along really nicely with one another the past few weeks.  

Later in the day, Papa and Grandma came over for Christmas dinner.

More important than the presents around the tree are the people around the tree!  We had a merry Christmas and feel so blessed.

Christmas 2017 is a wrap:). And a great one, it was! Truly, I must have said to Justin how great not only the actual day was, but also the preparation leading up to it. While we certainly are not minimalists, we really see the benefit of valuing experiences over stuff and we realize how more stuff creates more stress, decisions, and nagging.  While we did not go minimal, we really did scale back significantly from years past. The girl’s big gift from Justin and me (and to each other) was a trip to Charleston, SC. In fact, I am writing this in the car on our 10-hour car trip to Charleston!

We stuck to our annual tradition and made reservations at PF Changs for dinner. We took pictures in front of the tree before church….

Individuals of the girls…

Doubling up…

We did all three but none of those pictures were worthy of posting!!  Same with the ones with Karolin!  The girls had just fallen over one another and there were a few tears!

Ones with Janaina…

Ones with Mommy…

Ones with Daddy…

A family shot…

A family bonus shot…

And finally just the ladies…

While I had the best of intentions to start pictures earlier this year so as not to be rushing through them, we still ended up rushing through the last ones. We started earlier but an eye glass change and a few dabs that may have knocked someone in the face, and a fall or two here and there, caused us to be as rushed to get the final pictures as previous years. Nonetheless, Justin still took many pictures and I was very happy with the results.

Christmas Eve service was nice. I like how the service is different each year. This year we even did a candlelight Silent Night rendition. It has been years since I have been to a service that sang Silent Night. I always loved that song when I went to Church with Justin pre-kids for Christmas. While I honestly thought it was glaring missing from prior year’s Christmas Eve program, having over 1000-lit candles, many of which were held by little kids was slightly nerve-wracking.

Dinner at PF Changs was good. Service was a little slower than normal but it was delicious as always. I was worried I hadn’t ordered enough food, but I definitely over ordered! Yet, we still managed to eat almost all it…just because it was thereL. Jana, Karolin, Avery, Emerson, Harper, Justin and I all had a good time at dinner.

Upon getting home the girls, put the final touches on their notes to Santa.They had previously written their wish list to Santa.

Speaking of Santa, he actually was already gone by the time we got to the mall for our dinner reservation (unlike last year). Fortunately, we had not planned on getting our pictures taken though this year before dinner since the girls had their picture with Santa a few weeks earlier at Stacy’s holiday open house.

When we got home, the girls took a few more pictures in front of the tree in their new Mickey Mouse Christmas Hannah Jammies.

Then it was off to bed so Santa could make his way down the chimney.

Emerson was the first to wake yesterday and that was close to 8:00. She patiently waited for Avery and Harper to wake up a few minutes later. Karolin and Ludmila were also downstairs in the kitchen. (Jana left about 5:00 a.m. to go on vacation for the week).   It was really neat to see the girls go give hugs to Karolin and Ludmila before they even checked out what Santa brought.

Santa was really good to the girls…bringing them almost everything that was on their lists!!  Here are Avery, Emerson, and Harper’s lists respectively.

While they loved everything, Harper’s favorite was probably the toot gun (Despicable Me fart gun): Emerson probably her Barbie car and phone; and Avery’s was probably her mermaid shimmer and shine, mermaid Barbie and hatchimals. Emerson especially is hard to please so hearing her constant shrieks, laugh, and excitement was amazingly beautiful.

After Santa’s gifts that he left in the living room for the girls, we went to see what Santa put in our stockings!

Then it was breakfast time! I did most the preparation of breakfast the evening before so that I could enjoy the morning as much as possible while still eating breakfast at a relatively decent time. Breakfast smelled delicious and was equally amazing! Homemade blueberry scones, thick Applewood smoked bacon, fried eggs with chives and avocado, and a beautiful fruit platter.

After breakfast, we opened up the rest of the gifts.Again we went minimal, but I promise now one felt deprived in the least. Our family gift to the girls was a trip to Charleston, SC. We gave them a coupon which included some of the things we would be doing. Imagine their surprise, when their totally anything but spontaneous parents told them we were leaving the next day! Ha!

And we took some more pictures of the girls – our younger girls and our older girls:)

The next few hours of the afternoon were low key. Justin and I went for a 40-minute walk while the girls played and cuddled with Karolin and Mila. When we got back, Justin turned the movie Elf on for the girls so that Justin and I had time to pack for our trip. My mom came over in the late afternoon and brought more presents….mostly gift cards which is great because it involves the girls in the decision making process and helps them to understand the value of a dollar. My dad was sick so we Facetimed him while we opened the presents from Russell and Mary. Dinner was a regular dinner….which was still amazing but nice because the focus was on preparing for the trip today and not preparing dinner all day long. Even scaling it down, I bought too much…so I decided the russet potatoes and sweet potatoes weren’t necessary since Mila and my parents weren’t eating with us. I think I overcooked the pork slightly but it was still delicious and looked beautiful! As we ate dinner, Avery asked if we could bow our heads and sing Happy Birthday Jesus, so we did:).

It really was just a great day. Justin and I feel so blessed. He gave me a beautiful card and the words he wrote symbolize our commitment to each other and reaching our common life goals. We were blessed to have our two former au pairs chose to come celebrate Christmas with our family. Our girls were full of joy and excitement with the gifts Santa brought them. Seeing the twinkle in their eyes as they prepared for Nevis’s arrival every morning the last few weeks and Santa and his reindeers arrival Christmas Eve is purely magical.

Nevis came to visit us again Monday morning, the morning after we put our Christmas tree up. He marked his territory by plopping himself on the tree as he has done for his arrival the past 4 years. He has gone back to the North Pole and returned each morning for the past two nights now. Avery and Harper made themselves crowns to wear Sunday afternoon and Harper had an idea to make Nevis his own crown. We left it on the coffee table and Tuesday morning when Nevis showed up in the kitchen cabinet, Nevis was wearing his crown….it was magical. In the mornings, the girls are no longer pre-occupied with wanting to sleep more, wanting to delay getting dressed, or anything other than wanting to see where Nevis went. Hearing the pitter patter of feet running down the stairs and around the house with their anticipation of Nevis’s silly antics and the deep gasps and belly laughs of where Nevis has planted himself for the day bring pure joy to my heart. Harper, Avery, AND even Emerson believe in the magic of Christmas.

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.

Twas the night before Christmas…

…and at this house, ALL the creatures were stirring, even the Jews of this house.