Our Low Key Family Christmas

It's hard to imagine the Christmas season is over already. Dude is quite confused about this whole concept. All the sudden it's just over? We take our tree down and we don't listen to Christmas tunes anymore? And Elfie is no long hiding in random locations around our house? "But Mom, dere is still snow outside, so where did Christmas go?" Poor guy. Life doesn't always make a whole lotta sense. Anyway...we had a lovely weekend, despite the fact that we had a "family free" holiday this year. That doesn't happen often, but we're headed to Chi-town later this week for 4 days of fam time.

We took the kiddos swimming on Christmas Eve day and were pumped to find they both adore the water. Squirt crawled around and giggled all the while. And Dude is independent now, which makes it much easier for pool outings. We all headed to church Christmas Eve as we were asked to light the advent candles in front of the congregation. You see, our pastor is well aware and loves the fact that Dude is a bit of a social wild card. The evil genius in him thought this would be a grrrreat idea. Let's see what the Vogs pull out of their bag of tricks. I had a moderate amount of anxiety about this occasion and worked with Dude all day on how we were going to behave. I envisioned Squirt grabbing at the fire, trying to eat my liturgy papers and screaming like a pterodactyl when she was denied. I envisioned Dude screeching loudly about Santa as we lit the Christ candle. And I envisioned Tim and me thanking the congregation for loving and accepting us in the name of the sweet baby Jesus.


Christmas miracle - it went off without a hitch! Squirt only tried grabbing the flames once, I held Dude while I read and he proudly grabbed the microphone when I was done and shouted, "Let us walk in da name of da LORD!" Perfection. We whisked them off to nursery and let out a few (ok, like 10) sighs of relief.

We headed home with a sleepy Squirt and a rambunctious Dude. We let baby girl sleep in the car while Dude and I sprinkled reindeer dust on the driveway (so they can see us from the sky and have a little snack) and drove over to our neighborhood "dancing house." The fabulous lights on this house dance to music on the radio and has been a Christmas treat for our family. We went 4 times this season. Dude adores it and asks about it all year long. At home the kids opened their new PJs to wear on Christmas morning and they hit the sack. Tim and I attempted to watch my fave, Elf, but cashed out after 20 minutes.

 Sprinkling his reindeer dust (aka oatmeal and glitter)

 The dancing house is behind us. Dude is giddy with anticipation.

Opening up Christmas Eve PJ's.  Dude loves nothing more than "cozy foot PJ's."

Christmas morning Dude woke up promptly at 6:30, but didn't seem to remember that the fat man in red came to bring presents.  So we went with it and let him watch a Christmas show in our bed and slept for another hour.  When Squirt woke up we headed down and started the gift opening extravaganza.  Squirt could have cared less and wanted to eat all the boxes and we worked with Dude on enjoying and appreciating each gift before asking (demanding) for another.  The gift of the year was his fireman outfit.  We've never seen him react quite like this to a gift before.  He didn't remove the ensemble, including belt and every single tool, for 48 hours straight (minus sleeping time).  If I have to "play fire" once more this week I might accidentally misplace the costume. 

 Grandma V and Grandpa Marc bought Squirt her own pink car.  We're ready for some snow free sidewalks to go try her out!

 Our daycare provider does these sweet hand print wreaths for all the kids.  We got one from Dude last year.

 Da da da!  Say hello to our new son, Mr. Fireman. 

 Grandma also sent these monogrammed Pottery Barn towels.  Love them.

 Duder shopped for all of us at his Secret Santa Store at school.  He picked out this pennant and a toy airplane for Dad.  I got some charming little earings and the glass angel below.  I LOVE this concept of him picking things out for us.  It was my favorite part of the gift giving without a doubt.

 Squirt's hungry hungry caterpillar jack in the box.  It made her giggle.

Dude picked this out for his little sister.  And he sat, staring at it, for 30 minutes straight.  So, kinda for his sister but more because he thought it was cool.

After Squirt's morning slumber, we made our way to a local sledding hill for our very first family sledding adventure. Why haven't we gone before this? I haven't the slightest because it was SUPER fun. Dude and Squirt giggled their little fannies off each and every time down the hill. We topped it off with a play session at the connecting park. Have to make the most out of 55 degree Colorado winter days. We stopped in at the Syers for Christmas hugs and hellos from our buds and went home for afternoon naps.

 I know, there's a ton of sledding shots, but they're so darn cute. 

 The kids had a blast toolin' around at the park before we headed out.

 Yes, he's wearing purple gloves.  We forgot his, so he was forced to wear his sisters. 

 Sliding.  Pure joy.

Oh how I love this little pumpkin face.

 Whole Food supplied us with a lovely and tasty family dinner. The Sheas popped over after dinner to say hello for a bit (and share Maria's divine chocolate cake) and we took Duder and Squirt to look at some holiday lights around Cherry Creek. Dude loved the lights this year, so we made a big deal out all the beautiful displays. While we were out, the McKinsters called and invited us to pop in for round #2 of dessert, so we did just that. It was a wonderful weekend. We did miss our fams, but we loved our low key Christmas with no agenda.

Hoping you and yours had a fabulous and memorable Christmas season as well.