Christmas Festivities

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may over flow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15.13

This is a theme verse for me this year, especially amidst all the craziness of 2020! 

The month of December always flies by. The anticipation of Christmas is always so magical! We have a lot of traditions that continued this year, even amidst the pandemic. I'm thankful for a family that still chooses to be together.

We did our cookie house tradition with the Epleys this year. Kathy really does put so much time and effort into this and the kids enjoy it!

Ava had a little Christmas gift exchange and sleep over with her friend group. They went to downtown Rochester to shop and see the lights. Love this group of girls.

On Christmas Eve, our church had two services at 3 and 5. I had to sing so my family came to the second, then we went to Jeff and Tara's house. We ate delicious food, played a ridiculous game (similar to Cards Against Humanity but much more inappropriate), opened gifts, and hung out!

I wrap presents as I buy them and hide them in the basement. The girls actually know where they're hidden but I make them promise not to peak. For the most part, I think they like being surprised Christmas morning so I'm pretty sure they listen and don't peak. It's fun to bring all the presents up and put them under the tree after the girls go to bed. These aren't all for the girls. Our family doesn't do any kind of name exchange so we buy for everyone. It gets a little crazy but it's fun too! Hopefully we can convince them all next year to draw names.

The girls woke up around 10 on Christmas morning. We ate breakfast, read a devotional from Allie's Jesus Calling book, read the final advent page from a book we had been reading through, then opened presents.

The girls each got a new blanket!

They even bought Sadie and Goose treats!

It was a fun morning. After we finished, we got dressed and went to my parents house to give them gifts. We stayed over there for about an hour. 

We had a lovely afternoon at our house. We napped, played games, and hung out. Chris and Miranda hosted Christmas dinner for the first time at their new house, which was fantastic since they have so much more room for the kids to run around and play. But we didn't go over there till 6 so having the whole day to relax was something new!

Christmas 2020 was a lot of fun! Merry Christmas everyone!