Merry Merry

 We had the most delightful couple of days celebrating with our little (ha!) family, but we absolutely missed gathering with extended family. 2 separate groups of people on Ben’s side have the vid, so no NYE plans, either **sad trombone** It’s also the first year that anyone we normally celebrate with is sick on the holidays, and we wish we would have celebrated normally the past couple of years, in retrospect.

Our Elves (plural— FML) on the Shelf brought matching Hanukkah jams this year, and I got ZERO pictures of the fam in them, mainly because Minnie just flat out refused to wear them at all.

And also because we had so much lazy fun, I just didn’t take that many pictures.

Where does one of us stop and the other begin? HARD TO SAY

We spent the 23rd making Santa cookies, which was perfect because Ben had meetings, and he is kind of Grinchy about making cookies (which, I get it— SUCH A MESS).

And not even really appetizing, on the whole

Minnie refused all help and spent like 40 minutes making a not-messing-around dough lump

Dorothy colored the buttercream frosting, and it has never been so vibrant.

MINNIE’S LUMP

I made a much more tame green icing

Elf at work

Seriously, she was SO into this cookie and clearly had a real plan.

I was delighted to find Santa hat sprinkles in my huge sprinkle bottle. Next, year I am buying more and doing at least one batch of festive dinos.

I made my grandpa’s spaghetti sauce and meatball recipe for Christmas Eve, and we spent the whole day just sort of hanging out at home waiting for it to be bedtime—- in a very festive, merry way complete with a toddler kitchen helper and a nap time movie with snacks,

Santa delivers stockings right to the kids’ bedrooms, and this is genius because it buys us time to open our own stockings together and just not have to get out of bed so early. AND! The kids have so much fun showing each other what they got and then laying it all out for us to see, too. Wisely, Santa brought Minnie’s to our room, knowing she comes in to nurse at the crack of 6 am.

Dorothy woke up at 1 am, investigated her stocking, and fell back to sleep until almost 7 when she scampered down to Coop’s room

He was happy to see her:

Harry and Jack spent awhile together opening things and then joined the little kids for some candy and knee hockey while Ben and I had coffee and got our bearings.

Present opening always goes slowly. We go one at a time and pause to delight and also to eat pull apart cinnamon rolls

Harry loved these tennis sunglasses

Coop has been asking for this book every time we have gone to Costco lately

Jack was thrilled to update his wardrobe

Dorothy was her very best elf elf and loved every single gift

Minnie liked these boots so much the would only wear them and nothing else

I LOVED the variety of Ugg boots Ben got me because I needed an update

But the real star was a dresser top coffee maker because sometimes I need a cup of coffee so I can get up and make a better cup of coffee. Hashtag too old to parent a toddler

Ben cooked a HUGE dinner (he wrote Christmas Feast on our weekly menu, and it was)

 

And we ended the night putting the little kids to bed and playing the games Harry and Jack bought us (with their own money—- so sweet!)

It was a perfect family weekend, and tonight! We are catching the last night of Hanukkah with our traditional sibling gift exchange. It’s a delight to watch the kids pick out such thoughtful gifts for each other, but it is also very logic puzzle-y to figure out how to take them all shopping in a way that avoids taking them with their random-draw sibling or the person who drew their name. Having an extra driver this year might help…