Christmas 2015

I should've published this post back in 2015 (you know, 6 whole days ago), but I had other things to do, like put together toys, play with toys, take out bags full of wrapping paper, snuggle with family, eat all the sweets, etc. We had a great Christmas at home, and Max is so entertained with all of his new gifts that he's even busier than he was before, if you can believe it!

I will give a little recap of the entire month of December, since we did lots of Christmassy things throughout the month and I wasn't on top of my blogging game. The first thing we did was visit Santa on December 7. I expected Max to be pretty apprehensive about the big guy this time around, and my hunch proved to be correct. But the photo turned out better than I expected.

No smile, but no tears. I'll call that a win!

Next, we ventured to a private home nearby to see its vast display of Christmas lights. I read about the house in our local newspaper and we visited on December 13. I am here to tell you: it was AMAZING! This lady does this display every year, and she begins hanging her lights in October (at least 35 strands of lights per tree!). She lets you walk around her property to see all of her light displays, and she collects donations for the local food bank and breast cancer research from those in the giving spirit. On this particular night, she was even allowing people inside her home to see her Christmas decorations inside.

Max loved it!

This year, she built a "throne" for Santa in her carriage house and passed out candy canes to all the kids. Max was still skeptical of ol' St. Nick, so Daddy had to sit with him.

We had a great time and Max LOVED running around outside right before bedtime. He crashed hard that night!

We hosted Victor's office Christmas party at our house on December 18. Earlier that week, Max was sick with a stomach bug, and Victor and I managed to catch it just in time for the party...ick! We both felt fine all day that Friday, but when party time rolled around, we started feeling pretty rotten. I couldn't eat anything, which was a bummer because we had some pretty great Mexican takeout! Here are just a couple photos I took that night before going to bed at 9 PM. Victor followed shortly after.

The next day, Victor and I were zombies. I had been up sick all night, and Victor was suffering from a fever and chills. We were "couch parents" all day Saturday as we slowly started feeling better. Luckily Max was OK with watching Curious George for most of the day.

Even though I felt rotten, I loved having my snuggle bug with me.

Honestly, I'm glad we got all the germies out of the house before Christmas!

The week of Christmas was spent baking cookies, wrapping gifts, and tidying the house. I baked sugar cookies for the first time in a couple of years, and I also made some homemade powdered sugar icing (both recipes from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook!). Part of me wanted to buy all the supplies to make beautiful piped icing designs...but then I just settled for sprinkles. You can't go wrong with sprinkles, people.

I also made Max a flannel tree with felt ornaments to decorate so he would hopefully leave our tree alone. It worked! Until he ripped it off the sliding glass door so he could knock on it while I was outside with the dog.

On Christmas Eve Eve, we opened our family gift of matching PJs (photo evidence in the Christmas Day photo section) and a Christmas movie (Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas Special). The evening of Christmas Eve, we went to Victor's parents' house to exchange gifts with his family. Then some of his aunts, uncles, and cousins joined us for dinner and a white elephant gift exchange. I won a cute little Nativity set! We got home late and Max didn't get to bed until 11!

Playing with all the "ho-hos" on Vovo's tree.

Victor received this ninja apron from his brother and future sister-in-law.

It was 70 degrees on Christmas Eve...I didn't have Christmassy clothes for that weather!

Christmas morning was relatively laid back since Max still doesn't quite understand the excitement of it all (I'm sure being up late the night before had something to do with it, too). We made our way downstairs around 9, and while Victor made breakfast, I pushed Max around in his new Radio Flyer tricycle, which was by the tree and immediately piqued his interest the second he saw it. He was not happy when we made him get out to eat! Then we opened the rest of our gifts in our matching PJs, pausing occasionally to unbox and play with new toys. Victor's brother and his fiancee visited around lunch time before they headed out of town, and then after naptime, we headed back over to Victor's parents' house for Christmas dinner with more extended family.

Mom, don't take photos. Push me around in this thing!

It was 70 degrees again on Christmas Day. Fleece PJs were a bit much.

Awesome drum set from one of Victor's aunts. Max immediately knew what to do!

Santa brought a train set!

Max loves his "choo choos"

This was after changing into lighter-weight pajamas and enjoying a chocolatey cookie.

My mom came out to visit on Sunday the 27th and brought lots of gifts for us from our family in Ohio. She left on New Year's Eve day. Max loved having his 'Ma in town. My sister couldn't make it out for Christmas this year because she's being a SuperNurse and working a lot over the holidays, but we'll hopefully see her in the next month or so!

We cheered on the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night...but they lost in overtime.

See? I told you we had a lovely Christmas. So lovely that I couldn't post about it until the next year. Ha! Check back tomorrow for tales of our New Year's Eve get-together!