Christmas Day 2018

Spencer and I have been married for almost 7 years! (Wow, that’s pretty crazy to think about!) For those past seven years have been alternating Thanksgiving and Christmas Day between our parents’ houses. However, this year we decided to spend Christmas Day at our home.

Christmas Traditions

Growing up my parents created all kinds of special Christmas traditions for our family to enjoy! Many of these traditions we still celebrate today!

Spencer would definitely say I was putting a little “too” much pressure on hosting Christmas and this being Kade’s first Christmas at home. He did encourage me to take my own advice… plan and prepare but know there is no such thing as perfect.

We talked about the Christmas traditions we grew up with and then decided which ones we would carry on with Kade.

Here is how we celebrated our first Christmas at home with traditions of old and new.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents and they gave us most of the presents and stockings. That way we would be able to have everything ready to go for Christmas morning. Kade has only seen our tree with zero presents underneath. We decide that for his age the best was to show Santa came to visit was all of the presents arriving on Christmas Eve. And we were right! Kade came down on Christmas morning and started dancing and saying WOAH to the sight of all the beautiful packages under the tree! His joy literally brought tears to our eyes!

Matching PJ’s

My family has been wearing matching pjs on Christmas Day for as long as I can remember. My sister and I would wake up Christmas morning with a special present at the foot of our beds. There was a letter from Santa instructing us to put on what was inside the gift. It was always matching pjs. We would come down stairs and my Mom would be wearing the same pair too! My Dad would be wearing a coordinating color pair of pants.

After my sister and I were married our husbands were brought into the tradition too! They would get the same coordinating colored pants as my Dad. I love this tradition and definitely want to keep this as part of our little family Christmas. My mom typically picked out really pretty/girly pjs which are nice for all year. I on the other hand want to go full on Christmas jammies! This year I ordered late and we ended up with Christmas Plaid. Last year we had family “Don’t Moose With Me” jammies.

Singing Happy Birthday

New tradition for us was starting the morning with a prayer and singing Happy Birthday to Jesus before opening presents. Teaching to gives thanks and appreciation to why we celebrate today is very important to Spencer and I. We are in search of a children’s nativity scene to teach Kade about baby Jesus. If you have any suggestions for one please comment below.

Stockings

Both Spencer and my families would start opening gifts with the stocking presents. We decided to keep this tradition too. We take turns opening… where one person opens one gift at a time. That way we don’t rush through the day and we get to see all the gifts that everyone received. This year we tried something new where each person in the family bought one stocking stuffer for all the others. Meaning I bought one stocking stuffer for Spencer, Kade, my Mom, Dad, Sister and Brother in Law. I liked how it turned out and it was fun picking items. Hoping we keep that for next year!

Donuts

My love for donuts started at a VERY young age! Just like my Momma we both love sweets for breakfast. Each Christmas morning we would have Dunkin’ Donuts and Munchkins. This tradition is 100% a must considering Kade, Spencer and I all LOVE donuts. Only small change was we got us a box of munchkins and then fresh grocery store donuts. Sadly Dunkin’ Donuts have gone down hill over the years so I opted to try another kind. Spencer went out first thing on Christmas Eve to get the donuts for Christmas Day. After we open our stocking presents we pause for a hot cocoa, coffee and a donut break.

Santa Presents

This tradition is a little tough for me. I think it will evolve over time and we may try it a few different ways. First, we decided Santa presents will be wrapped differently than all of the other presents. My Mom suggested red and white stripes with green ribbon like they used in the Polar Express. I agreed and thought that was a great idea! This year Kade received six wonderful presents from Santa. My dilemma is should Mommy and Daddy give most of the presents and only a few from Santa? Or, should Santa bring most of the gifts and only a few from us? Spencer says I’m over thinking this part??? I would love to hear what you all do… if you would like to share please comment below.

The Grinch

Kade happened to really take to the Grinch this year. Prior to Christmas we watched the Jim Carrey version and took Kade to see the new one in the theater. On Christmas morning we woke up just the three of us. We opened some gifts, took a few donut breaks and watched the original cartoon The Grinch together. Not sure if this will remain a Christmas tradition but if Kade keeps liking him so much I bet it will be!

Brunch

When my family arrived we popped brunch (sausage roll and apple strudel) in the oven and opened our stocking presents. After the stockings we ate brunch which also included fruit and more donuts! After brunch we all gathered around our Christmas Tree and started exchange presents.

Kade

Our little Moose was spoiled with so much love an generosity from our loved ones. A few of his favorite gifts were The Grinch movie, all his cars, a Paw Patrol book, and his bike. He also received moccasins, vets and lots of buffalo plaid clothing which I personally loved! After the majority of gift opening Kade took a nap and Spencer put together his big gift. My family got him the Radio Flyer Stroll ‘N Trike.

Does Santa Exist?

I don’t even remember when I stopped believing in Santa. I can promise you I was pretty old! As I sat wrapping Santa gifts there is one gift that just showed up. We have no idea who it came from! There is so much to this story but I’m going to shorten it.

When creating my 2018 gift guides I found a Buffalo Plaid Plush Moose Chair from Trend Lab. I added it to Kade’s giftster list because I thought he would love it! I found it on Zulilly for $30! My Mom and I added it to our shopping carts but neither ordered. Over Thanksgiving weekend I finally went to order it but it was sold out! I was bummed but then found it at Pier One for $55 and I “thought” I had a gift card too Pier 1 too. But, I wasn’t able to find the gift card so I didn’t order it.

Weeks later we come home one night and there is a big box on our porch. It’s a Trend Lab box addressed to Kade and it says it is the Moose chair. I immediately txt my Mom and Sister and ask if either of them got it for him. Both said No! I rack my brain trying to figure out could I have ordered it and forgot? Spencer and I check our accounts for payment and email confirmations but we find nothing. We still have no idea where it came from other than it really is from Santa!

Christmas Dinner

One of my goals for Christmas Day was for all of us to relax! This is something I very rarely do but need to more often. I didn’t want to have anyone worrying about tons of cooking or cleaning in the kitchen. But in order to accomplish this I along with my family did a lot of preplanning and prep work.

Here are 5 Quick Tips that will help making Hosting any meal easier!

Set the table a few days ahead of time. If you aren’t able to set the table pull out all of the items and have them stored in an area that is easy to access when you can set the table.
Prep all the food you can prior to hosting. Cut the veggies and cheese the day before or hours before hosting. Freeze any items that you can and set a reminder to unfreeze them.
Run/Empty the dishwasher prior to hosting. That way you can start with an empty dishwasher and load it up after your meal.
Use as many dishwasher safe containers, utensils, tableware and cookware as possible.
When others offer to help you in the kitchen … LET THEM! Everything will go so much fast for all of you! Your guests will feel good for helping and you’ll be able to enjoy more time with your guests.

I certainly followed these tips this year, as I was determined to have a relaxing day! I set our table days the week before Christmas. Adding little touches here and there all the way up to Christmas Eve. We ran and emptied the dish washer Christmas Eve morning. We washed all the dish towels the day before Christmas too.

Simple Dinner Menu

Appetizers: Sausage Cheese Pasty Puff Balls // Main Dish: Smoked Turkey on the Traeger // Sides: mac-n-cheese, frozen steamed veggies, yams, and biscuits