January 1st was a relaxed day. So relaxed, in fact, that the kids never changed out of pajamas. I think we were just all beat from the last week of holidays and family from out of town and trying to do everything all the time. We spent the morning with grandma and poppa and came home for lunch. The afternoon was spent putting the finishing touches on our new playset and raking up leaves in the yard. It was a gorgeous day out and the air was very refreshing. As we packed up the last of the yard tools Paul and Amelia climbed up to sit on the edge of their fort and were checking out the view of a blinking light up on top of a neighboring house. It was getting dark so we had to go inside and start dinner but I wished that moment could have lasted a little bit longer.

After a few days away we are finally home again. It’s weird how even just being 20 minutes away can seem like being “out of town”. The rest of this week is going to be kind of crazy and chaotic as well, but at least we’re all home for tonight. Amelia is getting so big. And she loves her bedtime things. It’s so cute how she treats her bunny and sheep as her babies

This was a weird Christmas. It’s just been an off holiday season in general but not having everyone together all morning seemed so strange. We also only had our immediate family for dinner and everything was just a little more subdued this year. I’m glad that the kids are so young, they didn’t seem to notice that anything was out of the ordinary. I know in the future Christmas will be more joyful and I’m glad they were young enough to still enjoy every moment of it this year

We spent the day at Grandma and Poppa’s house so we could be with family. We spent the night there as well so that Grandma and Poppa could see firsthand the excitement when the kids got up and saw the presents under the tree. We also of course had to leave some cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

Ben had the day off of work since the holidays fall on the weekend this year. The kids get SO excited when he’s home and a lot of book reading gets done. This is one of my favorites.