Christmas 2017

This year for Christmas day we decided to stay home. With four kids, it was just too much to pack up and travel and Eleanor is at the age now where she wants to be home to make sure Santa is able to find her ;) We started Christmas Eve off with a woods walk/hike around a local park with trails. We only went about half a mile before I stepped into a deep hole while holding Jane and twisted my ankle. Jane fell, too, so we cut that short and played at the playground before heading back home. Second Christmas Eve in a row that I fell while holding Jane! Last year I fell ice skating and had to go to urgent care because I thought my wrist was broken. Thankfully it was just a bad sprain.

That evening we headed to the candlelight Christmas Eve service at church and back home to have dinner together and hot chocolate on the living room floor before getting ready for bed. The girls also picked out cookies for Santa and wrote him a letter.

The girls were up bright and early the next morning waiting to see if Santa came!

We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast that I made the night before.

And opened stockings and presents together.

Disclaimer: from here on out I took no pictures, so the only ones I have are those that were shared with me from family members!

That afternoon we headed up to Chris' family's house to enjoy a delicious meal, hang out, and exchange gifts with them.

The next afternoon we headed to my mom's house, which was the reason we decided to travel with two newborns - pretty much everyone has called us crazy for doing so, and I agree, it was crazy and hectic and I forgot tons of things, but this was going to be the last Christmas in my childhood home! My mom and Dave bought a house and will be moving into it over the next few months. I wanted to go through a few things and get stuff organized. My sister also flew in from California with her husband, and Eric was home, too. We had our traditional pizza for Christmas Eve, played games, and sat around.

And then celebrated Christmas morning the next day.

Check out the adorable hand-made sign my sister made me!! She also made the stuffed animals for Ben and Rosie - they are all amazing!

We also had dinner with my dad while we were home at a new brewery called Dog Money while my mom and Dave stayed home to babysit the FOUR kids.

We played lots of games and did a lot of sitting indoors and juggling babies because it was SO cold. 

We did tons of organizing while we were all home together. I pared down all my belongings that were still at my moms house (which weren't too much - so not a huge feat) into one rubbermaid bin that I will pick up next time we have room in the van. While we were there, we went to visit my mom and Dave's new house. It's big, gorgeous, and looks like it will be a great place to come visit in the future.

The guys went to play Top Golf.

We took baths and did dishes.

Snuggled the babies...including my Aunt Holly and Uncle Mike who were visiting from California!

We had a light dusting of snow, and said one last goodbye to the house I spent most of my life in!

It was a wonderful trip and we were so thankful to be able to see so much family! Then we headed home to get ready for the new year. When we got home, unfortunately our tree had fallen over! Only a handful of ornaments were broken, which was sad, but I am thankful it wasn't more. We were bummed though because I like to leave the tree up through the first week of January but we had to take it down right away because it was unstable.

Here is a video Chris made of our Christmas Eve and Day:

Christmas 2017 from Katie Stratton on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas! I love this season and already can't wait to do it again next year.