As we prepared for Christmas this year we (Brian and I, Terah and I, Terah and Mark, all four of us) talked a lot about making memories at Christmas. As a little girl I clung so tightly to the traditions, don't get me wrong, i still see traditions as important and Brian and I will always strive to create new traditions and keep old traditions. But, this year one thing that we all came to realize is that, at times, sticking to tightly year after year to traditions allows memories to bleed together into one big mass of fogginess. We talked about the importance of building lasting memories each year that will stick with our children and follow them into adulthood. One of the reasons this came up at all was because this year Christmas fell on a Sunday. So, Christmas is on a Sunday... Do we stick to our family traditions of waking up Christmas morning, opening Christmas presents, eating delicious just out of the oven cinnamon rolls, and reading the Christmas story, or do we break the special traditions and make new memories by going to church to worship the one whose birth we are celebrating in the first place? I'll answer that in a minute...
Another question that we pondered was this, as it is looking more and more like we won't be in California next Christmas, do we do Christmas morning alone with just our family as we enjoy doing, or do we take Mark and Terah up on their offer to spend Christmas eve and Christmas day with them?
These were some of the things we batted around and spent much time discussing. What did we decide? Maybe I'll use the pictures to tell that part of the story... enjoy!
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| I just thought these were cute! |
Christmas Eve! Christmas Eve! Christmas Eve!
I'm sure I made you horribly curious as to what we decided concerning our Christmas memory making. Well, we spent Christmas eve making the traditional Christmas cinnamon rolls and delivering them to neighbors. Then shortly before bedtime, we loaded up and headed to the Madrids!! Yes, we decided that as much as we cherish the time with just our family, if Brian gets the job in Nebraska, we'll have a lot of that. Right now we want to make as many more memories with our families as possible before heading out into the great unknown.
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| All the presents from under our tree got moved to Mark and Terahs tree in two laundry baskets. Plus a couple bigger ones that didn't fit :) |
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| Both our families have a tradition of opening one present Christmas eve. We usually do a fun new outfit to wear on Christmas day! Here the girls are reading books together waiting for the big moment. |
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| After we put kiddos to bed, Mark and Brian got busy putting together gifts for the kids. Mark and Terah got their girls the cutest little white and pink wood kitchen. Brian is assembling a trampoline that his parents sent for Chloe and Colton |
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| I think Brian definitely had it a little easier than Mark. |
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| That little cute kitchen had a bazillion pieces! |
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| Well... almost a bazillion! |
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| There's the little kitchen all done! |
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| Here's what the living room looked like when we brought them down in the morning! |
...to be continued...
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