Our official Christmas Eve Family Portrait. For some sweet outtakes check Taylor’s flickr
Eve
No one wanted to cook Christmas Eve so we got Japanese takeout. Ignore these miserable faces; it was delicious. We did bake though, we made gingerbread cookies and mini chocolate donuts (I used a boxed whoopie pie mix and they turned out great).
There were tree shaped gingerbreads as well but I didn’t get a picture before Santa ate them.
We all opened our traditional Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve.
Sym and Taylor both got red & green plaid and I got red with white snowflakes. I also got a new bathrobe so I wasn’t expecting to get pajamas. Basically I’m spoiled!
After we ate and decorated cookies and opened our pajamas and took our family portrait we all bundled onto the couch to watch A Christmas Story. We also had the NORAD Santa Tracker on my computer and Sym was getting up every two minutes all evening to check where he was. I tell you, that thing almost screwed us! We didn’t get Sym to bed until around 10:30 and Santa hit Vancouver before eleven! It was nerve-wracking, to say the least.
Day
I told Sym that she wasn’t allowed to wake me up on Christmas morning until AT LEAST seven; two years ago she and Taylor woke me up at 5:30 nd I was not pleased. So guess what time I woke up? FIVE-THIRTY. What the eff. Anyway Sym woke up at like, 3:30, and even though I’d told her she could open her stocking if she woke up early, she didn’t. When I asked her why she said it was because she wanted us all to open our stockings together, as a family. CUE WATERWORKS.
She also paused while opening her own presents to watch Taylor and I opening the gifts she got for us, so she could see our faces. So basically she’s the sweetest child in the world.
Taylor slept the latest, so he’s sleepy here, not stoned. Really.
Sym always gets a ton of presents, from me & Taylor and her dad & stepmom, and all her extended family including about six sets of grandparents. It can get out of control and sometimes I worry that I’m getting into a “present off” with her dad to see who can get her the best stuff. To keep myself in control I set two rules this year: everything from Santa had to fit in her stocking (which it did, except for a bunch of socks), and she would get three present from Taylor and I: something to wear, something to read and something to play with. I got that idea off some blog or the other but I can’t remember which one. Taylor took it a step further and decided we should get each other three gifts as well.
Sym got:
1. a pink sweater with swans from Urban Outfitters (her first clothing item NOT from a children’s’ store/department)
2. Wildwood, by Colin Melloy
3. the Calico Critters Buckley Deer Family and Cozy Cottage
This was an emergency replacement gift because the gift I’d originally ordered for her from Build-a-Bear didn’t arrive in time since apparently they use the most inefficient shipping ever and it takes OVER A MONTH for things to get to Canada from OHIO. idgi.
Taylor got:
1. a Burton Groton jacket (full disclosure: I got it for about 80% off)
2. Reamde, by Neal Stephenson
3. DOMINION, which I thought was a board game but is actually some kind of super nerdy card game which I unfortunately already agreed to play with him
I got:
1. tri-blend ~leisure~ pants from American Apparel
2. a new Kindle!!!
3. hot rollers, although he originally bought the wrong kind so yesterday we went and exchanged them for these ones
We also had all our stocking presents and gifts from our families, but I don’t want to list everything since that’d be pretty tacky. Thank you to everyone though; we all appreciate and love everything! Especially Sym, who still got the crud spoiled out of her with clothes and Playmobils.
The dogs also got presents: for Georgie a stuffed Tiki man and makes weird drumming/chanting noises when squeezed, for Kichou a cool tank top, and for Dougal a theoretically indestructible bone for chewing (we’ll have to wait and see how indestructible it is, he just opened it today since he spent Christmas with Clay).
Taylor’s moms sent them edible rawhide Christmas cards. Georgie especially loves them and has been carrying them everywhere and burying them in beanbag chairs and blankets.
After presents I made a delicious brunch of goat cheese and chive mini frittatas, fried potatoes and chia seed toast, plus mimosas. SO MANY MIMOSAS.
I’m not ashamed to say I got trashed and then laid on the couch watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks all afternoon.
Dinner
This year was the first time in my life that I attempted to make a big Christmas dinner. I planned on it two years ago but I was so tired from my 5:30 wake up call that I slept all day and we had potato chips for dinner. This year I was DETERMINED to do it.
the menu:
– a Field Roast celebration roast (I’m so glad I became a vegetarian before I ever had to cook a turkey!) and gravy (from a packet, but it was POUTINE gravy and therefore delicious)
-roasted carrots & broccoli
-pierogis (Taylor is of Ukrainian descent)
-yorkshire puddings (I’m of British descent)
-mashed potatoes
Sooooooo basically everything was PERFECT. Okay, the carrots could have been a little more cooked but they were still good. The celebration roast was delicious and easy to cook; I mean it’s already cooked so I just basted it with some oil and heated it for 35 minutes. There were barely even any leftovers, Taylor ate so much he needed a side plate just for his veggies!
I’m so happy with how everything went this Christmas; I just really wanted it to be fun and amazing for my little family and almost melt-down free, and I think I pulled it off!
omgggggggggg the family portrait, i am dead :,)
I’m really happy with how it turned out this year!
Love the present idea! 3 things is genius. We struggled with this for milo this year but I think this would be great plan.
Picture is fantastic. And basically I want to spend Christmas with you next year.
The three present thing worked great, I think we’ll do it forever. I especially appreciate the “something to read,” books are my favourite. Plus you can still go crazy on Santa presents for the stocking, they just have to be small.
I think next year I’m going to open my house up like a stable for weary, possibly pregnant travellers.
SYLVANIAN FAMILIES OMG or calico critters, whatever they are called, I LOVE THOSE
well, tbh i love this whole post!
They are still called Sylvanian Families in other countries, it’s so weird. They are CUTE AS HELL tho.
Glad y’all had such a great weekend. Sym does sound really sweet and considerate. Great job!
did you play dominion yet? we have that too, but it doesn’t get played super often, i don’t know why. i think it’s better with more than 2 players.
Not yet, Taylor wanted to play yesterday but I made him watch Degrassi instead lol.
Had no idea you guys were vegetarians! Very cool 🙂 Now that I have to be gluten free I miss those tofurkey loafs SO MUCH omg. I’ve never had the one you made though!
I saw those calico critters in the toy store but the whole set was soooo expensive 🙁 I wanted to get it for Kyra but shes wayy to young to appreciate it. I’ll live vicariously through Sym I guessss
We aren’t all vegetarians- I quit eating meat in July after I read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, and I do most of the grocery shopping and cooking so Taylor and Sym are mostly vegetarian by default. Sym is like, 95% vegetarian because her dad and his wife are also vegetarian now (because I recommended that book to him!) and Taylor is probably like, 60 or 70%.
Calico critters are cue but SO expensive. I probably wouldn’t have bought her so much stuff except I was in a fit of guilt/rage over her Build-a-Bear present not arriving in time.
looks like you all had a wonderful christmas! i love the 3 gift idea. also, where did you get your shirt/pajamas(?) thing with the trees?! i love it!
Thanks! It’s a dress, I got it at Urban Outfitters like, three or four years ago.