Christmas {12.24-26.13}

We started some new traditions this year which was great.  First, we sent the following out to friends of our family who we have exchanged gifts with in the past.

Dear ________,
Our family is trying to simplify & minimize this year & we'd love your help. We adore this time of year & the 

added focus on family, friends and our Savior. It can be so magical! We don't love that it's become a crazy chaotic 

& stressful "race to grab a gift for everyone we know" time. We've found ourselves buying things we don't even know 

if the recipient will like because we "just have to give something! 
We've decided to do things a little differently this year. Instead of giving THINGS you may not use, like, want, 

or need, we are giving the gift of US and of TIME. We'd love to watch your kids while you go on a date, get our 

families together & make dinner, have a girl's outing or Xbox party, or double date & go see a movie together. 

In this busy & crazy fast pace life we definitely don't get to recognize how awesome you are often enough, so this 

is exciting for us!
We'd kindly ask that you not spend money on our family & if you want to do something, spend TIME with us or 

spend that money on a family in need. We really have more than we could ask for and are above all just grateful 

for the gift of YOU in our lives. 
Please support us in this as we are trying to spread the spirit of Christmas & it's true meaning to our kiddos & we 

know the material things won't last, but our relationships with each of you are forever and so cherished. 

We love you! Merry Christmas! 
Love: Zac, Karli & Boys

Those who responded gave very positive responses.  I think everyone starts to feel the out of control sense that can come this time of year.  Definitely a tradition I would love to continue.  I'd rather randomly send a gift to a friend during the year because I saw something that reminded me of them.

Next, instead of spending Christmas Eve night with my fam, we started a Christmas Eve breakfast.  After some early morning cuddling & xbox on our bed, we met at my folks and shared our secret service highlights {helping some families who we knew very little about-shopping was cryptic, but very fun}, ate yummy breakfast, opened Christmas eve jammies + awesome i-spy quilts for the boys made by Grami, and enjoyed each others company.

The rest of the day was spent lounging and chilling at home.  We had everything pretty much done & no big plans, so we just played with the boys & got them to bed early {even forgetting to leave stuff out for Santa!-we took care of it for them, whoops!}, and after helping Santa put Christmas out, we cuddled & watched Parks & Rec in our bed!  Very chill and perfect night.

Christmas morning the kids slept til 8 which allowed us to shower & be ready before the woke up.  Fischer kept sleeping & we let him.  The boys saw their letter from Santa + his eaten cookies & Wally's farewell {more on that in the Wally 2013 post} & were excited to see that there were gifts under the tree.  We had family prayer and let them open gifts.  We had a goal of being very minimalist this year.  We semi adopted the 4 gift rule Grayson's first Christmas {something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read}, but have had a hard time sticking to it in the past.  This year we did awesome.  We were VERY lean and it looked pretty meager, but it was really perfect.  I felt better about the reason for the season this year than I ever have.  The boys didn't act like it was a big deal at all & were excited about what they did get.  I figure we can always go bigger as they grow, but it's harder to suddenly scale back.

The favorite thing was our family gift of the Wii U.  We sold our wii & our old phones & made enough {Craigslist} to upgrade.  What a great system!  The kids LOVE it, the adults love it, it's tons of fun for group settings, and it got tons of use Christmas day.  The way they found it was after their other gifts were opened & they were playing, Wally the Elf sent us a text message.  He said we'd forgotten one gift in the cupboard where the brooms are kept.  The boys raced over & found it and were super excited.  My parents did things like that often growing up & it's a tradition I'd love to continue.

We ate breakfast, enjoyed cuddling & playing with our gifts a bit & were ready to go to my parents before 10!  {This deserves some applause because we are usually the last ones to arrive at my folks for any family get togethers & we were there before T&T!} (;

We ended up spending the rest of the day at my folks.  It was a great Christmas.  The boys all played great together, we all had fun trying the Wii U and Grandpa's new race track.  I love the Fuel Band my parents got me & we just had fun chatting and hanging out together.  Every year-especially since having kids-Christmas is so much less about the stuff and so much more about the feeling, the experience, and the relationships.  Very grateful for a completely wonderful day & incredible people to share it with.

 

We spent the 26th celebrating Christmas with Cleaver's.  Another wonderful day full of family.  The kids played, we exchanged sibling gifts, and the grand kids had a treasure hunt that led to their Christmas money.  Beckham cried that he got money & not an actual gift to open {have I mentioned his love language is GIFTS in a really big way?}  We all laughed that some day he won't react that way.  Morgan & Brian got our names & were still in TX til January, so this was their IOU for us.  So clever!  Lots of good conversation, fun playing with cousins, and yummy food.  Love Holiday time with family.   {I did NOT take pics this year-whoops!}