A Christmas to Remember

It’s hard to believe that the Christmas season is over and we will be ringing in 2014 in just a few short days. I always love spending Christmas in the city. It really is a magical time and place to be during the year. Ever since Avery was born, we have told our family that it is best for us to stay in the city and not travel for the holidays. It’s taken so much stress off of us and has really helped us to slow down and enjoy what this time of year is all about.

To kick off our holiday in the city, we always make a trip to Macy’s to see Santa Claus. It’s a tradition we’ve been doing since Harlan’s first Christmas four years ago and every single person in our family loves doing it. We always go early on a Saturday morning to avoid the crowds which is always a plus when making it through a tourist part of the city with a stroller and two kiddos.

I always love what Macy’s does with their Santaland. It’s decorated immaculately and the kids get to take a “ride” on the Santaland Express to travel to the North Pole to see Santa. Even if there is a line, there is so much to see while waiting in line, it makes it completely worth it.

Avery is finally old enough to really enjoy seeing this. Her favorite word for the past couple of weeks has been “Santa.” She couldn’t wait to see the man in the big red suit.

The lighting was horrible, but it’s rare that I get these two looking and smiling at the camera at the same time. I love this photo of them.

Throughout our entire walk through the “North Pole” to see Santa, Avery pointed at every single thing she saw and kept yelling “mommy, daddy look!”

We tried to let the girls both go and get a photo of Santa by themselves this year, but as soon as they saw him, they froze and got scared. So here we are for another Santa family photo. Hopefully next year we can get just the kids, because Santa won’t have much room for all five of us.

On Christmas Eve we made it to the early church service that was for families with small children. The girls loved it because they are so used to going upstairs to Sunday School and childcare during church. This service was centered around small children, so Harlan was thrilled to be able to see the “show” as she calls it.

We came home and my sister and her fiancé came over for pizza, cookie making for Santa, and open our Christmas Eve pajamas. I love having my sister in the city because having family so close is the best.

MacKay’s family has a tradition of opening new pajamas on Christmas Eve every year and we have continued it with our family. I love getting the girls matching Christmas pajamas and MacKay and I similar ones.

We always read the girls a book before bedtime and on Christmas Eve there is never a better book to read than The Night Before Christmas. 

We left Santa our homemade cookies decorated by the girls and Harlan insisted on leaving carrots for the reindeer. Christmas morning didn’t start as early as I thought it would. The girls woke up around 7 and immediately came to wake us up. They had such a great time opening gifts and seeing if Santa got them everything they asked for. It’s always priceless to see their faces as they open a present and it’s exactly what they’ve been begging for for the past couple of months.

My mom got the girls a new kitchen for Christmas. Both of the girls are obsessed with it, which is great, but I didn’t know all that would go into putting it together. MacKay and Chris (my sister’s fiancé) spent four hours the night before assembling the kitchen. I probably should have done a little bit of research before telling her which kitchen to get because it seriously took forever.

These girls love putting on a show and we probably heard them sing “Let it Go” from Frozen 45 times that morning.

These two photos are probably one of my favorites from the morning. After waking up and playing their hearts out, they crawled in bed with MacKay and fell asleep. This is especially huge for Avery who doesn’t fall asleep anywhere except for her own bed. It was special being able to rest with all of us in the bed because it has never happened before.

I always wondered why so many people in New York go out to eat on Christmas day, but with Thanksgiving and Christmas being so close this year, I decided to do what they do and make dinner reservations. I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of cooking everything in our small kitchen, especially being nearly nine months pregnant. Our dinner turned out to be great and stress free!

It really is so special to be able to spend Christmas with my sister. She is not only my best friend, but she is so great with the girls. They love her and Chris so much. Christmas wouldn’t have been the same without her!

I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas surrounded by the ones that I love. I hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas!