Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a joyous holiday with their loved ones. It was our first year celebrating Christmas in the new house and the first Christmas for Macks, so it was an extra special time for us.
Being away from the city this time of the year is tough, because the city really is quite magical at Christmas, but being within driving distance, it makes for a great day trip. Last weekend we went into the city to continue on with our tradition of seeing Santa at Macy’s. We had no agenda other than seeing him, so we just wandered around the city and took it all that it had to offer. It was fun playing a tourist for the day.
We had a reservation to see Santa (which I highly recommend getting) in the evening, so it was the perfect time to see the holiday windows.
We had a little bit of time before our reservation, so the girls decided to write a letter to Santa.
The girls were mesmorized by Santaland. It doesn’t matter how many times they see it, it still gets them every time.
To get the kids used to Santa we took a family shot, which has been our routine for five years now.
We attempted to get all of the kids. Avery and Harlan did amazing. Macks was not impressed and wanted nothing to do with him.
We ended the night with a perfect view of the Empire State Building before heading back to Connecticut.
The next day was all about baking and getting the girls into the holiday spirit. After attempting to bake homemade sugar cookies that were an absolute fail, I made a quick trip to the store for the store bought kind. The girls were just as happy with their creations.
I also bought them gingerbread houses that they had a blast decorating. Avery was much more into it than I thought she would be (I thought she would just want to eat all of the candy) and loved putting all of her candy on her house.
Christmas Eve was spent at our church. We thought we were doing great when we arrived 20 minutes early to service. Little did we know you have to arrive an hour early to get a seat. It worked out for the best, though, because Macks could no sit still or stay quiet during the service. It was still magical to get to spend that time with them as a family of five celebrating what Christmas is all about.
The obligatory Christmas Eve family pic!
I wish I could show you the 50 pictures I tried to take of the kids in their new Christmas pajamas. This was the best of all of them. No one wanted to sit still or look at me.
My sister and her fiancee were with us and we attempted to get a fun family shot with the self timer on the phone camera. Total fail.
All of us in our new Christmas pajamas. I love this tradition that we’ve passed on from MacKay’s family.
Christmas morning was magical. Look at all that Santa brought for the kids. Complete with chalkboard personalized wrapping paper that my sister ::Santa:: spent a ton of time doing (because I loathe wrapping presents.)
The girls actually woke up much later than I thought. MacKay and I were both up before they were. Avery was overwhelmed (and tired) by all that was going on. It took her a while to get used to everything.
Macks was on the move and into everything which made it impossible to get a good photo of him. His first Christmas was spent attempting to help his sisters open their presents and then playing with all of the boxes. They were much more interesting than all of the toys that he got.
Harlan is at such a fun age for Christmas morning. I loved her reaction to all of her presents.
Much of the day was spent spending time with family and friends and enjoying a delicious meal. We ended the day with a game of Cards Against Humanity (which is so wrong, but so right at the same time) and a ton of laughs. This really was a Christmas to remember.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!
