christmas eve & christmas day

i was all ready for a relaxing christmas -in my own home, which i've never experienced as an adult. & for the most part it was relaxing. although "pressures" (that i probably put on myself to make everyone happy) were still there, possibly more so to make up for not coming home. skype was amazing- we felt like we were with our families. but my password wasn't working & i couldn't remember what i'd just changed my gmail password to so i couldn't reset it. so annoying! we finally got that all squared away & tried to take a couple deep breaths & enjoy our christmas eve morning with bryan's family.

they were all together at the paris' house.

hi aunt lissa, aunt jody, dee dee, gabe & pop, uncle neil & evelyn! :) aunt lissa got finn possibly the coolest thing in this little kids world. an actual train track sign thingamager! he loves it- it's battery operated & slowly goes up & down.
cars!
paper!
coke can? bryan's family does a goodwill christmas. $5 limit. i actually really love it, except i vote to move the limit to $15. i found some really nice things like a sweater/shirt from banana republic for dee dee & an ann taylor dress for jody. (but we went over our limit to get those things, woops)
trains!


after opening presents we played for awhile & then took a nap.
when finn woke up we got ready for church. we don't really have a church here, but we do go randomly to st.tims. they have a beautiful choir.

maya in her pretty outfit.
she wore aunt teecee's bracelet!
we quickly made some more sugar cookies (the others disappeared!) so santa would have some later that night! i love trader joe's sugar cookie mix. addictive. like most of their baked goods.


finn trying to figure out which shoes goes best with his outfit. a few from church. we braved the main room for as long as we could & then off to the cry room. where my 2.5 year old can quietly play with his trains & bryan can attempt to get something out of mass & i can quietly watch my kids as i'm somewhat (pretty sure bryan would beg to differ on my word choice here) patient about it all.


& then after mass melissa (emma's mom) had told us about this street nearby that shut down on christmas eve so everyone could walk around looking at all the houses that decorate! it was really neat, but so strange. almost all the families were outside together around portable fire pits roasting marshmallows. we didn't even have our big coats on. if we'd been at home we'd be rushing from the car to the houses as quick as we could!
one more time around the house before bed. he loves to see how many times he can go round before the pole comes down.
our beautiful, quiet living room. kids sleeping. tree lit. cookies eaten!! presents wrapped & laid out on the couch for finn when he wakes in the morning. LOVED THIS. i think we even had a glass of wine before we went to bed.

i'd posted on facebook a question: were your presents from santa wrapped?

stephani, jeff, bryan & i had been arguing over this for a couple days so we opened the discussion up. it was awesome the responses & bryan tallied them up to almost a complete tie with wrapped winning by maybe 2.

we chose wrapped with newspaper (of course!). only once a year do we get this opportunity to watch him unwrap his goodies & as my dad said "make that last as long as you can."

off to bed we all went.

& then on christmas morning we skyped with my dad. finn chose to eat a breakfast bar (ridiculous, but we really didn't do anything special for any of the meals!!!)

bryan told santa that finn needed more tracks. but i think bryan meant he needed more tracks. i think sometimes we love building cool new designs more than finn, although he's always happy to oblige.

finn would grab a present & say "what is it? what is it?" & then tear it open. & then study it for a bit & then move on. this is a cool lil magnet set, perfect for traveling.
trains again!
when finn is a famous photographer & says i got my first camera when i was two, we'll have the photographic proof :) it's a cars camera- so at first he was disappointed that he couldn't watch cars on it. but i think he's liking it more & more. i was most excited about this one. i searched far & wide amongst the land of radio shacks for it.
lots of goodness. we felt very loved.
mom opening (a card explaining) her fireplace. she moved & her new place doesn't have one. so monica came up with the great idea of getting her one! she loved it after we explained what it was.

we (err.) santa got him lots of books. kid still loves to read.
yum. more paper.
finn had been a handful for a couple days there & we were kinda getting annoyed with the situation & with each other. what kid doesn't go crazy right about now with all the presents & attention & excitement? so i called a time out & said we needed to get out of this house. we went for a nice walk & hit reset.

bryan proving it wasn't too big of a hill!
finn is getting braver & braver.
swinging has always cured frustration for me.
no toys, no electronic loud crazy stuff. just mother nature & a park. a breeze, some birds chirping, barefeet & your loved ones... that's what it's all about.


merry christmas, happy new year & happy to you what ever you celebrate. i hope you have a fabulous year & get the chance to realize it's not stuff that make this life worth living. it's the beautiful people that you share your days with.