Catching Up - Christmas!

It's only been a month since Christmas. It's not too late to catch up, is it?
One of my New Years resolutions is to be a better blogger. Ideally, I'd like to update both of my blogs once a week. I think I just need to make it a priority.
The thing is, I enjoy blogging, so it's not HARD...it's just that there's so much to do!

Back to Christmas.
We had a great one!
After our Disney World trip we set a very tight Christmas budget, and I actually stuck to it! I spent less than half of what I normally do, and it was just about perfect. Every year on Christmas morning I sit there, looking at all the gifts, and think "why did I go so overboard!" but this year I didn't. I was very happy about that.

On Christmas Eve Nana, Grandpa, Joey, Becki, Colby and Lucas came up for dinner. Tessa and Asher wore the Christmas PJs I made for them and looked adorable :)

Before they went to bed we put out cookies and milk for Santa Clause and Reindeer food for his reindeer. Asher made the food at school - it was the cutest thing ever! Oats, cheerio's and plenty of glitter.
Before we came to bed I made Matt sweep it all off the front porch, lol!

On Christmas Morning Grandma and Papa came up for breakfast and to see the kids gifts. Jessica and James came by later that afternoon to hang out. They gave the kids the game Trouble and it has been a huge hit - I think they've played every single day since Christmas.

Tessa's "Santa" gift was a Madame Alexander Doll. She knows all about Santa, and is a very smart girl. Before Christmas she asked for another American Girl doll. I told her if she wanted one, that was fine, but that we had a strict budget this year and if she got an American Girl doll it would take almost all of it - she wouldn't be getting much of anything else with it. OR she could choose a less expensive doll. She is such a smart girl - not only did she choose a Madame Alexander doll (half the price!) but she wrote us out a list - with dollar amounts listed alongside the item she wanted! Most of the items were Baby Sitters Club Books, and she got the prices out of the back of a few very old copies. I didn't have the heart to tell her that they aren't $3.25 anymore, lol!

Asher's Santa gift was a new Bike. He rode around in the house and then at Nana and Grandpa's house on the big driveway in the afternoon. He loved it and did very, very well riding it. Matt took video of him riding at my parents. If I can figure out how to upload it I will post it!

Funny story - Asher asked Santa for pajamas for Christmas. All month long, any time anyone asked him what he asked Santa for, he said pajamas. I thought it was cute, but I also thought it was because I was making him pajamas. He knew about them, I'd talked about them...
Anyway, Christmas Eve it suddenly occurs to me that he wants pajamas from santa and he's not getting any. Christmas morning is going to roll around and he's not going to get what he wants from Santa Clause! So I told him "Honey, I don't think Santa is going to bring you pajamas" he says "yeah, he is. That's what I asked him for." so I say "yes, but mommy made you jammies, so I don't think Santa's going to bring them to you." Again - he says "but that's what I told him I wanted." So I say "but I told him I was making you some jammies, so he's going to bring you something else."
He wasn't happy about it, but he didn't get upset, either. And on Christmas, when he didn't get any pajamas from Santa, he was okay.
Christmas night when he goes to bed he tells us thank you for everything (he's such a good boy!) and Matt says "It was a good Christmas, even though Santa didn't bring you pajamas?" and Asher says "yes...but next year, mommy, can you NOT say anything to Santa?"
LOL!

It was a really nice holiday.