Johnson Family Christmas

Because of family schedules and work schedules, we were able to keep Christmas going a bit longer as we celebrated our Johnson family Christmas on Sunday, the 27th.


Claire was SO much fun this year!

I found matching/coordinating clothes for all four cousins for St. Patty's Day and Valentine's Day. I think I am getting a bit obsessed.


And she LOVED the Olaf 4-wheeler that we gave her!

My awesome sister-in-law made me a special crab kit with my own crackers and fork to bring to the beach. Oh, it's on now!


The sweetest, sweety cousins...

It was a great day ending with church that night. Love these kids so much and couldn't believe that next Christmas we would be watching a precious baby boy scooting around the living room getting into wrapping paper.

Happy February and Merry Christmas!

Yup. Didn't make it. Still have a few December posts and a slew of January posts before I am caught up.

Christmas Morning was just as magical as ever in our house. I love that the kids sleep until a somewhat decent hour and that we can make a whole morning of it- just the four of us.

Excited about her volleyball from Santa...

And excited about his Batman from Santa...

And REALLY excited about her Razor bike from Santa...

And REALLY excited about his firetruck from Santa...

Later on Christmas day, we went to my parents' house where we get to see most of our whole family and special friends...



...And the selfie booth! :-)

We do a great adult gift swap every year. This year's coveted prize was a Golden Girls t-shirt. I have to step up my game next year.

And who doesn't get intrigued by a mystery gift where you have to wear plastic gloves...

...which turned out to to be a bird feeder.

Wine purses, Chandle calendars (more on that later), wine, wine, wine, sweatshirts, toys...always an eclectic mix of "prizes." Like I said, need to step up my game next year!

Christmas Eve- A day all about traditions...

Christmas Eve is definitely one of my all time favorite days of the year. For every year, as long as I can remember, we have celebrated Christmas Eve with my Oma and Opa.




And with the Best. Lasagna. Ever.

We came home in time to scoot to my parents' house for a small gathering of our church family, came back home to set out cookies and milk for Santa, and the kids and I headed to bed while Chad attended the late night Christmas Eve service with his mom- a tradition that they have shared for years.

Bader Family Christmas

Will I get through December posts before February? Nope. But who doesn't like to hear about Christmas around Valentine's Day, right? Well, maybe the 7 other people in this post below. :-)

Before our family Christmas, shortly after Eric and Caroline arrived to town, we had our first-ever-yet-to-be-decided-if-annual Christmas Cookie Baking Day.

It actually was a lot of fun and we made about 8 different cookies.





Then, on December 23, we celebrated our Bader Family Christmas.

Love a good family gathering revolving around jammie wearing and continuous snack eating.
...and gift giving!


One of the highlights...fun for the WHOLE family!






Brooklyn sewed her very first tote bag with her very first sewing machine!

Let's keep trucking through December, shall we?

We continued celebrating the holiday season when we took the kids to SciWorks for their holiday eventon Friday, December 11. Santa was a highlight for my kids.

Not so much for my sweet niece...
Don't worry, Molly. It look me 10 years to get a good pic of my kids with Santa. :-)

I took Brooklyn (with both grandmas) on Saturday, the 12th, to see "The Secret Garden." This show has a special, special place in my heart as I performed it in with my sweet Blanche about 20 years ago. I LOVE the music and was thrilled that this show was being performed in town.

Then, Christmas REALLY came when, at last, Uncle Eric and Aunt Caroline arrived into town on Thursday, the 17th. Oh happy day! We were all so excited to start Christmas vacation with them and to squeeze them and love on them as much as we could!

They were perfectly timed for Jake's Christmas show at school.

And after we froze our hineys off at the HPU Community Christmas, we went out to dinner Friday night at Ham's.

Lots of eating and drinking and laughing...but most of the time was spent snuggling.

Ending the weekend with a bang....er, parade

Brooklyn's Girl Scout troop marched in the local holiday parade on Sunday afternoon. We went out to cheer them on, and Jake was SO EXCITED that almost every float threw out candy. I swear he almost got more candy there than on Halloween.


They did so well!




I returned to work Monday and had to come up with a quick and easy door decoration for my office door. Insert all previous years' holiday cards here mounted on copy paper and a few clip art stars. I was so preoccupied with other tasks that Pinterest definitely did not get called on for this contest, but it was nice to see how my family has grown over the last 11 Christmas's.