The Journey of Parenthood…

Christmas Day 2020

Celebrating Christmas Day on December 25th, 2020.

Now that the little ones are getting a bit older it was so nice not to be getting up at the crack of dawn this year for Christmas morning! To me, the MAIN fun of Christmas as a child is the anticipation so the kids being awake and having to wait a little bit to come out and see if Santa came is so fun for them, especially when all camped out with cousins 🙂

My hands down FAVORITE moment of Christmas this year was when all the kids lined up and came out to see if Santa came and Spear didn’t even care about the gifts. Didn’t even go see what there was for him. He was just THRILLED to see his Big Papa and went running straight for him! SO SWEET.

Don’t worry, Santa was still good to Spear this year too 🙂

It was such a fun Christmas having Spear be more into it and “get it” and he did great being patient and opening his gifts when it was time and being appreciative for everything too! He is at such a great age!

This year we switched things up with the big family and drew names for the adult siblings/inlaws and did a BFF Cousin Gift Swap. Each cousin bought for their BFF cousin. It allowed the kids to be hands on in the gift giving and was fun for them to receive as well.

It’s always a bit (well a lot haha) chaotic on Christmas morning with SO many people opening at once. We all kinda group up in our own little families and Mrs Charlotte and Mr Rusty roam around a bit to see the grandkids and their reactions.

We all made sure to announce whenever the kids opened from their BFF cousin so they could all enjoy seeing their recipient open their gift too – isn’t that the most fun of giving? 😉

All of our kids were SO fun to give to this year and had awesome reactions and just were so appreciative and the entire morning was SO FUN! I’ve cut back a LOT on the amount of gifts I get for the kids and it’s nice to have them truly love every single thing they open because they aren’t getting random stuff I found on deals 😉

We give the majority of our gifts to the kids on our Core Crew Christmas but we save three gifts for actual Christmas morning and one of the gifts I like to get a “OPEN LAST” present. One special gift that is completely random. Something they haven’t asked for. Something they don’t anticipate!

This year for Spear I wrapped up one of Kye’s old crane trucks, for Britt I found an invisibility cloak, Kye I got a steal on this little arcade system, and for Tess I bought a BIG BUCKET of Ring Pops from Sam’s. Girl LOVES suckers 🙂

I was also super, super excited to give Mr Rusty and Mrs Charlotte their gift from us this year. I preloaded the Nixplay frame with TONS of pictures through the years of all of the family (I’m the main picture taker so I have PLENTY of everyone!) and I also keep it updated easily from home. It’s awesome how it works and I can just dump photos onto their frame and it updates at their house. It was SUCH a great gift and is a joy that keeps giving!

My tradition from my childhood – eating Christmas cookies for breakfast while we open presents!

Now that we open adult gifts the night prior, it means we have PLENTY of time on actual Christmas morning to allow for taking our time opening and allowing the kids to play and enjoy their gifts a bit too!

Santa hooked Spear UP! The only gift Spear mentioned wanting was a “John Deere tractor.” This ride on tractor is ADORABLE and, most importantly, it is both GREEN (like a John Deere) AND has a trailer on the back to load stuff in. Plus it has a remote control which is really handy too.

Spear only cared about his tractor. He didn’t care about his new toys or other gifts. Boy just wanted to RIDE. And of course it was a rare cold Christmas haha so Zach and I traded off bundling up to watch him 😉

Every year we go over to Big Daddy’s and Little Mama’s for a BIG family breakfast on Christmas morning. If you think Christmas morning at Zach’s parents sounds like chaos haha it’s def up a level when we all go to Big Daddy and Little Mama’s!

Big Daddy has my heart and I just adore him so much and love that we get to spend Christmas with him! Tess went over to him and looked at him sweetly and then patted him on the arm and said “You look old” hahahahah I DIED. Thankfully Big Daddy didn’t have his hearing aid on 😉

Usually I end up crying on Christmas when I see Big Daddy. Big Daddy just symbolizes unconditional love for me. He’s THE person I’ve always KNOWN truly LOVES me in that unconditional kinda way. Christmas is always a time where the emotions run high and usually that combo and having him say just the right thing as he always just KNOWS what I need to hear – it usually gets my tears flowing!

This is the first time in AGES were I didn’t shed a single tear and I think it really is a testament to the huge growth and work I’ve done in therapy where those typically heavy holiday emotions weren’t right at the surface this year!

All the great grand kids lined up sweetly so Big Daddy could see them from his chair while we all did gifts. Next year baby Bryce will be added to the crew!

Aunt Karen is currently battling breast cancer (and would appreciate prayers!). The family got pooled together and surprised her with a swing for her porch so she can sit outside when she’s feeling sick during her treatments. I love seeing her reaction to the surprise, but especially love seeing Little Mama’s reaction while watching Aunt Karen!

All the siblings make a HUGE breakfast for everyone and it’s always DELICIOUS. It ends up being more of a lunch by the time we get to eating so we’re all starving and it’s all so good that I think we ALLLLL go home and NAP after!

Spear’s YEAR was MADE when Daddy took him to go ride one of the tractors. He was in HEAVEN and it was so adorable to go see them together. I was talking to Mr Rusty saying I felt guilt that Zach was stuck watching Spear and I love what he responded with…he said I shouldn’t feel guilt about that. It’s a privilege that Zach GETS to spend that quality time with his son together! Which is SO TRUE and I think Zach loved it just as much, if not more, than Spear did!

We always come home from Big Daddy’s and ALL NAP and then just be LAZY allllll day (and for the several days following too). We let the kids make a mess of all their new toys and help them put things together and open packages for them etc. It’s really so nice that we never have to RUSH to go and do and can just have chill family time over the holiday season!

It was another wonderful Christmas – you can see the precious moment when Spear ran to Big Papa in this video too:

Emily Parker
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2 Comments

  1. Shay H
    March 8, 2021 / 9:42 pm

    How absolutely sweet! I am so glad that in these crazy times you all are able to get together and love on each other!!! Such a blessing ♥️

    And Baby Bryce?? Did I miss a pregnancy announcement?!?

    Reply
    • Emily Parker
      Author
      March 10, 2021 / 10:42 am

      We are def so thankful we were all able to be together! Zach’s cousin just welcomed their first baby over Christmas break – Bryce 🙂

      Reply

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