Perfect (adjective): Having no mistakes or flaws.
I sit here next to the lit Christmas tree reflecting on today. Trice's pitter patter will soon be heard for the 90th time as he avoids sleep (going on 2 hours and 45 minutes now). The laundry is still pouring out of the basket. The sink is overflowing with dirty dishes. The living room floor is covered in new toys, old toys, and wrapping paper remains. The kitchen floor has shredded cheese Trice dropped during the pizza making process scattered around and hot wheels cars flying in every direction. There are presents that need a home and a bedroom floor that needs found. But my heart is full. So completely full. And when I look around, I only see perfect.
After a hectic Thanksgiving travelling all around to see family and dealing with Trice's hatred for sleep and my uncomfortableness in the car, we made the decision to stay home for Christmas this year. Christmas is the only time Nick ever takes off work and we usually spend the entire time back home - which is lovely - but we don't get to do anything or accomplish anything at our house then. It was an emotional decision because I've never spent Christmas away from my family, but we decided we'd enjoy it so much to just relax in our jammies at our OWN house and enjoy our gifts instead of spending time in the car, waking up at someone else's house, having no routine for Trice, etc.
We started celebrating on Christmas Eve with Christmas-themed food. We ran to Walmart to grab a few stocking stuffers and spent the rest of the day just hanging out.
Snowman pancakes and fruit candy cane!
Trice might have snuck a few extras in papa's stocking...
Nick insisted on tator tot casserole for lunch (He clearly didn't understand the meaning of Christmas-themed food), but there's nothing cookie cutters can't fix!
Trice loved this nativity set last year, but he really loved it this year since he knows who all the people and animals are. We have marched around a few thousand times singing, "Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem."
We went to our church's Christmas Eve services for the first time. They have the service at the beautiful (and giant) auditorium in town. My dad came over before and did his gifts with Trice, and then we all went together. The service was beautiful and definitely put me in the Christmas spirit!
Dr. Trice is in da house!
Papa got him 3 hats, so he had to wear all 3!
Best book ever.
When we finally got Trice to sleep, we put all the presents under the tree, tidied up a bit, and got stuff ready for morning...
The calm before the storm...
Trice crawled in our bed around midnight. Nick spent half the night on the couch with a terrible headache. At 6, I gave up on ever sleeping and decided to head out and get ready for the day. I got the Christmas tree cinnamon rolls in the oven, the tree lights on, the camera ready, and I got dressed. I was just mixing up Jesus' Birthday cake when I heard the boys rustling in the other room. I told them to stay put for a few seconds and then I was ready.
Trice came out saying, "Merry Christmas!" and we walked him over to look at the tree. He smiled great big and then said, "I want my surprise." We informed him the presents were the surprise, but he meant a surprise breakfast. Seriously - the kid wakes up ravenous so we knew breakfast before gifts would be a must. I made his Rudolph pancake real quick while waiting for the cinnamon rolls to get done. We devoured the cinnamon rolls, and then it was go time!
We started with stockings.. Trice decided I could go first. Before I pulled even one thing out, he was into his. I knew right away he was a marathoner, not a sprinter when it comes to opening Christmas gifts. I immediately regretted putting 4 boxes of raisins in his stocking. He was also upset that not all of his stocking stuffers were wrapped. Lesson learned for next year. He played with every single thing. He really wanted to try out his glue sticks and markers, but we convinced him to open a few more presents. Another lesson was soon learned - if you buy a cup, pre-wash it.. because it will need to be used immediately.
Basically the only thing he actually wanted for Christmas - a cup just like mommy's cup with I-State on it!
He needed to help daddy wash it with daddy's new step stool.
Not sure what that face was .. he was so excited our cups matched. He told me maybe for Christmas I should ask for one with Cy on it, too!
Two hours in, we decided we better let papa come over because he had to leave to head home to see my brothers. That kind of threw Trice for a whirl. He decided they needed to eat a 2nd breakfast. It took awhile to convince him to open more presents. Finally, we told him he could open the big one before papa left. Let's just say - it was a hit! Nick and I literally can't handle how adorable he is driving this thing around.
Next, Nick got to open his big gift!
A new bike trailer! My friend is moving, and their new rental has absolutely no storage space so she was selling their barely used (2-3 times) bike trailer. We have one, but it is really old and doesn't fold up so it takes up half our garage. I had quite the time getting this on my own...
Trice approves! Although he thought maybe we could take it for a ride right away...
I opened my favorite gift - a study Bible and an adorable cover for it! Of course there are no pictures of me...
At some point we ate some delicious potato soup for lunch. I made Trice a sandwich in the shape of a star - he didn't eat anything. I think he was too excited about his gifts. For the first time in days, he took a nap. It was glorious. I napped, too, since I had a rule that there would be no work done on Christmas.
His Christmas tree snack!
After nap, it was play time around here. We played and played and did nothing but play the rest of the day! It was literally the most fun ever. He was in such a great mood. Mickey and Scout went for a lot of rides in his fire truck. We put out a lot of fires, too.
He really, really loves his new memory game! I played at least 50 rounds of it with him. No pictures of me, of course, because I can't be behind the camera and in the picture .. obviously. But I promise, I'm a veteran memory player at this point.
Can you tell which cards Nick set up and which ones Trice did?
For supper, we had a Christmas tree pizza. Trice loved helping me with the new step stool papa got us.
After supper, we baked a cake for Jesus' Birthday and read "Happy Birthday Jesus!" It was a great ending to our Christmas celebration!
I'm publishing this 3 days after Christmas -- we've been busy playing and enjoying daddy being home. The house is looking less like a tornado. The Christmas decorations are down. My heart has that ache it does every year when the Christmas season is over, but the memories we made with Trice this year are ones I will never ever forget. These are moments I wish I could make last forever. As our lives go back to the business of every day reality, I hope I can remember to reflect on this absolutely perfect day. It was so simple, yet more magical than I ever could have imagined. Merry Christmas, everyone!
