Christmas!

This year we spent Christmas at the McGuire house. (my family). It was a total blast. I loved it. Not a lick of snow on the drive down, either, which made for a nice, easy, and quick drive (relatively speaking...I was pretty uncomfortable due to the sudden growth of these two boys.)

Christmas Eve is my dad's birthday, so we had a big breakfast and did presents for him. Then, we all went out to my Grandma's house (that they're selling this year) to take family pictures.



The photographer was nice enough to snap a couple maternity photos for us. This one is my absolute favorite. :)



Christmas Eve we went caroling. Normally, I hate caroling. I have always said my family just isn't good at it. We have caroled to a dog, through a glass door because the family wasn't home (all 3 verses). We have caroled to the wrong house, which turned into the right house about halfway through the second verse (the family had just moved to a new house and the cousin answered the door...a cousin we had never met before.) We have also caroled to a house where the inhabitants did not hear us knock and the daughter opened the door to take out the trash, saw a bunch of large hooded figures, screamed and slammed the door. However, in the years I have been out of the house apparently we have improved at it.

This year, my brother brought his guitar and my other brother brought his cahone [sp?]. (It's a drum that makes all sorts of different sounds. Pretty rad.) We were a hit wherever we went! Such a different experience than years past. We only went out for an hour and sang to our good friends, and neighbors we hoped to meet, etc. I was actually sad to be done when we were out of treat plates.

Because Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, my parents wrapped up the living room and we all got ready for church at 9am. It was pretty bizarre to not be awake before the sun on Christmas Day. (My super mature 26 year old sister is still the first one awake every Christmas...at like 4:30-5 am. It's a riot. I was definitely not complaining about the extra hours of sleep, though!



I really enjoyed having church on Christmas Day. It was a beautiful musical program. Cam sang with the choir to help out the tenor section and the boys kicked and rolled through the entire thing. That was probably the best gift I could've received because I was nervous about making the drive. The reassurance that they're both OK is the most important thing to me.

We came home and got back into pajamas.

And tore down the wrapping paper. :)

Please note Jessica's pajamas. That girl is so absolutely my favorite. lol.

Lillie got a dollhouse full of a variety of characters. Disney princesses, dinosaurs, trucks, Woody, Buzz and Jessie (who are favorites), and woodland creatures all live in harmony there. We try to embrace diversity. :) She was so fun to watch! Having a kid around really brings a whole new level of Christmas magic. It made me terribly excited for next year when we will have two rambunctious, probably crawling boys to keep track of.

JT getting "conservative ties for his mission." :) This was the last year we would all be together. Mackay and Lindsay won't be coming out for Christmas morning again and JT will be on a mission for the next two Christmases, so it was nice to have everyone together this time.

Hair done and make-up on for Christmas morning is a definite first. There were onesies in our stockings and cute little socks for the boys. What a fun Christmas!

Also, major husband points right here: Cam got on my pinterest account, found my board of books I'd like to read eventually and ordered two of them. WHOA. I had no idea he even KNEW about that board, let alone how to get on my pinterest account. Total win right there.

There was one bag for the in-laws, which we found a little weird considering Cam lives in Utah and Mackay lives in Colorado, and my parents made them wait to open it through the rest of the Christmas presents. They gave a bag to us McGuire kids after all the presents were unwrapped. Inside were 3 DVDs of our family photos, set to music, with video clips of major highlights. We got to see pictures of my parents growing up, the night of their first kiss, mission pictures from my dad I had never seen before, all the way through the growing up years of our family and into the marriages of me and Cam and Lindsay and Mackay, the birth of Lillie, the glory days of all of us in high school sports. It was 2.5 hours long! Such a blast! In the "in-law bag" was a pack of oreos for Cam and a pack of oreos for Mackay along with a magazine (something financial for Mackay, and one on woodworking/projects for Cam). It was their "we're sorry you have to sit through 3 DVDs of our family" present. :)

We ended up watching the DVDs on Christmas day and the day after. So awesome.

The days after were spent on a cloth diaper making blitz and playing a new game called Pandemic.

Lots of laughing til you cry, kicks from the boys, and pajama days. Tons of amazing food, including a beautiful Christmas dinner of prime rib served on my mom's gorgeous china...that we all ate in our pajamas after waking up from naps. Sometimes Christmas is just meant to "be". No expectations. I think that's what I love most.