Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

As we have for a couple of years now, we celebrated Christmas Eve at Chris' Uncle Pat and Aunt Carol's house. They're welcoming people with a "more the merrier" attitude towards hosting, and Carol goes all out with the Christmas decorations.  It was a "small" Chesla gathering this year with only two dozen people, but still full of fun and good stories.

Once everyone had arrived, we took up a tradition started by Chris' grandparents of lighting the Advent candles.  All the little cousins got to light a candle and the adult cousins handled the readings.  We also sang Christmas carols, and I appreciated that Pat and Carol thought to print the lyrics, not just for the German guests among us, but for me too!  Matteo sat on my lap as we sang and he loves music. I was astounded that he was trying to "sing" along, which consisted of half saying, half singing the last word of each line, but it was nonetheless really cute.   

Matteo with his Aunt Danielle

Our au pair Celina and her boyfriend, Marius, who is visiting from Germany

The grandchildren got turns lighting the Advent candles.

Oliver loved playing Santa and passing out presents.

After we sang, we opened presents.  Dan and his six siblings and their spouses all exchange gifts and their children exchange gifts with their cousins.  There always ends up being something for the littlest kids because they wouldn't be able to make it through the evening without being able to open something.  For my children those gifts were University of Minnesota Gophers t-shirts from their aunt and uncle and matching footie pajamas from Grandma.  They changed into their new pajamas before the car ride home and I was so tired by that point that I wished there had been a pair for me.

On Christmas morning Chris got up before everyone and cooked blueberry pancakes, eggs and bacon, and our German guests especially enjoyed this all-American breakfast. I really appreciated having this family time around the table before the gift-opening frenzy.

I had a surprise gift waiting for me when it was time to clean up from breakfast - a  new kitchen faucet.  Chris' friends had tried to convince him that a kitchen faucet does not count as a gift for your wife, but that's how our relationship works. I complain about something (in this case, I worried our faucet, which we'd already fixed once, and was really on its last leg) and Chris surprises me with a solution.  So I loved the new faucet, but I felt so guilty about what I'd put Chris through.

The afternoon of Christmas Eve was pretty chaotic with our kids and German guest to tend to, a lasagna to make, gifts to wrap and a house to pick up and in the middle of this all, Chris casually suggested that if there's nothing left for him to do, he'd like to take apart the kitchen faucet to see if he could fix it.  I admit that I might have in a less-than-kind manner ixnayed his suggestion and told him I thought that was the worst timing ever. Obviously I had no idea that Chris was trying to get a jump-start on the faucet replacement so he wouldn't have to stay up until 1:00 a.m. like he ended up doing.  Now that's true love, right?

The kids were as equally excited about their gifts as I was about my new faucet.  While we don't know whether Kiera and Matteo understood that it was Christmas, they did understand how to open gifts and were excited about it being their turn to do so.  The kids ended up with gifts not just from two sets of grandparents, but from Celina, her "Oma Heidi" and Marius.  They were so spoiled this year!

By the time we made it to Chris' parent's house for Christmas Day lunch, the kids were punch happy and us adults, were, well, we honestly looked like we were hung over. Some of us were getting over colds and all of us had stayed up way too late Christmas Eve and the days leading up to it and we were all ready for a nap. Luckily we plan for Christmas Day to be low-key.  Lunch happens whenever we show up and we have nothing on our agenda other than to spend time with the grandparents, who our kids adore, tired or not.

As tired as we were, we had celebrated Christmas exactly as I had hoped we would.  It was also a memorable first Christmas with Kiera and Matteo.  Depending upon when you come home with your children, that first Christmas can be more stressful than fun.  We had the gift of over 10 months home though, and our kids are so well-adjusted that I didn't have to worry about over-stimulation with large family gatherings or lots of presents, or attachment issues with everyone wanting to hug and kiss the newest members of our family.