Thursday, January 2, 2014

Christmas 2013 Recap

Merry Christmas!

And, I guess, Happy New Year too!

I've really, really enjoyed my vacation, but I'm ready to get back into blogging! Later this week, I have some posts planned to wrap-up 2013, and then we will plow right into some of the topics I have outlined for 2014. I'm actually really excited about what this next year is bringing, but more on that later.

For now, I thought I'd share our Christmas 2013 Recap!

First of all, we thankfully did not have the stomach flu over Christmas this year. Last year was a total bummer with how sick our family was. It was a bit touch and go in the days leading up to Christmas when Elijah hit a high temperature of 105.5 (How insane is that?!), but thankfully, we were well on Christmas Day. Of course, a few days later, it started rolling through the rest of the family. Currently, five out of six of us are really sick. Abby is the only well child right now. Ugh. But the point is that we actually got to celebrate Christmas this year! Yay!

This year, we didn't put up a Christmas tree. We are still solidifying the toddler beds thing, and really didn't have the energy to enforce Christmas tree rules by day while trying to keep kids in their beds at night. So we skipped it. At first, I totally felt guilt over it, but after awhile, I realized that the Christmas Tree itself doesn't make or break Christmas. So, no tree this year. Next year, I think it will be easier, and we will go for the whole shebang. But we did do our Christmas baking and enjoyed sharing some special gifts that I found at consignment sales with our kiddos. We went with lots of imaginative play items this year: wooden blocks, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse figures, a couple of Mr. Potato Head's, and their BIG gift....a dress-up trunk!
Caleb, Elijah, Daddy, Ellie, and Abby 

Caleb and Elijah with their "power tools", and Ellie and Abby with their tea set that I won on a blog giveaway this summer!

We only let them open a few gifts in the morning, and then called it good for awhile. We let them play for a bit, and then headed over to my parent's house. It was pretty exciting because all of my siblings came in town for Christmas the year! It was a full house!
My side!
Mike, Mark, Hannah, Chris, Josh, Sean, and Elijah
Aly with Sarah, Grandpa with Caleb, Cita with Abby, Ellie with Rebecca

 On my side, we always do a New Mexican Christmas Dinner since that's what we grew up with: Red and Green Enchiladas, Pinto Beans, Chili Con Queso, Mesilla Valley Potatoes, and Biscochitos. I look forward to this meal all year! So, so good!

And then it was home to take a nap. The kids were ready, and we were ready to sleep off some of the excitement of the day.

And when we woke up, we did the rest of our Christmas by bringing out the dress-up trunk!
The boys thought that the best part was pulling everything out to dump on the floor. Big surprise there!

The girls caught on though! They love dressing up in their princess dresses! I'm so glad that it was a hit, because I've been collecting items from consignment sales for the trunk since August!

Even though Christmas Day was over, we still had a few more celebrations ahead of us!

The next day, we went by Sean's grandparents' house to see his extended family and eat some barbecue.

And then a few days later, we headed to Sean's parents' house to celebrate with his side of the family. His side had been fighting illnesses as well, and we were grateful to see them back on their feet.

Our kids loved getting to have Christmas again with their Pa and Ma, and Ellie started to think "Merry Christmas" was the new way of doing things. LOL!

I just wish I had taken a few more photos at Sean's parents' house. It was a pretty low key affair since Sean's sister's and brother's families weren't there. Hopefully I can snap a group photo the next time we are all in one place!
We hope that your family had a Merry Christmas too, and remembered the real Reason for the Season in the midst of all the hustle and bustle!

Blessings to you in 2014!

7 comments:

  1. Look like you had a fun Christmas with all those kids! Christmas is about the only time I really regret not having kids of my own.

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  2. Sounds like it was a great Christmas in the Ishum household!! Ours was good as well. Glad you had some time at the end of the year to be with family. :)

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  3. It was very diffrent for us, not having every one here together as usual. Sure look forward to a normal gathering next year. Love the idea of seeing plcs of Sean's side of family for sure. Sorry you didn't get to enjoy the traditional Mexican meal. LOVE the new bag!

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  4. I love the idea of the dress up trunk as a gift. What a great idea!

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  5. How fun! I love that family pic. I can understand the Christmas tree idea. You know, there are seasons in life for different things and right now it is sleeping-in-toddler-bed season, LOL. You only have energy for so much, especially with four :) Happy New Year!

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  6. Thank you for sharing with us! :) Christmas looked absolutely wonderful! The dress up trunk is a brilliant idea!

    I hope you and your family had a fantastic holiday season!

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