Christmas 2020

Pre-COVID, we had been planning a road trip to St. Louis for Christmas 2020. Derek & Shelby had our route all mapped out and had their hearts set on certain locations for fun pit-stops along the way. But as with everything else in 2020, our plans obviously had to pivot. My parents offered to fly to San Antonio to spend the holiday with us, and we jumped at the chance! Everything is more fun when Grammy & Grampy here!! It was super fun to share some of our little Christmas traditions with them like decorating gingerbread houses a la Marvelously made & caroling around our neighborhood. And the kids played card games GALORE with Grammy & Grampy! Lots of fun was had by all!

The picture below is of Shelby eagerly watching as Brady opened his gift from her. Shelby purchased a color-changing car for Brady months before Christmas, and it was the very first wrapped present under our tree this year. Shelby loves saving her money and has over two hundred dollars in her bank account. But as much as she loves to save, she was so happy and proud to spend her own money on Christmas gifts for her siblings this year. She was a thoughtful and intentional gift-giver, and it was such a joy to witness!

Below is a picture of Hadley showing off one of her gifts from Shelby. 

We dropped Grammy & Grampy off at the airport earlier this week and sadly said our goodbyes to them. It's always a little too quiet when visitors leave. Since their departure, Brady has been taking full of advantage of the biggest perk of Christmas Break in his world--naps! The first day after my parents left, he didn't get up until 9am (!!!), and then we still had to go wake up from his nap around 4:15ish! It will be a rough adjustment for all of us when reality sets back in.

We've kept busying writing and decorating thank you notes, getting our 2021 calendars in order, and playing with all of our new toys & crafts from Christmas!

We were originally only supposed to have a traditional two-week long Christmas Break, but due to COVID our break has been extended an additional week. And we are relishing every last second of it!

Christmas Card & Santa Visit 2020

 Here's a quick peek at our 2020 card--I love how it turned out this year!

And we actually had two separate Santa visits/pictures this year, but only because I thought we lost the first picture. ;)  We almost always take the kids to a mall Santa for our annual picture, but we opted for Bass Pro this year as we had heard masks weren't required at Bass Pro & I really didn't want masks in our picture. So off to Bass Pro we went! But then when I went to display our picture, it was nowhere to be found. That same night, free Santa pictures were being offered in Old Town Helotes..so off we went for picture #2. And then the very next morning, we found picture #1 again, ha! But I think it was such a happy accident that it all worked out this way. Our first Santa visit to Bass Pro was super efficient--we literally walked into the store and had our picture in our hand in less than five minutes. There was absolutely no line, but it just didn't feel special. With the plexiglass wall, Santa didn't even say hello to the kids. Our second Santa soiree started out with a bad attitude on my part--I couldn't believe we had lost our original Santa picture! But it ended up being such a sweet little family night for us. We happily waited in line for our turn and got to see everyone decked out in their Christmas outfits & Old Town was all lit up in Christmas lights. And the Santa in Old Town was just the sweetest. He told our kids the reindeer were busy playing reindeer games at the North Pole & that Brady looked just like one of his elves named Bobby! They got such a kick out of that! Then we drove around Helotes looking at lights and listening to Christmas carols while the kids ate their candy canes from Santa.

In the picture below, the pure JOY on Brady's face is thanks to his candy cane & new hat from Santa!

Annual Christmas cards & Santa pictures are two of my favorite traditions! Thankful for another year of sweet memories.

Marvelously Made Nativity Play

Every year the Primary class (1st-3rd grade) at Marvelously Made performs the Nativity Play. In the days leading up to when the roles for the play would be assigned, Hadley announced she wanted to be Mary. We had a long chat about how there are lots of other important roles in the story, this is Hadley's first year in the class, she shouldn't get her hopes up, etc. The very next day after this chat, Hadley came bursting into my classroom after school announcing she would be Mary in the play. ;)  

All of the costumes had to be handmade at home with parental help, so Derek & Hadley set to work to make Mary come to life! They made her costume using an old set of white sheets we had in our linen closet, and Hadley finger knitted the belt and an accent to go on her veil/headpiece.

We are so thankful that Hadley got to be a part of this special experience this year! And it was so fun for Brady, Shelby, and me to (literally) get a front-row seat to it all! Hadley's class performed the play a total of four times to allow all of the classes a chance to see it as well as the parents of the Primary students. Brady got to watch three of the four performances, I got to see it twice, and Shelby was able to attend one.