Christmas 2023.

Christmas! It’s always so amazing to me how the preparations for Christmas Day take 4-5 weeks, and then it just feels over and done with in about 12 minutes. 🙂

I heard Javi sneak downstairs around 3AM to check if Santa had come yet — he did. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when he ran back up and into his own room and didn’t come to mine! On Christmas Eve, I stressed to all the kids that they couldn’t wake me up until the first number on their clock was a 5 and I’d prefer it to be a 6. So sure enough, as soon as the clock changed to 5:00AM, Javi and Lola busted in our room! They were very disappointed when I broke the news to them that we needed to wait for Eva to wake up… on her own. So they crawled into bed and we started Elf.

Around 5:30, Javi “went to check on Eva” and definitely woke her up but says he didn’t. 🙂 But it didn’t seem to matter, we all made our way downstairs to see what Santa brought, open stockings and tear apart wrapped presents! This part sort of makes me sad each year — all the planning and prep work, shopping and saving, organizing and hiding, counting and building, wrapping and carrying — and it’s over in minutes!

A few things I want to remember:

• The look on Javi’s face when Eva opened the present he got for her. (This was the first year they chose names from a hat and did a “Secret Santa” for each other!)
• Lola, when she saw anything for her. (She wanted all the babies, accessories, and vehicles that Santa’s workshop could make!)
• Eva opening everyone else’s presents with such a sense of confidence that we didn’t know how to do it! 🙂 (She opened every one of my gifts for me!)

They always want to open every gift right away and start playing with it so that’s what we did. Sean made breakfast and they played until 11:30! Then we went to my parent’s house to visit, spend the day and exchange gifts there.

Here’s a quick little video I put together:

It was such a good day. I feel like any year we’re healthy (it happens so rarely!) I’m so excited! Last year, the four of them got the stomach bug on Christmas Eve and in the days that followed and that just ruined it for me. But this year was uneventful in the best way. We had our health, no one had any meltdowns, everyone was appreciative and in good spirits — they even said thank you and ate their meals! I couldn’t have asked for a better day. They are going to bed so happy and so are we. 🙂