Christmas Day 12/25

We all slept well Christmas Eve except for Charlie who woke up every hour until six. We waited until seven and finally just woke Lucy up to go enjoy our stockings. It was a chaotic mess of happiness! We went slowly through the gifts with breakfast in-between so we didn’t finish until after nine.

For Seth and Myself, the most anticipated gift was the double waffle maker. Our regular one died about six months ago and with our growing family I new I wanted to invest in a double. Waffle Wednesdays has thankfully returned to our home and now we can produce enough waffles for the whole family in only a few minutes.  Santa stuck those silly mustaches in Seth’s stockings and everyone enjoyed their silliness. Matthew was happy with his Easy Bake Oven and we have kept busy making cakes, pizza, and cookies with it.

Charlie received a kindle for Christmas which in retrospect was like throwing gasoline on a fire. He’s figured out how to checkout digital books through the library so now there is an endless supply of books for him to read. We also got a few games that helped draw him away from his new books.  King of Tokyo from Grandma Ackerson was the top game of the year but playing Monopoly with the “fast rules” moves the game along a lot faster making it fun instead of endless hours of torment.  I loved the picture of Lucy reading to her new doll she named “Jane.” I did steal al little nap during the “Muppets Christmas Carol.”

Conrad got a tractor which Matthew LOVES and Conrad will someday love. Conrad LOVED Matthew’s skateboard and was really upset when Matthew wouldn’t give it up (note picture).

Christmas Eve!

Our Christmas Eve was perfect. We continued our tradition of going to see a movie Christmas-Eve morning by seeing Frozen (best Disney movie I’ve seen in a long time).The kids were in heaven with massive tubs of popcorn and drinks that were included (I LOVE Groupon). After the movie we walked by the Santa in the mall so all the kids could wave. I was surprised how many people were in the mall shopping on Christmas Eve.

We invited the Hubands and Atwoods over to have an Appetizer Party for Christmas Eve. This is a long Thacker tradition that should be carried on. How can you go wrong with cheese ball, Jalapeno poppers and great company? The kids also made Rudolph hats too (I love Ollie’s spider interpretation).  It was fun to see how excited all the kids were; we got updates from the “Santa Tracker” of Santa’s whereabouts.

The picture on the left was taken before we tossed them all in their beds. The most glorious thing about the whole day was that Seth and I were in bed at 10:15!!! This has not happened in years and I will remember next year how wonderful it is to wake up Christmas morning well rested.

Pre-Christmas Festivities.

We always have grand expectations for our Christmas activity advent. We had a great run of daily activities but if fizzled mid-December. It was unsustainable but a great goal. We did do all the “must haves” of the season and I stayed sane by giving up- win  and win.

The graham cracker houses was a must and I think I finally mastered it. Thanks to pinterest, the architecture of the houses and melted sugar for glue worked out perfect! The houses stayed together for easy decorating. Seth whipped up some perfect frosting and the kids went to town. Thanks to the glorious new Wegmens in Germantown (think of a merge of Super Walmart and Whole Foods), I got lots of house decorating stuff from their bulk section. The Saint-Jean Family joined us for the evening and we were all impressed with their design skills. We ate a ton of candy!

We also went to see lights at the Washington DC temple. We snagged some tickets to see a bell concert at the visitor center which was AMAZING!! The seats were for “standing only” but it was better than waiting another hour for the later concert. The kids all loved the nativity display and each child picked out their favorite. I’m so grateful we live so close to a temple.

The Saturday before Christmas we were blessed with unseasonably warm weather. It was 70 DEGREES!!! We all went downtown to see the train display and capital tree. It was strange seeing the kids run around without jackets but a nice break none-the-less. The train display at the Botanical Gardens did not disappoint. They recreated famous architecture landmarks out of all plant based materials with the trains weaving around them.  The Eifel Tower and Space Needle were our favorites. 

I also love just being inside the Botanical Gardens this time of year to see vibrant plants flourishing. We lost Lucy for a few minutes and I found her standing the middle of a pedestal (pictured). Of course that’s where she would be.