Christmas 2025!

We had such a wonderful Christmas this last year! I always feel extra grateful for my kids and the stage of motherhood that I'm in during the holidays. They are just the perfect ages for Christmas to be magical and while the season went by really fast, I soaked it in as best I could. 

With everyone's schedule, our Christmas kicked off on Sunday (Christmas was Thursday) with our nativity tradition. This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. With all the kids and family gathered, it's chaotic, but somehow through all that I feel the Spirit of Christ's birth so strongly. 

Christmas Eve was a few days later and I was worried, because Oliver woke up in the night having thrown up. When he came down in the morning, he was lying on the couch, but he was hungry and didn't throw up again. I gave him a bath and he joined in all the activities we normally do.

We always start off Christmas Eve with a big breakfast--and then I save the leftovers for Christmas morning, so we can have a nicer breakfast on Christmas without me having to get up and make a bunch of food! It's my favorite thing. This year, a neighbor had brought us cinnamon rolls to bake, so I did that instead of making pancakes. We also had bacon and sausage, scrambled eggs, and homemade puffed red wheat cereal (Ben's favorite, so the kids call it "Dad's cereal"). While I make breakfast, the kids get to play video games in the morning. Ben often joins them, though this year he was busy working on a few things as well. 

In the afternoon, Oliver fell asleep and took a nice, long nap. I let him sleep, hoping it would help him get feeling better. The kids and I finished up last minute presents, made rolls and white bread with some soup, and played with Leah. 

Around 5, we woke up Oliver, who was acting like he felt better his nap. I was just hoping he was over it and no one else got anything--I really didn't want all the kids to be sick for Christmas. We loaded up all the kids and the food and went over to Ben's parents' house. We had soup for dinner, something we often have on Christmas Eve with his family, though the kids mostly had sugar cookies and bread. Instead of chicken and rice soup (the kids' favorite), this year I made Ben and my new favorite soup, a recipe we tweaked from online. We especially like it with no-knead bread in my Dutch oven. 

After soup, we all gathered and watched The Christ Child (since we had already done the nativity on Sunday). That is my favorite one, it always makes me tear up. 

Then it was home early to do our Christmas Eve traditions. 

We'd left in a hurry and the house needed a five minute pickup before we started all our Christmas Eve stuff. The kids did that while I got Leah in her PJ's and everything. Then we opened up our Christmas Eve present--always a blanket. The kids got to see what color they got and then snuggled up on the couch to read The Night Before Christmas with me. 

I tried to nurse Leah while I read, but she was too distracted, so I had to let Ben hold her while I read. Then I nursed her while Ben helped the kids set out their stockings and get the cookies for Santa ready. The kids were excited to go to bed! 

During the night, despite the rain we got insead of snow, Santa came!

Oliver

He asked for 10 pieces of bubble gum. He was really excited to get the bucket of gum. Between eating a lot each day and sharing both with cousins and sisters, it was gone in about a week. He loved it. 

Rylee

Parker

Ashtyn

Leah

Charly

Ben

Christmas morning was magical. I was up late working on Parker's baptism memory book--I'd meant to do it for her 9th birthday, but with the baby, I'd never gotten around to it, so I was determined to do it for Christmas. Christmas was just so busy this year that I didn't have the chance until after we were done with stockings and everything. I finished wrapping it around 11:30 on Christmas Eve. Ben and I were in bed around midnight, but I managed to sleep until after seven the next morning. I did some dishes and got the kids' food ready--they were also awake a little after 7. I nursed Leah upstairs while the kids ate their breakfast in bed and Ben finished getting the downstairs ready. We had no snow, just a lot of rain--it was really warm on Christmas all day. 

Somehow, I've lost the video we took of the kids coming down the stairs in a line to see if Santa came. They were so cute and excited to see the milk and cookies gone and to look at their stockings. 

Leah loved Christmas!

After stockings, we started with homemade presents. Parker made this "robot hand" for Oliver. You put your fingers through the yarn and then you can make the cardboard fingers move. 

Parker let Leah try on her headphones 😂

Ashtyn made this Rumi mask for Rylee.

Ashtyn made a gift for everyone--she wrote a book for Parker.

Rylee made these Among Us toys for Parker. 

And Oliver made Ashtyn these dragon bookmarks. 

They also opened up a little gift from two of their aunts--a plushy and a hair scrunchy, both homemade. It was really sweet of them. 

Parker wrote me a song and then made post cards about the song that she took pictures of on her camera. The wrapping was so cute. 

Olvier drew this picture of me with him and Leah. 😍 he wrapped it himself--with glue, beceause he couldn't find tape. It was tricky to get open 😂

Leah loved her treats from Santa! 

Parker was so excited to get her baptism memory book. She found Grandma Leah's testimony and teared up reading it. It was special. 

We got Oliver a remote control car and he has loved it. 

He has tears in his eyes because he was trying to use Ashtyn's scissors to cut the ribbon but was struggling, so Ashtyn took the scissors and cut it for him.

Rylee really wanted a telescope for Christmas but we didn't think there would be a way for us to get it for us. Then Ben was helping clean out his grandmother's house and saw a telescope. They gave it to us to give to Rylee and it was the biggest surprise for her and was even more special when she found out it used to be Grandma Leah's. 

Parker's main gift was a Nintendo Switch. We budget $50 for each child's gift and Parker paid the difference, so she knew what she was getting. She also got some gift cards for eshop so she could put some games on it. She was very excited and has loved having her own (rather than sharing with siblings playing on Ben's). 

Ashtyn got makeup and a makeup bag to put it in. She has been using my makeup for the last few months and really wanted some of her own, especially lipstick (since I don't really have any). 

For their last combined gift, they opened up the first clue to a scavenger hunt.

I had a lot of fun putting the scavenger hunt together and the kids loved it (Oliver didn't participate at all yet, he was too busy with his car and Rylee lasted about halfway, painted while Ashtyn and Parker kept going, and then joined in at the end again). 

For their combined gift, we got them a karoake machine (as well as new magnet blocks to replace some of the old broken ones and just to have a few more to play with). 

Ashtyn made me this rock nativity set, it's so cute!

And Ben painted me this picture for Christmas, I love it.

Santa brought me the start of this series (I'm very excited to begin my collection of it).

I also got a new set of measuring spoons and it came with an 1/8 cup! It's so cute.

We spent Christmas morning opening presents and then just relaxing, enjoying our gifts. In the afternoon, we went over to Ben's parents' house so the kids could all play and show each other their presents. It was so warm, I couldn't believe it. Grandpa Danny took the boys out on the four wheeler and Ashtyn and Lizzy spent a lot of the afternoon at the treehouse. It was a great Christmas Day. 

The next morning, we loaded up the kids in the car and drove out to West Jordan for Christmas with my family. We decided to go out and back in the day. It made it much easier to go out at Christmas with five kids to not need to pack for overnight. The kids did really well on the drive out. Leah took a longer nap than I thought she would and when she awake, she cried very little.

Leah loves to suck her thumb and I love it.

The little cutie was happy when we got out of the car at Grandma Dee's though! We got there a little early because we managed to push through the drive without stopping. I fed Leah when we got there and the kids started playing. It was a fun party, seeing everyone, and we all loved our gifts from Grandma Dee and Grandpa Luke. We were sad that some of Luke's family couldn't be there, the kids especially missed their cousins, but they had fun with the cousins who were there and they loved playing Animal Crossing on their DS's with Uncle Jon, as well as checking out Grandma Dee's new costumes. 

After the party, we loaded up the car and headed over to my aunt Ardis's house for a few minutes. They taught the girls a new game and we got to visit for a bit before we all used the bathroom and got in the car for the trip home. We stopped in Heber for dinner on the way home, nursed Leah one last time, and then drove the rest of the way. We finished the first Harry Potter audiobook as a family on the trip and started book 2. We got home around 10 and got the kids right in bed. It was a long day to do it all in one day, but it sure felt nice to be home in our own beds and Leah did well on the trip home as well. 

We had such a wonderful Christmas together, sharing it with our family. I feel so blessed.