I am always a little behind on recapping our holidays, but I have to get them done!! Here’s a look at our few days leading up to Christmas and our Christmas Day.
December 23rd
On the 23rd, Matt’s family came over to spend the whole day with us and exchange gifts. They all love one of our local bbq restaurants, so we always order that for lunch and keep things really easy. It is so much fun to have everyone together because now my kids are getting a tiny bit older, but one of their cousins now has new babies!! So my kids get to love on their 2nd cousins already and its so sweet.
We exchanged gifts with everyone and Brody decided to be our Santa Clause this year and hand out all the gifts. My MIL had a very special gift to deliver this year. She has spent the last year working diligently on a Storyworth novel. If you haven’t heard of Storyworth, you need to check them out. They supply a question once a week for an entire year and then they print a book with everything in it and you can include photos as well. They are really beautiful. So my MIL gifted one to each of her children for them to have and share with their families.
My SIL receiving her book from her Mom.
Later that evening after Matts family went home, we met up with my family for an adult-only dinner at Jacksons. This is always a fun tradition and I was excited we could squeeze this in this year.
December 24th
On Christmas Eve, we went to church service in the late afternoon and then went over to our friends house for a fun Christmas Eve dinner. We had an easy meal that could be made ahead and she set the table beautifully for the evening. We made sure to make it a fairly early night so we could head home and get ready for Santa the next day!
Christmas Day
For Christmas morning, I always love to make our favorite breakfast casseroles. This year I made our 4 ingredient breakfast casserole but instead of using a crescent sheet, I used cut up biscuits as the base. I was in the mood to try something different, but I will definitely be going back to the crescent sheet. The biscuits got way too fluffy. We also made our favorite French toast casserole.
We made the kiddos wait until 7:30am before they can come down the stairs… I never like Christmas Day to start too early and then it’s over before 7am! So the kids came running down and checking out all their presents before pulling down their stockings. We took our time opening gifts and having breakfast. Then around 12pm we start doing some clean up and get ready for my family to come over for the afternoon to exchange gifts and have appetizers and an early dinner.
This is the kids on a scavenger hunt for their very last gift which they learned was a trip to the Greenbrier after Christmas.
The tablescape turned out really pretty this year. I used a tablecloth from Julia Amory, placemats from Shop the Avenue, Vietri Christmas plates, Klatso home napkin rings and Juliska Christmas napkins. These candle sticks are an antique find that I adore.
We served the most amazing beef Wellington, potatoes au gratin and grilled asparagus.
The whole dinner gang! Except the kids had already eaten and were playing somewhere at this point 🙂
And that’s a wrap on Christmas. It’s always so much fun and so much work, but I love it. Until next year…
