Our Christmas

Another favorite holiday come and gone in a whirlwind!  I hope you all had the most amazing Christmas weekend!

We kicked off Christmas Eve morning with a puking 3.5 year old, who spent the rest of the day telling us, in the most pathetic voice ever, that he "couldn't be sick on Christmas"!  Thanks to lots of R&R, he was able to rally, and seemed to be feeling much better that evening, and 100% better by Christmas morning... leaving us all feeling glad that our plans to celebrate with family aren't until later this week, because the only thing worse than a sick kid, is traveling with one!

Sticking to tradition, we enjoyed appetizers and Christmas movies in comfy pajamas on Christmas Eve... sans fire this year, since it has been so darn hot... and M&E went to bed early enough for Mike and I to get everything together before settling down for our yearly viewing of Miracle on 34th Street.

We awoke Christmas morning and took things nice and slow, dragging out gift opening over the course of an hour or 2, because, since we had no real agenda, I thought it would be fun to actually enjoy the process, rather than rushing right through it!

We brunched, we played, and we lounged some more...

It was so much fun to watch Ella and Max play together and enjoy all of their new gifts from Santa!

Yesterday, we had the CRAZY idea to hop on train, and head to New York City, with our 2 little ones in tow.  I had always wanted to see Rockafeller Center at Christmas time, and although it was a bit chaotic and stressful at times, trying to maneuver through hundreds and thousands of people while pushing a stroller, I'm still thankful that I got the chance to check that experience off of my bucket list.

Now it's on to cleaning, organizing, and packing for a trip back to Pittsburgh to celebrate some more before we jump into a new year full of BIG, exciting things.

Have a great week!

Our Christmas

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I've been a bit absent this week. I took a little vacation from the blogging world, if you will.

As much as I love using this space to share photos, and ideas, and to talk about all of the items that we love, in addition to about a million and one other  random things... Sometimes it's nice to just unplug.

The holiday season has flown by at a pace that I wasn't even remotely prepared for this year.  Add to that the unexpected circumstances that life likes to throw your way, and unfortunately, Christmas day came and went with me feeling a bit like I didn't accomplish everything on my to-do list.  Such is life I guess.

Christmas was still as magical as I had hoped.  Sharing it with my little family filled my heart with happiness.  Watching Max open gifts and then insist on playing with those gifts rather than opening the rest was exactly what I expected.  Seeing Ella wave wrapping paper all around with a drooly grin on her face was pure perfection. Forcing myself to allow my house to look like a toy tornado tore through it while my kids enjoyed their new toys over the last couple of days, all while we all stayed in our pajamas for far too long, was exactly what the doctor ordered.

So instead of my usual Saturday Swoon Worthy post, I am sharing some photos from our Christmas.  I will definitely be resuming my regular blogging schedule next week, but for now, I'm going to try to slow it down a little, at least for a few days.  I hope you all had the most wonderful holiday, and as always, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to follow along and read my incessant rambling.  I'm so excited to continue to share with you in 2015.
-Jessica