my poorly documented christmas

Unfortunately, the combination of our kids getting up so early that the light was still very poor when we started opening things, and my feeling caught up in the moment and not like taking pictures, means that there are not many shots of our day together. Clover got sick (again!!) on Christmas eve, and was in pretty rough shape on Christmas day. She was coughing up a lung and her poor face was all chapped and red from the snot. She looked pretty miserable, and most of the shots I got of her also looked miserable. 

Tim was also not feeling well that day, and wound up laying in bed for a lot of the late morning/early afternoon. But despite the issues, we did have a nice morning together. 

We had breakfast together first, and I fired up my new Lodge cast iron griddle. We had soaked spelt pancakes with lots of butter and maple syrup, and fresh bacon from the farmers market. 

Soon, we were doling out the unruly amount of stuff under our Christmas tree, and enjoying our kids' reactions. 

One of Violet's gifts was an At-at walker that we found on craigslist. The thing is practically as big as she is....

I love the Christmas morning messy head/pajama body combo. So cute. 

 

We also found a monstrous lot of playmobil on craigslist that ended up including parts (with no instructions....seriously, not the best. lol) for two castles, add on towers, a treasure box, and almost a hundred people and horses I think. Whoa. Plus all of the tiny little extras like swords, crossbows, maces, shields, flags, catapaults, battering rams.....it was really overwhelming once we got it into the house and actually looked at it. We spent some time sorting through things and seriously narrowed down the collection of things we gave the girls on Christmas. 

The whole castle got assembled and put together creatively since there were no manuals, and we hid it all morning under a sheet on the coffee table. It was the last thing to get unveiled after everything else, and the playmobil people and furniture we picked out to give them. I think it was like 7 horsemen and horses, plus maybe 10 other people, and some furnishings that we used and the rest is packed away to come out another day. I thought it might be fun a while down the road to have a playmobil reward box, and have a selection of things to choose from for rewards. 

 

We also took the girls out to look at Christmas lights that night since it hadn't worked out before that. Unfortunately, we were headed for a specific place we we were told of, and when we were almost there the road was blocked by police because of an accident that had just happened. So we winged it and found some rich neighborhoods to cruise through. For some reason it was really intriguing for me to stare into their lighted windows to see what they were doing, and how they had decorated. Lol. Creeper.

Northern Virginia is all slushy with wet snow and rain right now, so there is very little motivation for me to go out and do anything. Baby, it's cold outside! Kids, go play with your playmobil! mama wants to sit around and sip tea from her new mugs! Lol.