Christmas 2015 - A Recap. Finally.

Naturally, with Holy Week upon us and Easter just around the corner, I have felt compelled to finally finish my Christmas recap. Haha.

Advent and Christmas seem like forever ago, but I suppose it's still important to remember how the Jesus story began with the Nativity as we also prepare for His dying and rising again.

Maybe it's the former elementary Catholic school teacher in me, but teaching my children the joys of the Christian holidays makes me happy. It helps me get excited about the liturgical calendar, and it is so fun seeing their faces light up as they start to understand, in their own way, their faith.

It was a little difficult to "squeeze" a lot of pre-Christmas time in because we spent three of the four weeks of Advent traveling - to Indianapolis for the baptism of my godson, to Virginia for a cousin's funeral, and to Asheville for a couple's trip with one of my oldest friends. As such, we weren't able to check out Cheekwood Holiday or go to Bass Pro to see Santa. And my mom took Lissie to the Governor's Mansion this time instead of me.

But, of course, we still did a lot of our other traditions and started new ones. The ornament book calendar that tells a little bit of the Nativity story each day. The chocolate advent calendar. Advent wreaths. Making Christmas cookies and gingerbread trains. Christmas puzzles. Made blessing bags for the poor and homeless.

Gingerbread train!

The boys working on their train.

Christmas cookies for Santa!

My tradition of doing Christmas puzzles with dad
has been extended to Lissie, the master of all puzzles!

Jesus' birthday cake!

Blessing Bags for the poor

And, this year, the kids were a part of the Christmas Pageant. Lissie was a sweet angel, and Xavier opted to be a bleating sheep.

Christmas itself was relatively low-key. It was probably the last time we could "bribe" our kids to stay upstairs before waking us up to check out their presents. We enjoyed a hearty Christmas breakfast and presents and spent the day being lazy, watching holiday movies and playing with our new loot.