To kick off the holiday season my friend and I hosted a black and white Christmas party at the beginning of December to get everyone in to the holiday spirit. I finally got to wear that little black dress that had been sitting in my closet with the tags still on it....motherhood definitely doesn't accommodate cocktail dress attire. :)
Me and my beautiful neighbor Maike. Let me just say a few things about her (because she is becoming one of my new favorite people!) Her and her husband moved here from Germany on business and moved into the townhouse that joins to ours. It's funny cause I told my husband, "Oh I really really pity the person who lives in house next to ours cause I don't care HOW sound proof they say it is...nothing can sound Prof our kids!" haha Now in the morning I will pass them leaving the house and I will say, "So, Im guessing you heard Ezekiel screaming his head off at 5 am?" and she says, "Oh yes, we heard him and felt so sad for you and then rolled over and went back to sleep." hahaha Needless to say, they are amazing and we are soo excited to be getting to know them!!! :)
We played a white elephant gift exchange and Charlie definitely had like 5 different things stolen from him...but this is what he ended up with. :)
The hubby and I all dressed up
Okay, now this was one of the new traditions I implemented this year. I was really wanting to add some new things that we do as a family each year that weren't about buying or getting and I think God led me to some neat ideas that I heard about. This one was based on Saint Nick's day. Even though my kids don't believe in Santa Clause I still wanted them to know all about Saint Nick and where the idea of Santa came from. So I told the whole story about what saint nick did and how he would go on horse back and not tell anyone and leave gifts. Well they just thought this was the coolest thing....SO... we decided to start pretending like we're Saint Nick om the eve of Dev 6th (I think that's when it is...haha). We decided that each year we (as a family) would pick another person or family that we could secretly bring a present to and leave it on their doorstep. This year they picked their grandma, which was convenient since she practically lives next door. We decided to keep it pretty simple this year and they just made special homemade cards and delivered them. The picture about is them holding up their kids and showing me how they had to be super quiet so that grandma wouldn't hear! :)
Right before they rang the door bell and then ran and hid. :)
I told them normally we don't let the person see us so it stays a secret but because it was grandma I let them pop out of the bushes and yell, "Surprise!!!!" :)
Decorating the tree is quite the event at our house. It consists of lots of yummy snacks, dancing around to Christmas favorites (Amy Grant and James Taylor to name a couple) and making the first fire in the fireplace. The kids always have take turns helping daddy putting on the lights.
Then comes the putting on of the angel..this also is a big deal and each kids sooo wants to be the lucky one. This year Charlie tossed a dollar bill up in the air...a quarter is just so over done :)....and let them pick a side. Malachi was our winner this year!
This picture doesn't really have anything to do with Christmas but was taken sometime in December amidst the craziness. :)
Another new tradition that I am SUPER excited about is this one... instead of doing "New Years Resolutions" with our kids, I wanted to do something that is more God focused than "me" focused. I told the kids that since it's Jesus's birthday that we should be thinking about what we can give Him for Christmas. So I began to ask them, "what do you think Jesus would want for Christmas?" And of course that sparks up a lot of good conversation...they began to throw out things like, "Maybe a super hero doll!" "new toys!" But I think the best was, "Maybe a game of tic tac toe so Jesus and God can play games together!" hahaha LOVE IT! :) But I slowly began to explain that although God likes those things...what He really LOVES isn't the things we can see with our eyes but whats unseen in our hearts. After some discussing I think it finally started to settle in a bit. Ezekiel was still a little lost in the whole thing but still said they he wanted to draw Jesus some cars for Christmas. :) Malachi said that he wanted Jesus to have some super heroes for Christmas because "Jesus and super heroes like each other." hehe So he put a bunch of super hero stickers on a page. Annabella thought about it for a little bit and then said, "I know what I'm gonna give Jesus...I will give Him my heart!" :) We talked about what that all meant and she seemed like she understood at least in part. Then I had them wrap it up and put in a box. I told them that it would be the first present that we open on Christmas morning and that we would remember throughout the whole year what our present was to Jesus this year! I told them that next year we would bring our old present out (before we make a new one) and see if we had been faithful in giving Jesus our presents!
Malachi making his super hero card
Holding up their gifts for Jesus. :) Malachi is holding the one Ezekiel made as well (the red one).
wrapping it up
and putting it under the tree. :)
Another fun thing I started 2 years ago was to take Annabella to the Nutcracker every year and make it a big date night where we dress up, go out late, and eat dessert! :) This year I had my mom living close by so of course she joined too...as well as some close friends of ours!
Me and my Annabella and Becky and her Ana. :)
Annabella and I about to consume some serious chocolate! Triple Chocolate Meltdown from Chilies...Oh yeahhh!! :)
And of course...what is Christmas without decorating good old fashioned sugar cookies! I let Annabella help roll out the dough and cut out the shapes.
Then to the fun stuff...decorating!
Malachi, of course, was super perfectionist about his cookie decorating and while the others were working on their 3rd..he was still diligently working on his first. :)
I should have known that Ezekiel's cookie decorating would turn into an excuse to get as messy as possible! And somehow he finds a way to brings cars into every activity he does! haha I turn around and see this (above picture) and he says, "look mama, a train track!" haha
Here are some of the cookies that weren't broken or eaten during the process. :)
This picture was taken on Charlie and I's 7 year anniversary! Our anniversary falls on Dec 11th and therefore is always a hectic time. My mom did watch the kids that day and Charlie and I had a super relaxing and fun day just hanging out but as we were nearing the end of the day Charlie could tell I looked stressed. I finally told him that I was super overwhelmed with wrapping everyone's presents and since we had to leave in 2 days to go to Houston for a week that I wanted all of the present wrapping done before we left. Being the great hubby that he is, he agreed to come home with me and to help me wrap presents for the remainder of the night! :)
Ok, so the next few pictures don't really have anything to do with Christmas but it's just some pictures of what my life looks like in between all the Christmas festivities! The above picture is Ezekiel wearing Annabella's tutu...a pretty normal sight to see in the Cochran household...but for some reason this day he looked particularly goofy! :)
Ezekiel as a cowboy. He insists on wearing that belt and sticking his "sword" through the back loops. We got ourselves a real live Indiana Jones on our hands! :)
The above picture is my kids room. Some people seem like they can do it all...and that's just not me. So this Christmas I picked what was important and chose those things. Now, I will be the first to say that I definitely don't always chose the things that my heart wants to! Oh how many times I have stuck the kids in front of a movie so I could finish editing some pictures or mop my dirty floor. Honestly, sometimes that does need to happen or you would NEVER have a clean house! :) But this Christmas I really wanted to purpose to make what mattered to me a priority. And it mattered to me to make new traditions with my children, it mattered to me to sit with them on the couch and eat popcorn and watch Christmas movies, it mattered to me to sit at the table and make totally lopsided paper chains (hehe).......and cleaning....well...it just didn't matter so much. :)
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