Christmas at Our House

Good morning friends! I’m taking advantage of a few minutes with the boys playing video games to reflect on the past couple of days and go through all the photos I took.  As I look through these pics, I’m thankful for real life, unstaged photos that may not have the best lighting or composition, but that truly reflect our family life and how things looked from behind the lens the last few days.  I bet lots of your homes and lives looked similar!
Since we were hosting Christmas dinner this year, I got James to help me set a simple dining room table and he was really into it, wanting to do everything all by himself.  I pulled everything out, and he went to work setting up everything else on his own.  I sat back and snapped away.  Maybe he’ll start doing dishes next! 😉
He was so proud of himself and, as we sat down to eat, made sure to mention to all the family that he hoped they enjoyed the table setting.  He also set the kids table, but I didn’t get any pics of that one. 🙁
In between Christmas day preparations was lots of snacking and chilling out and baking chocolate chip cookies.
Licking the mixer is one of best parts!
As we baked those cookies and each batch came out of the hot oven, I was indulging until I had eaten six!  Feeling so sluggish, I figured we should take advantage of our nice weather and head to the park to get some exercise.  Our almost 6-year old is getting so big!
christmas eve
Getting outside was a good call, because we came back home, got showered up and made a delicious Christmas Eve dinner of BBQ ribs, baked beans and deviled eggs.  And more dessert.
Then, we made more cookies, this time sugar cookies that James could cut out and decorate.  We used a sugar cookie bag mix to make the process easier but had to go to two stores to find it!  Will put that on my list early next year!
And I prepared Pioneer Woman’s baked French toast to be enjoyed Christmas morning. So, so good!
Finally, we got the house straightened up so that Santa’s elves could get to work wrapping all the presents.  This pregnant elf was so tired by the end of the night!
James hung the key for Santa on our front door, put the cookies out on a special plate, and wrote Santa a special note that I’m definitely keeping.
christmas morning
Because we had guests over, James slept in our room Christmas eve and we read the story of Jesus’ birth and talked more about what that must have been like when Joseph and Mary couldn’t find a place to stay while she was pregnant.  My own pregnancy helped drive the point home and we got to talk about the baby Jesus being born in a manger.  He’s very familiar with the story by now and because he’s reading, we were able to read the story together.  Such sweet times.
When he woke up the next morning, he said, “Merry Christmas! Do you think I was on the nice list?” I’m sure you were, let’s go see!!!
I never want to forget that halfway through his excitement and unwrapping of gifts, he stopped and bowed his head and thanked Jesus for allowing Santa to bring him presents this year.  That melted my heart!  We had such a good Christmas and I’m so very thankful!
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas too!  And sometime last night I realized it was Friday, and we still had the whole weekend ahead of us.  Woo hoo!
Now as we sit around all lazy and cozy on Saturday morning, everyone is basking in that post-Christmas glow and with no real plans for the day, we may just visit our family who was recovering from the flu or possibly shop some after-Christmas sales to get out of the house later.
I didn’t realize that Nordstrom’s Half-Yearly Sale starts today. And I usually like to stop by stores like Pottery Barn and West Elm to see if they have any good Christmas decor on sale for next year.  Oh, if you’re shopping for NYE dresses, mine is on sale and you can see more here.
If you want to check out the sales, here’s the scoop:
ANN TAYLOR:  60% off your purchase, code WINTER60 
ANTHROPOLOGIE: extra 25% off sale items, code APLENTY
BANANA REPULBIC extra 50% off sale items 
GAP:  35% off your purchase, code GIFT4ME

GIGINY: 40% off past favorites.
LOFT:  50% off everything, code HOLIDAY50

NORDSTROM: Half-yearly sale, save up to 50%

OLD NAVY:  30% off your order, code ENJOY 
POTTERY BARN: Up to 60% off hundreds of items.
SOLE SOCIETY40-60% off sale styles.
WEST ELM: Extra 15% off clearance, code EXTRA15


Here are a few things that caught my eye:)  Eating everything in sight the last week makes me really want some new Zella workout clothes.  Mine is all too small right now! 🙁




Have a great weekend!
__________________
keep in touch! 
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Meet Megan

Hi! I’m Megan, mom to a thoughtful teenager and spunky young girl. We call Houston home and recently moved into our dream home. I traded my lawyer hat to become a full-time blogger in 2010. I love sharing my passion for affordable fashion, home decor, organization, & fitness to help inspire you to take care of you!

22 Comments

    1. It really was this year, feeling thankful. I'm pledging to take more family pics this year- I love seeing them and practicing my photography.

  1. Love his pjs!! Totally wanted those for the boys but waited too long! Can't wait to see your kiddos in matching pjs next Christmas…so so exciting!! xxoo

    1. Thank you! I'm trying to get better. I have a Nikon D90 and most indoor shots are with a 50mm lens and outdoor shots are a zoom lens, 80-200.

  2. Nice post! Your pictures and comments allow us to imagine your Christmas with your family. I don't post on many bloggers sites but you seem to be down-to-earth and very sweet.

    1. I appreciate you saying that. It's hard to know how you come across online, so I always hope it's as I am in 'real life.' Wishing you a wonderful 2016!

  3. LOVE all of the pictures of your sweet family Megan! James is such a doll. So happy you had a fun Christmas. You just keep eating whatever you want and enjoy the rest of your pregnancy! It will all be over before you know it. Wishing you nothing but the best in 2016 sweet friend! xo

    1. I can't believe it's only 10 weeks to go now. It really has gone by fast this time, I guess bc it's the second. So glad we got to hang out this year. I've always read your blog and meeting you was even better. Instant click! 🙂

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