Last year, I think I wrote about Christmas in July, so I’m ahead of the game this year, even though Christmas was nearly two months ago ha.

We were able to see both sides of our extended family this Christmas season. My parents came out to Virginia (my brother living in Virginia had his first child, whom my parents were eager to meet). We were able to spend time with them before and after our trip to Iowa for Christmas (we spend every other Christmas in Iowa with John’s family).

Spending time with both sides of our family meant our kids had many present opening opportunities, which they loved. We did our immediate family Christmas gift exchange the day before my parents arrived. (On the years we go to Iowa, we open our immediate family presents before we head out of town. Only Santa presents make the trek to Iowa.) Having three kids ages four and under at Christmas makes it magical! One of the presents we got David I wasn’t sure if he would like (they were tinker toys) but they ended up being his favorite toy. He has such an engineering focused mind. I had fun taking Brooke and David individually to pick out presents for each other. It was adorable to see what they picked and fun to watch them open those specific presents. Both Brooke and David are so appreciative of their gifts. Brooke says “thank you so much” in the sweetest and most sincere tone. Drew is still a little too young to really understand what’s going on.

Highlights of the time we spent with my side of the family include: Shopping on Main Street in Luray (they have such cute shops!), hiking in Shenandoah State Park, visiting DC to see the National Christmas Tree, meeting baby Will (the first cousin for our kids!), and a pre-Christmas dinner and white elephant gift exchange with my aunt, uncles, and cousins, who also live in Virginia.

Highlights of our time in Iowa include: Going for walks, playing at parks, Christmas Eve gift exchange and Christmas Day dinner with John’s extended family, and playing games.

Below are photos from the Christmas season.

One aspect of the Christmas season I loved was being able to read my scriptures each morning with the Christmas lights glowing inside our house. I took this photo one morning to remember how meaningful that was for me. I made a concerted effort to read my scriptures each morning (versus reading them at the end of the day when I’m exhausted). It has made such a difference in centering me and enabling me to feel closer to God.

I know it’s JULY but I never posted about Christmas, and it was a great one, so I want to make sure I capture the memories.

December brought snow, which was awesome. It really made the Christmas season magical.

My parents and brother Blake came from Utah. We were concerned about COVID and thankfully my parents were able to get tested as often as they wanted through their jobs to ensure they were negative. My mom planned to stay for a month so she could be here to take care of Brooke and David when Drew was born. My sister Melissa lives in the area and she stayed over at our house for a couple days during the Christmas holiday as well.

Christmas Eve is one of my most favorite days of the year. John’s family has a tradition of dressing up on Christmas Eve and so we asked my family if they’d be up for that. My favorite tradition is reading scriptures about the birth of Christ and singing carols together. It’s fun to read a few verses and then sing. Then read some more, and then sing some more. Music can be so powerful. I love the feeling of singing about the birth of our Savior with my family.

David is really into birthdays and specifically birthday cake. So we had a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Day.

Christmas magic was definitely alive in our house with a 3-year-old and almost 2-year-old. They made it so fun.

We had fun playing games while we were all together. It felt so good to have our house full of people I love and to laugh together. We learned my sister is a master a trivia!

While we were all together we took advantage of the Shenandoah mountains. We all hiked together one afternoon. The next day John and I went on a hiking date and did the same hike as the day prior. On a different day, my parents, John, the kids and I also traveled to a section of the mountains further from our house and did another hike. The kids were troopers. We pushed/pulled them in our Burley stroller.

We also took a trip into the city and walked from the World War II Memorial to the Capitol. It was fun to take in the sights downtown and the weather was great. The only hard part of all the walking is I constantly felt like I needed to use the restroom since I was just about 9 months pregnant at the time haha.

I didn’t take a ton of pictures while we all together for two reasons: (1) I just wanted to focus on being present (2) My face was really swollen this pregnancy and to be honest I felt very self-conscious.

It was a wonderful Christmas! Of course we had other “fun” moments – Brooke throwing up, someone falling down the stairs – but that’s life.

I was about to make a joke and say that hopefully I’ll write about next Christmas before July, and then it occurred to me that I never wrote about our 2019 Christmas in Iowa. So, even though it’s July, I’m proud I got something written up haha.

This year for Christmas, my family gathered here in West Virginia. Earlier this year, my parents moved to Utah from Virginia, where they had lived for over 30 years. I have a brother in Utah, a brother in Virginia…as of three days ago, and a sister in Virginia. At Christmas time, my brother who lives in Virginia was actually living in San Francisco. Needless to say, it was awesome that we were able to gather from across the country to be together for Christmas.

We started off the family Christmas celebrations the Friday before Christmas with a dinner at Maggiano’s (sadly, my brother from Utah didn’t arrive until Sunday). I love Maggiano’s and I love my family, so this was a win/win situation for me haha.

My brother from San Francisco spent the weekend before Christmas looking for housing in Virginia in anticipation for his big move across the country. My parents and my sister finished their Christmas shopping. John, David, and I laid low and hung out at home. We also FaceTimed with John’s parents and sister and opened up the presents they had given us and we had given them.

On Christmas Eve, we gathered together at our house with my Wagner cousins, my uncles Carl and Markus, and John’s Uncle David. I cooked a ham for the first time. It was super easy, but unfortunately the glaze got everywhere. (Note to self: Glaze the ham in the roasting pan, not on the serving tray). Since I was nearly seven months pregnant at the time, I couldn’t see that I had gotten glaze all over the bottom of my shirt. Thankfully my sister pointed it out before anyone noticed – ha!

Dinner was delicious. Everyone contributed and there were so many tasty sides. After dinner, we read scriptures from the Bible and Book of Mormon that talk about Christ’s birth. In between passages of scripture, we would pause and sing carols. I love this tradition. My family is a musical family, and I love hearing all our voices blend together as we sing songs about the birth of the Savior. It’s one of my favorite parts of Christmas. Afterwards, we had our traditional White Elephant gift exchange. (Earlier in the day, John, my brothers, and I played Dance Dance Revolution. My parents had given us their two DDR mats and game before they moved. I haven’t played that game in years, but I still love it! I may consider it as an option for post-baby workouts haha).

On Christmas Day, we kept things pretty low key. We all slept in (including David) and then opened presents. We had a late brunch, which included an omelette bar and Monkey Bread. That afternoon we watched the movie “Collateral Beauty.” The movie got terrible reviews, but it is one of my all-time favorite movies. It takes place at Christmas time, so even though it’s not a Christmas movie, it seemed fitting to watch it. That night my dad made baked Ziti for dinner, which was so good (I love Italian food!). And we ended the night with some games.

Some other fun things we did during the Christmas break were visiting the National Christmas Tree and going on a nature walk in Harpers Ferry. Below are pictures of these outings!