Christmas Day!

Christmas morning came early! Poor Billy woke up with some gout pain, woke me for some medicine, and so we ended up opening gifts without him at 6am. = (

He said that he could hear the kids oohs and ahhs before the medicine kicked in though, so he didn't miss out completely!   The vast majority of the kids' gifts were second hand (some were still in original packaging!) 

Sorting through stocking stuffers!  The tiny food & bike was a huge hit!  ($10 thrift store, and less than that for food stuffs to enhance it.)  Grace used it way more than Molly all day! 

And the piles! (Do you love my reuseable bags? I love my reusable bags!)

William dart board ($3 thrift store)

My favorite picture of the morning!  ($1 umbrella at the MI state sale)

Juliet's favorite gift of the day! A giant Ariel Squishmallow!!!  (Used at a yard sale in May for $13)

Alice bought William his most annoying favorite gift!  A squeaky green chicken?

William absconding with his pile of squishmallows.

And our trash/recycling piles!! I feel like that maybe they are smaller than last year???

And the piles that will go in tubs to be stored for use next year!

My mom found some crackers for us to use on Christmas day!  The waste from those was more than all the gifts of the day! = 0  I've looked into reusable crackers, they are expensive, so I'm on the hunt to buy supplies to make my own!!!

Juliet lit her hope, peace, joy, love, and Jesus candles!!!  She burned the small ones to the base, and I repurposed the Jesus candle into our emergency stash. As little waste as possible!!! A very cool craft that they made at church. It was a big hit!

Grace adopted one of Alice's gifts (fairy lights) into a cool space. = )

We were happy to have Billy join us for lunch and the afternoon.  It was a nice day of family and laughter and love and relaxing!

later days

edit: post dated for continuity 12-29-23