Our December last year started out with our annual trip to the local tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree! The kids love this tradition and they talk about it all year. We drive past the tree farm every Sunday on our way to church and they love to say, "That is where we get our Christmas tree!"
When that above picture was taken the very end of November 2023, we had no idea how very different December was destined to look for us. We were all geared up for another Christmas and ready to party! As mentioned in this post, we got our tree, decorated the house, and prepared to launch right into a full holiday month.
It was Friday morning, December 8th. I finished the Christmas party gathering for the MOPS group I coordinated and came home to crash as I was exhausted from some late night prep, little sleep, and a very full schedule. As Friday afternoon wore on, I felt worse and worse and what started out as a stomach ache began to intensify. The kids and I went out to run errands and by the time we got back, I was barely able to stay upright long enough to grab a frozen pizza from the freezer and pop it in the oven. My kids are little troopers and they did a great job basically feeding and entertaining themselves until John got home from his work trip around 7pm.
Long story short, stubborn me has spent a lot of time in hospitals over the last 2 1/2 years and I had no intention of going again unless there was no other option. Hospitals have saved my life
(literally) and I am SO grateful for the amazing medical care my family and I have received there over the past years. I just really wanted to fix the problem at home if I at all could! But unfortunately,
Be Your Own Doctor didn't come through this time, and after a solid six hours of trying all the recommendations for my symptoms, I caved and told John I was out of options. He was willing to help me try the natural stuff but was definitely ready to see me doing better so my dear sister in law came over in the middle of the night
(we had called them and asked them to be on standby in case I got worse) and we headed in to the ER. By this point I was pretty much 100% sure I had appendicitis and sure enough, that was the case. The CAT scan also discovered that I had a hernia. I had surgery later on that day and was able to have my appendix removed and the hernia fixed as well.
Our kids had amazing care the 24hours we were gone. They love their cousins/uncle/aunt more than about anyone else on earth, and they had the time of their lives. It is always such a relief to me during these times to have such incredible care for our children; I do not take it for granted!
I ended up spending the next two weeks mostly on the couch, and I took it easy overall for a month. Apparently appendectomy recovery isn't too long, but I was told that for the hernia recovery, it was extra important that I not lift anything for a solid month. Subsequently, our December ended up looking completely different than what I was planning. I had scheduled a lot of fun stuff and we had a full calendar lined up. Instead, most of that got scratched and we were reading Christmas stories from the couch and staying home. And you know what, it ended up being fantastic. We had a beautiful Christmas. I think it was even our best one yet. As it turns out, I really needed the slow down time both physically and emotionally, even aside from the surgery recovery. I had some pretty big stress points over the prior month that had really built up towards the years' end, and being forced to take it easy also gave me extra time to work through some of that. Even though the timing was not at all what I would have chosen, I can truly say that it worked out for the best and I am thankful for it.
Our church and my MOPS group brought us dinners every night for two weeks straight. My nieces came over after school and played with the kids and did our laundry. My inlaws had the kids for extended playtimes at their house. My sisters in law brought freezer meals and stopped by to visit. We were so well cared for by our community of friends/family and I was able to rest well and completely, and be able to enjoy the Christmas holiday (although still at a scaled back pace) when it came just over two weeks later.
The following pictures are in no particular order, just a smattering of favorites from the month of December. The ones that have me up and about were either taken before my surgery or during the last week of the month. =)
I started reading the Little House series to Axton over the winter and we have both LOVED this addition to our afternoons! We are already halfway through the series and it is a favorite part of our day. I was thrilled to find the whole set minus one book at Goodwill last year, in mint condition!
My grandma read these books to my dad and his siblings when they were little, and my mom read them to me and my siblings when we were little! So it feels so right and so special to get to continue the tradition for a third generation!
Movie night with the kids on an evening that John was gone.
One of my sisters in law loaned us a tub full of fun toys and activities for the kids to use during my recovery time. They loved all of it!
Lots of snuggle time in bed and on the couch!
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Couch snuggles and nighttime bottles.
At the end of the month, we did a special "make your own mini pizza" night. The kids loved it and we will definitely be doing this again!Delicious!
First time ice skating!
Post skating party! We went to Chicken and Pickle to skate and then John's brother and his wife hosted us in their home for soup and sides afterwards.
A new tradition we’ve started in the past several years is hosting some siblings here for the night before Christmas Eve. It started with just John’s brother and his wife who who spent the evening/overnight with us, since they were driving in from an hour away. Now this year, we had seven of the eight siblings and most spouses here to hang out late into the night! (kids were sleeping!) I kept it simple and scheduled a Walmart pickup order for snacks and drinks. I hardly took any pictures but it was such a fun night full of food and laughter!
Here we have Maddy and Ellie surveying the gift situation at Grandpa and Grandmas house. =)
Madeline with Aunt Anna! She loved her new shirt from Uncle Kory!
Ever since we have been married, we have spent Christmas Day just us, as it is important to us to establish and have our own fun holiday memories that are specific to John and Chelsy Maxwell, not just the Maxwells or the Bontragers. We have loved having this special day at home! Usually we celebrate Christmas then with the M side on the 24th, but this year it was Saturday the 23rd that found us celebrating with my in-laws. The highlights for our kids are the big gift exchange in the morning and "Granddads Christmas program" in the evening. It was such a special day together!
Opening our gifts Christmas morning-Elliot wanted to buy me shampoo and nail polish and he was just TICKLED with his purchases! So cute.
Madeline has been enthralled with drums so we got her
this little set and her face says it all. =)
I got John this new game,
Spy Alley, and we've both enjoyed it!
(hint hint, if you are looking for a fun game for a gift or for yourself, you should check it out!)
John always likes to get the kids a new game or activity to do as a family during Christmas week.
This year it was "
Grocery Go Carts". I highly recommend this little board game-the kids can even play it on their own now and they just love it.
Enjoying one of the first bigger snows of the season!
I wasn't quite prepared and didn't have snow pants for Elliot yet so cousin Debi loaned hers. I laugh every time I look at this picture! =)
Making gingerbread houses!
We did a second batch of gift opening a few days after Christmas, just for fun. =) We find that kids can get overwhelmed with too much at once, but John particularly loves getting them lots of fun things, so we do more of a "Christmas week" idea where they open gifts several times and then get to enjoy each thing more instead of just getting overwhelmed with a big pile of new toys on the actual Christmas Day. So far it has worked great-I'm sure we will adjust as they get older, but for toddlers, it has been a fun twist on gift giving!
Madeline has been rather obsessed with Curious George (I told her one day that her name should be George since she is ALWAYS climbing) and ever since then, she keeps people laughing when she is intorudicng herself because she says "My name is George". I'll say, "but Maddy, what is your REAL name?" and she will pause and then say, "CURIOUS George!" It has made for some great laughs especially when she is meeting someone for the first time.
Anyways, I got her
this Curious George and the look of delight on her face and her gasp of "IT's GEORGE!!" when she opened the box, was just priceless. He now sleeps with her every night and she can't do without him.
Christmas Eve service at our church.
We did our yearly Christmas week cookout downstairs in the den, where we light a fire and roast hotdogs and marshmallows in the fireplace.
Snacks for New Years Eve. We stayed in this year!
We had a fun evening with the kids, then put them to bed and watched a Christmas movie, rang in the New Year, and slept in front of the fire.
I laugh every time I look at this picture, because she just looks hilarious in this set up!
One of my personal favorite traditions is buying the kids matching pjs for Christmas. This time, I had found two pairs of Burts Bees pjs in Axton and Madeline's sizes, at a garage sale in the spring. I knew I would likely be able to find a pair for Elliot on poshmark, so I snatched those up! Sure enough, later in the year I searched and found a matching pair for Elliot! They were such cute little sets.
I know I'm biased but seriously are these three kiddos not just the cutest darlings?!
I can't share just one picture. =)
Perfect little stairsteps, at the moment.
Time to open gifts!!
Annual family sleeping on the living room floor on Christmas Eve!
My family did this when we were growing up and it was one of my favorite traditions.
The boys got a
grill set for the RV, for John.
I made this photo board with pictures from our October vacation (we flew to a resort in Florida for a week with the kids) as a gift for John to hang in his office. We all enjoyed looking over it and remembering the good times we had!
Husband brought me a Christmas peppermint latte!
John and the kids helped me so we could still make my annual "party mix" that I do every Christmas. I took time lapse of the kids dumping and stirring and I wish I could share it here because it is truly hilarious. They were so into it!
Somehow Maddy ended up in her beloved bunny ears and
my apron and the combo was both funny and charming.
Christmas wrapping is half the fun of the present situation, to me. =) I buy my wrapping papered ribbon at stores like Marshalls, HomeGoods, or TJMaxx, where it is high quality but discounted pricing, and I always choose coordinating colors and themes.
A well scrubbed counter, filled with cooling party mix, post baking.
The glass dish setting off to the side belonged to
my grandma. It is so special to use some of her dishes in my home now, and remember her when I do.
John's sister and her husband brought over Mexican takeout while they were in town for Christmas. So sweet to get some time with them.
One cold Christmas morning we got a text that there had been a certain delivery made and we should have the kids go out back and look over our fence.
They were ecstatic to find donuts from a certain "Secret Santa". (their favorite Maxwell uncle)
During my time of recovering from my surgery, the boys especially did such a great job of pitching in and helping around the house. They've always loved to help but they definitely took extra pride in helping out when I couldn't do much.
John gave me this countdown mug while we were dating and now it is one of the kids' favorite December traditions-counting down and rewriting the number of days til Christmas!
They are so creative-you never know what object will be the hit "toy" of the day!
Christmas touches
Cute little helpers!
The kids had so much fun helping decorate for Christmas!
Kids were here! And this little pile up of Christmas tree balls made me laugh!
Many many cups of tea, coffee, and hot chocolate were consumed in my beautiful Christmas mugs during December!
Every year we enjoy going to a local Walk Through Bethlehem experience. Some of our extended family members participate in this and it was a great guessing game to the kids to recognize various cousins and uncles/aunts.
MOPS party brunch charcuterie spread. I take no credit for this but my hospitality team did incredible putting this together for our December meeting.
The boys went with daddy to go to the nearby farm where we get milk, and while there they got to meet the newest litter of puppies!
Twas the night before Christmas! Our living room decor is a mixture of gifted, thrifted, repurposed, and other such randomness. It isn't fancy but I always feel in my heart, plus hear on the regular from guests, that it is homey and peaceful and that checks the only boxes needed for me. It is my favorite spot in the house around the holidays! The kids love it too and really enjoyed being a part of the decorating crew.
I am pretty minimal when it comes to decor and what I like to store, so I've found that removable pillow covers are excellent for switching out from season to season! Here are the links for my Christmas ones, here and here. Other decor pieces are the giving manger, a wooden star nativity scene, flameless candles, and lots of greenery and string lights! I also love to use leftover branches/clippings from the tree and strands of red beads and faux red berries. I have several red blankets that I have been gifted and I like to drape those over the ends of furniture to complete the look and also be readily available for use.
Anniversary date night with my favorite.
And that's a rather lengthy wrap on our December/Christmas 2023! =)
-Chels
Note: all of the items linked in this post, unless otherwise noted, are items that I own and love. Amazon links are affiliate links. Please read my affiliate disclosure here)
I'm including pictures in this post of most of the puzzles we did from January-April. I'll link the ones I can find, also!
