christmas wrap up //

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Exhausted. That should be the end of this blog post.

I’m half joking. But only half.

Our Christmas festivities started at the Christmas Eve celebration with Chad’s family. Ari was a champ. He seemed hesitant for half a second before I set him down. Aaaaand then he was off! He tore through the house like he owned the place, ate lots of food, and giggled up a storm. It was adorable, if I do say so myself! 🙂

We spent our evening, surrounded by family, laughing, sipping wine and eating delicious snacks! Ari tore apart his presents, which was incredibly awesome. I had spent weeks saying “No, Ari. Don’t touch!” about the gifts under our tree, so I was worried when I finally gave him the go-ahead that he would be like, “uhhh??” But that wasn’t the case. Tore.Them. UP!

We didn’t end up getting home until 12:30am Christmas morning. And we hadn’t even put together 2 of Ari’s Little Tikes gifts. (if you follow me on Instagram then you can see how our first attempt at putting together a wagon went… or as we now refer to it, the sled with wheels…).

So off to bed Ari went, and up ’til 2am we were! Ha! Lucky for us, this go around with Little Tikes went surprisingly better — and faster! And Ari slept until just before 9 that morning. — Yet another Christmas miracle.

He was a bit overwhelmed by the scene in our living room — in fact, we all were. It was a mess of toys and boxes. He was quite hesitant but finally started playing with his kitchen set, but quickly got distracted by real food (kid loves to eat). We had to take a nap before starting to open presents again.

Sidenote: I checked our camera yesterday and found that every single picture we took with our DSLR was corrupt. Not sure what’s wrong with it (probably our SD card), but I’m completely sad that I didn’t get any good pictures — all we have are phone pictures! Oh well – just another reminder that it really is about the moments; not about the pictures as proof.

This is as much of the wagon that we could get together.
We have a replacement coming, but Ari didn’t seem to mind.
This is literally ALL that would fit.

By the time he woke up from his nap Auntie Shauna & Uncle Jimmy (my sister & future BIL) were here to see him! We opened more gifts and we stopped moving slowly with Ari’s gifts. Ha. Short-lived. Instead Shauna & I just started tearing through the gifts for him. It worked out much better that way. 🙂 And then we finally got to exchange gifts amongst each other! Here are my awesome gifts from my sister & BIL:

All local Columbus products, from top to bottom: Stinky Bomb Soap Ohio shaped soap; The Candle Lab, Hops Scented Soy Candle; and Columbus Barrel Co coaster/candle holder! She knows me so well. 😉

And here are a few of the gifts from my awesome husband! He knows me equally as well! 🙂

Yep, that is the (not-so-secret) nerd in me! The Walking Dead board game + Star Trek Blu Ray. And of course, a new pair of Mizuno Wave Riders!

As fun as exchanging gifts was, it felt good to be done and to settle in to some serious family time. #BabyAri played with his new toys until he couldn’t take it anymore (ok, let’s face it — until mom & dad couldn’t face it anymore!).

I’m happy that my awesome husband took the next two days off to recuperate. 🙂 Which made it easier for me to go back to work (and do practically nothing because no one else was working). And now this weekend, mama recuperates 😉