Merry and Bright

Christmas a la Moad.

It really was a beautiful Christmas! There was much to enjoy, so much to celebrate, so much to experience!

Lucy is a toddler now so we are just in that beautifully perfect spot where she enjoys all the little things of Christmas but doesn't have any crazy expectations for any of it!

Oh it's glorious!

And truly I can't wait for next Christmas already when she is even more aware and involved and excited! I loved Christmas as a child but I wonder if experiencing Christmas as a parent watching a child isn't even better!

So cool!

I will say, while the month of December was filled with glorious anticipation of Christmas - it was tainted a bit with the heavy truth that the day after Christmas our closest, dearest friends would be leaving and setting up their new residence in Little Rock.

THIS was not a Christmas gift I wanted and though I did my very best to remain in as much denial as I could throughout the month of December the bitter reality of it still came.

Christmas Eve.
Christmas Morning
Our Friends Leave.

boo.

But, I'll save the weepy, woe-is-me posting for another time!
it's coming though... I promise. Be warned. 

We do an every-other-year thing with our families and this year was a stay-in-Hershey year. So while I am always so sad to not get to wake up Christmas morning in the house I grew up in and do all our Christmas traditions just like in years past, it is nice to be able to stay put. It's nice to start figuring out what our traditions will be. What will we, the Moad family do?

I can say with confidence that that right there will not become a tradition.
There was glitter E V E R Y W H E R E.

Nope. Nope.
 
We had a few firsts this Christmas with it being the first Christmas in our own house. The first Christmas morning celebrated with just our little family. First Christmas with 2 kiddos. Charlie's first Christmas. First Christmas where Lucy seemed aware of the wonder of Christmas.

I'll stop there.
But there were a few more....

Like advent! Advent is something I have grown to absolutely love! We did not grow up doing a formal Advent. My church didn't do it and we didn't do it as a family. My first experience with it is thanks to my current pastor who made it of high importance as part of the Christmas program at our old Church, and now in in our current church he continues the tradition. It inspired me to make it of high importance in my own home. My desire is that Lucy will learn to love Christmas too as she grows, but not just for gifts, wassail, twinkle lights and cookies - but for the anticipation of what Christmas is; Emmanuel, God with us. So I, very last minute, ordered a little felt nativity from etsy, got Black felt from JoAnn's and did my best to pull together 25 days of advent-lessons for a 2.5 year old.

So... I can't say I hit it out of the park, but we got the gist of it and did almost all the days. Some days we did 2 or 3 or 4 of the 25 lessons, but hey... we made it to the 25th. Lucy learned some scripture and heard the truth of the gospel with a decent amount of repetition. I'm gonna count that as a win for my first go at it!

 

Christmas Eve. 

Oh I love Christmas eve!

 

 Christmas Eve is always such a special, sacred time. I love the carols. I love the live brass. I love the decor. I love the candle-light. I love the little girls in their Christmas dresses. It's just wonderful.

Although, this year, due to the aformentioned moving of our best friends, it was bittersweet.
I struggled through the service, after the service... and really to this day. It wasn't easy...but as usual they did a great job so the time of worship was meaningful and enjoyable!

 My kids were well-dressed thanks to Grammy who provided their super cute outfits!
Grammy and Pappy and Aunt Jess joined us for this beautiful Christmas Eve service as well.
A very nice blessing! 

Ya know... I loved being a baby-girl mom because the clothes were just to die for.The bows, the ribbons, all of it is so lovely! And while I do still like the little girl clothes... I feel like I may be falling more in love the adorableness that is baby-boy clothing!

Give me all the sweater-vests, suspenders and bow-ties and I will give you all the heart eyes!

Christmas morning was quiet and chill... which is how I like it.

 In my adulthood, every year, I'm always so surprised how little it "feels" like Christmas. As a kid I remember the magic and joy of Christmas just swirling inside of me... but as an adult... life is still life as usual so it's hard to find that "feeling". But anyway, Christmas morning started like most other mornings - except Lucy opened some gifts and I took a million photos.

So really just the gift-opening was the new part.
But anyway. 

I'm pretty sure her top gift, of the three she got from Greg and me was her "pack pack" - which she has wanted since Elsie got one.

She insisted on wearing it... all.day.

The rest of the morning we spent over at our Pastor's house. This was also another Christmas first, and I'm sure Bob and Joanie will be relieved to hear we aren't going to make it a Moad Christmas Tradition to descend upon their house on Christmas morning!
But... seeing how our friends were leaving within 24 hours we all decided it was necessary!

So we had a lovely brunch with people we love, Lucy and Elsie got to play one last time for a long while and just enjoyed some last moments with friends that are family.

The morning was fun-filled including Family Worship with Pastor Bob

 

And of course playing in bike helmets was an absolute must.

What sweet moments. Moments I am missing and longing for as I write about it and look at the photos from it.

So, let's move on before I get all misty-eyed.

Our next stop on the Christmas train was a special visit with Greg's family.

 Lucy was over-the-moon to get to open some more gifts! It's her absolutely favorite thing to do.
She takes her time, carefully opens the paper and is elated no matter what is behind that paper!

Although after she opened her kitchen... she pretty much didn't want anything else. haha. She was smitten!

Our final Christmas event came a few days later. It was a nice visit from Santa Clause herself. ;) My mom and dad made the trip out and my mom came with many, many gifts for Lucy and Charlie as well as yummy wassail which was much appreciated!

 If Wassail isn't a part of your Christmas traditions... change that! YUM 

This girl loves her baby dolls.
I mean LOVES them.
Like with her kitchen, she opened a baby and a bottle and that could have been it for her.
Pure Heaven.

It was a lovely Christmas... but now it's over.
And so begins the coldest, darkest, most-depressing months of the entire year.
How's that for an optimistic outlook? ;)

This photo should get you through it, though:

Happy Winter.