Our Christmas this year was very simple.  With Calvin being so new, and with so many people in my family sick, we decided to stay home on Christmas Eve with just our family of four.  I was worried it wouldn’t be as special, hunkering down at home, but I was wrong.

We watched Home Alone and had a themed carpet picnic.  Cheese pizza, Pepsi, and ice cream sundaes like Kevin McCallister.

Sloan was in heaven and has a new love and appreciation for Crazy Bread. Our little “Christmas Cal” slept the entire evening, cozy in his Rock and Play.

After our movie we set out the spread for Santa and his reindeer.

Sloan got tucked into bed and Zach and I prepped for Christmas morning together while Calvin took another snooze.

Sloan woke up the next morning and forgot it was Christmas Day.  Once we reminded her, though, she could barely contain herself.

We rooted through all the loot Santa had brought us, opened up our stockings, and then Zach and I opened gifts we got each other.  Sloan was more excited about the fact that Santa and his reindeer ate their treats than she was about 90 percent of her gifts. 

My family came over shortly after and Sloan and Calvin got to open their gifts from my parents and Blake and Britt.  We had lunch and then afterwards made our way up to the Hendersons for dinner.  Calvin stayed tucked away upstairs while the kids and then adults opened gifts.

Having a newborn in the house at Christmas was better than I expected.  All this time I wished and prayed for him to be born after Christmas and it never really crossed my mind that he would be early.  Having him here for the holiday was so special.  A brand new baby makes you slow down quite a bit – and it made me appreciate the holiday and my Savior even more. I believe the veil is so thin when these new babies enter our world.  It’s hard to imagine being closer to heaven here on earth.

I’ll never forget this Christmas.