Christmas

Oh my goodness….Santa CAME!!

Another Souza tradition is in the way they open their presents.  One person starts, they open and then they pick a present from under the tree and give it to that person. They open and pick one…so one person is opening at a time…and it takes HOURS!! So I started real good…we did this SLLLOOWWW present opening process for about 45 minutes before I just couldn’t take it anymore. Maggie was losing interest, it was getting close to breakfast time, I had to start prepping for our company…yeah so we started hustling it along.

Santa brought the family a new ipad. Owen got Anki Overdrive and a flicker scooter.  Ella got shopkins and a bike.  Maggie got a Puppy Surprise and a scooter. All seemed to be very happy with their Santa gifts and loved all the presents that Mom and Dad got them as well.

Daddy got Mommy a new series 2 apple watch.  And mommy got daddy a trip to see a Boston celtics game in boston. I was so freaking proud of myself keeping this HUGE surprise from him for so long.  I knew it was a great year to do this for him…his dream to bring his dad to boston to watch a game..but sadly that never happened.  So I hope I can be as good of company as Papa would have been!! So our kids opened presents and were So happy!

We usually do our Christmas dinner at the regular dinner time…4-5pm.  So usually have my parents come over early…give them some time with the kids, do round 2 of presents and then Papa and Mya would come over later for round 3…followed by Aunt Missy and Uncle Chris for round 4 of presents. Totally nuts.

 

Tried having Nana take a picture of us…yeah…difficult task! haha

I made us a ham dinner.  Ham, turkey breasts, mashed potatoes, potato salad, green salad, corn, green bean casserole, etc.  The mashed potatoes were HORRIBLE…everyone lied to me and said they were ok (except my lovely honest husband).

2 tables. Crazy Maggie who wasn’t in to the whole sitting down and eating thing…but we made it work!

After dinner we played with Cosmo…vegged out and cleaned up before the gift card elephant exchange.  Missy is so cute as well…another Souza’s tradition, well more of a Papa tradition…he would get his kids “team gifts”. He didn’t call them team gifts…his kids made that up.  When they were growing up they would get a few items…all the same, maybe different colors, usually very practical and when a person picked up the wrapped gift and noticed the similar shape they call it out “TEAM GIFT!”.  I love it…because is a tradition I actually got to be a part of.  Papa would always get me “team gifts” as well…you know the days before we had kids and we got all the presents. haha.  Well missing Papa…Missy bought us all a “Team Gift”.  I loved it. I almost cried…until I opened it and realized she got us all xmas underwear! haha

I KNOW Papa was looking down on us, smiling that huge smile with that silly/embarrassed laugh! 

My parents were tired and ready to get home…so I didn’t force them to stay for a group picture…I know when to call it with my dad!  I kinda wish I would have forced it now…buuuut can’t win them all.

This is my Souza/VanSoest side of the family…love them all dearly!!!

The pj’s from last year fit the kids…so they had matching jammies…Ella was EXHAUSTED and knocked out while Owen got more time with Cosmo. Daddy and I cleaned up and finally relaxed.

It was a great Christmas…given how sad we were all missing Papa. 
Here are a few flashback pictures of us enjoying Papa on Xmas day throughout the years…

 

Christmas will never be the same without Papa…but with Team Gifts we will always keep his spirit alive.

Christmas Eve

Last year’s Christmas Eve we were in Ireland…crazy to think that was 12 months ago. Oh the anxiety that trip brought, traveling with 3 children under 7…but it was amazing. 
What a difference a year makes!

My family didn’t really have any “Christmas Eve traditions”…well other than we got to open 1 present, the only present from my parents the night before Santa came. Yosh didn’t do that, but they baked and decorated xmas cookies. Bernie wasn’t big into baking, cooking, all that kinda stuff haha.  But Yosh loves it…so we now try and continue his family tradition.

We visited both our angels…Uncle Paul, who is spending his 16th Christmas in heaven, and Papa.
It was a very chilly day…so unusual for us southern californian’s. We are always spoiled with great, warm weather.  But we went, said a prayer, put flowers down and told Uncle Paul Merry Christmas.
Weird to think what my life would be like is Paul was still alive. I hate thinking of the what-if’s…it does NOTHING for me but make me sad and earn for that fantasy life that will never be.

And this was Papa’s first Christmas in Heaven.  It was so weird thinking that he wasn’t go to be coming over the next day.  He LOVED Christmas. He spoiled his kids and then spoiled his grandkids.

Seems as though we are kind of starting our own X-mas Eve tradition of going out to eat for lunch…I LOVE this tradition. We went to Outback for lunch, I’m sure the waitresses hate people coming in on a holiday but its a great day to go out to eat! We then came home and decorated the cookies that daddy had baked before leaving

 

Getting the kids ready for Santa was so fun!! Owen kept saying over and over again how he needed to be bed early so Santa would come. And Ella just couldn’t contain her excitement thinking about all the potential presents she was going to be opening.

 

Posing these 3 kids is so hard. I just usually try and get Owen to hold Maggie is one place…because Maggie doesn’t mind Owen too much but if Ella goes near her she flipped. Little rascal!

After we got the kids to bed with ZERO problems, Mama and Daddy were able to sit on the couch, chat and watch daddy’s favorite Xmas movie, “Scrooged”.

So no matter how sad we were missing Papa, we had to collect ourselves and get ready for Santa’s arrival. Our kids were depending on us and our smiles in the morning!