Christmas with the Lutz's

We headed to Norfolk at about 11 and got there early afternoon. The description of how we left our house would be best described as: It appears there was a struggle. The kids were super excited to see everyone and of course open gifts. The girls got changed into their dresses and we unpacked all of our stuff. We have learned from past years and we make them get a group picture before gifts otherwise it never happens. 

AJ 9, Bryce and Caleb 13, Brook 14, Abby 10 and Emmy 5

Thank you Bob and Susie for such a fun Christmas!

Susie made the girls dresses this year and they were adorable!

After we got our stuff in the house and the girls in their dresses we started the process of gift opening. We go youngest to oldest so Emmy was first up. She got a new Ipad and a case. She was thrilled with this because her current Ipad is almost dead and she would consider it a staple in her life.

Bob (the elf) out did himself this year and there were 3 gifts that had clues to find them. With the clues was a cute rhyming poem about how they really did get a present they really did they must find it. Abby was the first to have a scavenger hunt gift and it lead her to her new 10 speed bike which she tried out in her Christmas dress.

Caleb has been obsessed with fishing lately so he has had his eye on this bait caster fishing pole for a while now. Grandma and Grandpa came through with the pole he has been wanting and an ice fishing tent so he can try out that sport this winter.

Bryce has had a good idea of what his gift was for a while now and has been asking repeatedly if he can take days off of school to go to the Big 10 tournament in Indianapolis. This was his gift last year and he had a blast! He got exactly what he wanted with an airline ticket to fly there, a picture of the hotel that they would be staying in and tickets to all the games. He was beyond excited! Now I just have to convince Grandma that she can't buy him Starbucks every morning because last time when he got back he couldn't start his day without a coffee. I guess if being a coffee addict is the worst that happens, that's ok.

It was a nice relaxing day! We let the kids open gifts and the adults opened some and then we would take a break to play with it. Andy got a smoke infuser that kept people busy for a while. Susie made a wonderful supper, as always and we topped it off with cheese cakes.

Grammy sent our gifts since we couldn't come to Christmas breakfast. She had made everyone super cute aprons this year. I love her tradition of making everyone a gift! We had to get a group picture with the aprons on.

This group looks like trouble!

The dishes crew. We look like we are being helpful but I don't think we even made a dent in the clean up that had to happen once we left.

All the cousins get along so good and it is so fun to watch them spend time with each other!

Merry Christmas

Santa! I Know Him!

Every year we squeak by on making the nice list which always makes we wonder about Santa's standards but we sure are excited to see all the fun stuff that he leaves us! 

Abby and Emmy got the gymnastics bar that they had been wanting! They have been taking gymnastics for a couple months and do great with all of the skills except the bar. They have never done anything on the bar until now so it will be great to have this to practice on!

Caleb got his much anticipated ice fishing pole and lures. Robb has agreed to take on this hobby this year so he also got an ice fishing pole from Santa.

Emmy may have been most excited about the LOL doll surprise toy that she got in her stocking. 

Bryce got a D man which is a 6 foot tall net outline of a person that helps you work on your defense for basketball. We thought it would also come in handy if he ever got left home also needed a decoy for some Home Alone antics. It really looked like a giant person standing by the fire place through the window.

Christmas with our Family

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve. I had to work for part of the day but we closed a little early so I was able to be home by 2:00, in time to get myself and the girls ready for church. We went to the 4:00 service so we had to be there by 3 to get a seat in the sanctuary. Bryce thought they should go to reserved seating that you booked online so you didn't have to show up so early. It was a really nice service and time to reflect in the crazy chaos of the season what we are really celebrating. Poor Emmy was on antibiotics for strep throat and on day 7 of her antibiotics she woke up with a rash. Robb had given her Benadryl but she was a rashy mess and was super itchy in her dress. She made it through without too much whining. Robb had put a roast in the crockpot so we headed home after church to eat and open gifts.

Church family picture 2019

When we got home the kids were busting at the seams to open gifts. Every year I pick one wrapping paper for each kid so I don't put names on them. This way it is a little harder to guess which pile is yours. When Emmy stayed home sick I was wrapping a lot of her gifts so I told her that the cat paper was Caleb's. She easily fell for it and then she told Caleb that the cat paper was his so he has been looking at the wrong pile of gifts for a week. Ha Ha Ha. Mom win! The kids also teamed up to get each other gifts this year and really put a lot of thought and effort into deciding what to get each other. At the beginning of December, Emmy showed me coffee cups and paint pens that she needed me to buy so that she could complete her art project gifts for everyone. She did all the cups herself and they were adorable! Abby teamed up with Grandma and had her order thoughtful gifts for Robb and I. Caleb cleaned the entire house one day, which was amazing! Bryce wrote us each a very thoughtful letter and that made me cry. We have the coolest kids! 

This year, with much convincing from me, we bought the boys cell phones. They tell us all the time that they are the only kids in their grade without phones and at this point I think they are probably right. We had said we would get them phones in 8th grade years ago and that seemed reasonable then but now kids get phones at 7-8 so they have waited a while. By the looks of Caleb's face you can tell that he was pretty excited about his gift. (Even though we later figured out that he knew he was getting a phone, little sneak!) I had also went to the work of wrapping the phone boxes in bigger boxes padded with paper and towels to throw them off. Since the phone was a very large purchase the boys got a few little things but that was their main gift.

Abby and Emmy are currently obsessed with sloths so they each got a sloth stuffed animal that they named Milly and Tilly and they got sloth sweatshirts. Abby got a silhouette cutting/crafting machine to cut all the scrapbook paper and vinyl that she wants to craft with. I was really excited to use this also! Emmy was a challenge this year. The only thing she asked for was a pottery wheel which is hard to find for a 5 year old. We did get her a pottery wheel even though we are skeptical that it will work. We also got her Osmo gaming system that goes along with her Ipad. Her favorite gift was a Hydroflask water bottle and stickers to go on it. It is the "in" water bottle for tweens to have so now she can be like Abby and her friends!

Lucy loves family time and laid in the middle of all the paper happily opening and playing with all of her new gifts.

It was a late night by the time we opened gifts and ate supper and set up and played with everything. The girls got the cookies and carrots all ready for Santa before they headed to bed.

We didn't read the Christmas story this year before bed. We have that picture from every other year but I guess everyone is getting older and bedtime stories are a thing of the past for 3 of the 4 kids so it slipped my mind in the chaos of the night. Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight.

Christmas at Our House

We hosted Christmas for my side of the family this year. We have been doing this for a couple years now and I really enjoy it. This year everyone was able to come except Grandma and Grandpa Walnofer. We had pasta this year and you would have thought that we were all carb loading for a marathon. The food was delicious and the company was great! This year Jess and her little boys came so Emmy and Weston had 2 more kids to play with. Abby was great at entertaining the little kids. The teens pretty much just all sat on their ipads and phones most of the night although there were moments when they talked to us. My dad brought Caleb a fishing reel that he has been wanting to try so they spent some time getting that all strung. All the adults had fun chatting and catching up. It isn't often enough that we get to spend time just chatting with each other. 

This year we decided to forego gifts and instead donate to a charity or do something for someone else. All of our kids have so much and we don't really need anything else. It was fun to hear all the cool things that people that been doing. Steph and her family had got a group of 12 people together and everyone brought a $100 bill and they ate at Franklins. They had talked to the boss and their waitress was someone that was having a ton of health issues and had little kids. They all put their $100 in and told her any money left was her tip. She walked away with a tip of over $1000 she was shocked and amazed and bawling. My dad has been handing out $100 bills to people that seem to need it in stores, gas station etc. We had picked tags off the tree at church and each child had bought a gift for someone that needed it in the community. The kids also had a pajama drive at school and penny/change wars where they had raised money for the food bank at school. The no gifts this year was a little hard for Emmy, Weston, Jace and Cole to understand they did okay. Instead we played the plastic wrap ball game, you had 15 sec to unwrap the plastic wrap ball and their was giftcard prizes, candy and money in there. We also played the shake your booty game which gave us all a good laugh!

Merry Christmas 2019

Mom and the kids

Dad and Cindy and the kids

Mom and the grandkids

Dad and Cindy and the grandkids

Fridays are Pajama Days

Almost every Friday in December has been pajama day. I love it! So does Emmy!

Bad Parenting Moment

My bad parenting moment. Emmy had been diagnosed with strep throat and Robb had stayed home with her on Monday and I stayed with her on Tues. It was a lazy day and I didn't even make her change out of her pajamas until we ran errands at noon and I never did fix her hair other than putting it in a messy bun with my fingers. Fast forward to later that night and I had left the boys home with Emmy while I ran Abby to dance. I got a call from Robb reminding me that he had made haircut appts for Bryce and Emmy. I wasn't going to be home in time so I asked him to brush through her hair before they went. He was already in the car and it was too late. I guess when he got there he saw how bad her hair truly was so he was trying to comb through it with his fingers. Low and behold he found a cough drop stuck in her hair. I am SO SO SO glad that the hair dresser didn't find this. We both a good laugh about it when he got home and told me. She got a terrible haircut that day but part of the reason may have been that her hair was too sticky to actually comb through.

Christmas Card

Here is our Christmas card this year. It seems that sending cards is becoming a thing of the past and every year we get less and less but I still like doing it! Not to mention, we had a great family picture thanks to Steph's wedding photographer this year. I didn't write a letter but we did send out cards and this way people can at least see how big the kids are getting.

Nutcracker

Abby's best friend Addison was dancing in the Nutcracker performance again this year. It is always really fun to watch her perform and the show is always incredible. This year she was a Big Mouse which was a really fun part to watch her in. Although, it was really hard to find her because all the Big Mice wore a headdress that made it hard to tell them apart. I was able to pick her out so that was fun for Abby to know which one she was. Abby took a class this summer on how to try out for the Nutcracker and a lot of local girls her age get small parts in the play. Addison and I weren't  able to convince Abby to tryout this year but maybe next year. Emmy says she is going to do it for sure.

It was cute, our seats ended up being directly behind Elsie's family. Emmy and Elsie are friends at school. Elsie fell asleep half way through the performance. Emmy was a little sick that day but was a trooper. As we found out the next day she had strep throat. Poor girl. She was a trooper the entire day!