Christmas 2017

Christmas this year was wrapped in a swirl of mixed emotions.

My grandmother spent the first half of December in the hospital fighting pneumonia, and eventually passed away five days before Christmas. Every other day I was leaving school to head to the hospital to keep her company and spend time with her, and watching her continue to struggle and watch her sickness get worse was honestly, quite awful. 

It was a really hard time for our family, but on the other end, I had to put on a happy face for not only Harper's 2nd birthday, but also Christmas. Harper deserved a fun holiday full of magic and fun. So I tried my best to make sure that happened for her - even if we never got around to making that gingerbread house sitting in the top of our pantry.

Harper was so sick for Christmas the previous year, so for her to be healthy this year meant so much to us. She fell in love with one of my favorite Christmas movies, The Santa Clause, and we literally probably watched it three times a day leading up to the big day. From watching the movie though, the idea of Santa Claus really sunk in for her, and was so excited for him to come visit. 

I was SO thankful for Harper during this time. She made me stronger for her, and made me appreciate the season during a time of hardship. She's our little December blessing for sure. 

We got our Christmas tree at the end of November, and Harper was in love with the lights and helping decorate. She did so good with not taking the ornaments off - for the most part - and smiled every morning she saw it for the first time.

We made Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve together. Harper is obsessed with helping in the kitchen right now, so she was all about it. She loved rolling out the dough and cutting out shapes - even if they didn't exactly look like anything by the time she was done with them. :) 

Cody's family came over to our house Christmas Eve, where we celebrated with them. We hadn't decorated the cookies yet, so it was super fun having GiGi and Aunt Nissy to help decorate. I know Harper loved having them help her! That evening, we went to Cody's family's house and enjoyed a Christmas Eve dinner with everybody. So many baby cuddles!

Christmas morning we woke up to presents from Santa. After last years Christmas morning being so rough with our sick girl, this morning was such a dream. Harper woke up in such a good mood, and loved seeing her presents from Santa. It took her a minute for the idea of the gifts being hers to sink in, but eventually she was all about them. Santa brought her a dress-up wardrobe - dresses, shoes, jewelry, and headbands - a Barbie with farm animals, play-doh, books, and a few other fun things. I'd say Santa did a pretty good job. ;)

We spent the morning opening gifts and playing. We made a breakfast casserole, watched A Christmas Story on repeat, and enjoyed lots of iced coffee. It couldn't have been a more perfect morning.

My family came over that evening for food and gifts. We opted to do a bunch of really fun Christmas appetizers instead of a big meal, and I loved it. Everything was delicious, and we kinda all snacked as the evening went on. We opened gifts, and had a little too much fun with Karaoke too. :)

Even though we missed someone so special this year, we really did make the best of the holiday. 

It was certainly a Merry Christmas indeed.