Celebrating Christmas 2025, Part 1

As had been the case for the last several years, we celebrate Christmas with each side of the family. We'll celebrate Christmas with my side of the family in a few weeks, and on Christmas Eve and Day this year, we spent time with Nicholas' family.

We went to an afternoon Christmas Eve service at our church and it was beautiful, as always. Arlo and I spent most of it in the mother's room, which I'm so thankful for. Katelyn and I snapped a few quick photos in the parking lot before heading home and changing into the comfiest of clothes. For Christmas Eve dinner, it's our custom to have sausage gravy and (sourdough) biscuits with eggs on Christmas Eve. It's delicious, and relatively make-ahead friendly. I baked the biscuits and prepared a few other sourdough items for Christmas Day before everyone arrived, since we were hosting.

That evening, my sister-, brother-, and father-in-law came over. After we all had our fill of dinner, we headed downstairs to open stockings together. The boys went first, each finding a few little treats, including a small Lego set each, which they promptly put together. We visited for awhile, the adults opening their stockings, and then everyone else headed home.

On Christmas Day morning, I woke up a bit before everyone else to roll out and bake sourdough cinnamon rolls. The dough was unfortunately very underproved (quite honestly, the only disappointment about Christmas!), and so they were less than stellar this year. Once everyone was up, we had Christmas breakfast together, lighting our four advent candles again and reading the Christmas story in Luke. The boys didn't seem to mind the subpar rolls and Nicholas and I paired them with eggs and sausage. After breakfast and tidying up a bit, we exchanged gifts with the boys.

For Cooper – a lunchbox, a small analog watch, a pair of wired headphones for his Yoto player, pajamas and a few shirts, wool socks, a sketchbook, and a photo album with his baby photos (now that he's 6.5 years old, it's about time, I should say!)

For Finn – headphones, a family photo album from when he was around 1.5 years old onward, a book about construction ABCs, wool socks, pajamas and a few shirts, and his own measuring tape.

And perhaps the gifts Nicholas and I were most excited to give were handmade by each of us. Nicholas spent many hours in the garage, late at night and on weekends, making wooden swords for the boys. They are routed and shaped and sanded beautifully, made out of oak, designed by him, with leather-wrapped handles. And of course the boys adored them.

Then the boys each unwrapped a handmade gift from me: small knitted animals (a bear for Finn and a bunny for Cooper), each wrapped up snug in a "swaddle." Both boys absolutely loved these as well.

Nicholas and I exchanged gifts with each other, and I opened a gift that the boys had picked out for me: two colors of Purl Soho Yonder, one skein in Red Oak (picked out by Cooper) to knit Cooper a new hat and two skeins in Blue Jeans (picked out by Finn) to knit myself a hat. For both projects, I'll use Purl Soho's Mixed rib hat pattern, a favorite of mine from gift knitting in 2024. These hats have been worn so many times and there is no wear on the yarn. I love having yarn in colors that the boys chose.

I barely managed to finish knitting a pair of socks for Nicholas for Christmas – doing the kitchener stitch on the second toe after 11pm on Christmas Eve. And I also made him a small, ribbed cowl, out of Knitting for Olive heavy merino. Ravelry project pages with more details can be found here for the socks and here for the cowl.

Arlo was mostly content to play with tissue paper and one particular gift bag for several minutes on end, cooing and happy screeching. We also enjoyed playing with his little palette popper toy from us.

We had lunch, tidied up, I baked the dinner rolls, and then we packed everything up to head over to my father-in-law's.

Arriving mid-afternoon, we visited for awhile and then we exchanged gifts with everyone. One particular favorite gift was a camera for the boys that prints photos. Many of the photos aren't anything particularly special, but I set aside several that really depicted Christmas through their eyes, little snippets of the day. Seeing all of those particular pictures together made me tear up.

We had sourdough cinnamon scones and chocolate crinkle cookies and coffee in the afternoon, and I frantically crocheted on a Christmas potholder for my SIL, Katelyn (not telling her that it was for her until I finished it). And then we prepared dinner – a ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sourdough dinner rolls I baked earlier in the day, and steamed carrots. It was all delicious and after cleaning up and a little more visiting, we headed home, driving past some Christmas lights (but only briefly, because Arlo was more than ready to be home and out of his carseat).

After all the boys were asleep, I sat with Nicholas and did some knitting for myself after all that power gift knitting.

And the next few days were very low-key, with lots of knitting and Lego-building, playing games, and building k'nex. We don't often have full-on low-key days like that, and it was so refreshing.

We were much more intentional about advent and discussing the richness of the celebration of Christ's birth this year (and how his birth was part of the ultimate rescue plan). The boys were surprisingly engaged in it and I felt like that focus shaped our Christmas with more joy this year.

What Child is this, who, laid to rest,
On Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ, the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:
Haste, haste to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary!

We'll celebrate Christmas again when my family visits in a few weeks and I'm excited for that!

Merry Christmas from our family to you!