a very merry mclean christmas

Last Christmas we split the day between our house and Paul's sister. This year my Aunt Lou and Uncle Kent were crazy enough to invite us to their lake house for our first Christmas all together. I'm pretty sure they didn't know exactly what they were getting into. Our particular set of McLeans have a lot of traditions and we're led by a mom whose love language is Christmas. She does it up right and big. {Knowing this and how the girls would be spoiled by their other set of grandparents and all their aunts and uncles, P-dubs and I didn't get the girls anything for Christmas. Which, together, makes us basically Scrooge and the Grinch. Or just smart. Whichever.} 

Our week-long celebration started when Karen, Bucky, and Dustin got to our house and we embarked on our yearly adventure to Zootastic to see miles of lights and get our picture taken with Santa and a tiger. Really. I should try to find all three years' pictures because they're hilarious. I don't know why Santa and tigers go so well together. They just do. 

Then our little caravan headed south in a torrential downpour to Lou's cozy house that was bedecked and bedazzled like no one's business.  The following picture is the truth. These two are the family cruise directors. We'd all go crazy without them. Or at least have no clue what's going on. 

My dad was able to fly down for a day, have a little Christmas with us, and meet Baby Drew. Because of the timing of his visit and Bucky and Karen heading to her family's house for Christmas, we had a couple little Christmases that made the gift-giving and general merry-making last for days. That's the best way to do it. 

On Christmas Eve, we went to a beautiful church near the lake house for their candle light service. The girls made it through approximately 3 of the 11 hymns before we had to take them out. And then we found some pool noodles in the church library (?). They would have been fine in the service had the hymns not been interrupted by things like Bible readings and prayers. After each hymn, Lo's tiny voice would say, 'Again!' Only, in a church like that, her tiny voice echoed like she was screaming at the top of her lungs. No good. We brought them back in for the candle lighting and Silent Night. Such a sweet moment to see through their eyes. 

Side note: as you can probably tell, I'm a purist when it comes to the photos I put on this blog. Which is why there is a masterful mix of iPhone pictures, pictures straight from Instagram, pictures of a picture, pictures of the back of a camera that actually took a picture, and completely un-edited and not-so-great pictures taken on a nice Nikon. Purist. {Also, some of these pictures are from 'Christmas morning' with Bucky and Karen and some are from the actual Christmas morning. This just adds to the continuity and uniformity of this post, yes?}

The boys made their traditional Christmas tree cinnamon rolls and we all stayed in pajamas for a really long time. Which was probably weird for some people in attendance but was, sadly,  pretty normal for me. 

 The girls understood the concept of presents this year and they were excited about them but mostly they just liked to unwrap anything for anybody. Mom would say, 'Bring this to Daddy.' and it would be half unwrapped by the time it made its way to him.  I didn't unwrap a single present and I'm not sure anyone else did. These two were all over it. 

 I'm telling you what, these girls were in heaven with all their uncles being in one place. Sheer joy. 

 People thought we were nuts to travel with a two week old. But that's when babies are really portable and they sleep a lot. Plus, we had so many people to help with all three that it really almost was like a vacation. {Except on vacation you probably sleep through the night, yeah?}

 The girls got a train set from their Uncle Dustin and a  three seater wagon from Grammy. Praise the Lord, we love that thing. It has like 6 cup holders. 

Wills made a few fires and Karen took some newborn pictures of Drew and we decorated cookies and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and did so, so many puzzles and just enjoyed each other--almost miraculously, all in the same place for one magical day of the year.

{And then when we got home, I took some pictures of the girls in their Christmas pajamas because I didn't actually take any when they were actually in them on Christmas morning. Whoops.} 

 And, oh my, this one...by far the best Christmas present ever. 

So thankful for a wonderful week, a family that loves a lot, and a Savior who was born to die for all these precious souls. Merry, merry Christmas!