Christmas fell on Monday this week so we are doing Mom Talk Tuesday and pretending it’s Monday 😉

We had a truly fantastic Christmas here yesterday, starting at the crack of dawn of course. The kids tore through their stocking gifts as soon as we got downstairs. Then we made this fantastic Sweet and Sticky Monkey Bread which the kids devoured. (It’s fun because you can pull pieces off and it basically tastes like a cinnamon doughnut.)

After breakfast we got dressed and opened all the presents under the tree. I try really hard not to overdo it at Christmastime, but between the 3 or 4 gifts that we get them plus the ones each kid gets for each other (times the six people in our family) it does end up looking like a lot of presents! A lot of them are books, school supplies, or other useful items though.

While the kids enjoyed their gifts, John and I hit the ground running to get ready for company to arrive. It was our first time hosting Christmas and we really wanted to make it special. The prime rib roast needed three hours to cook, so we put that in as soon as our apps came out of the oven.

I always like to set the mood for a party by serving a signature drink. This time I chose a simple cranberry mimosa because of the festive color, and threw a couple frozen cranberries in to make it look even more like the holidays.

We served dinner on our fine china (only the second time we’ve used it during our 8 years of marriage). Of course I was so caught up in the moment I forgot to take any pictures!

Our guests stayed for the afternoon and into the evening, and the kids were so exhausted they actually went to sleep really easily.

A couple of my favorite moments

Looking back on our wonderful day, it is hard to pick one highlight. One of my favorite parts was seeing the kids give each other hugs unprompted after opening the gifts they gave one another. It’s so touching for me see how much they love each other.

Another highlight is when we went to put Luca to bed for the night. Most of our guests were still there, and we told him to say goodnight to everyone. Well this baby loves to give kisses, he went around the table insisting on giving every single person a kiss goodnight. When someone offered him “knuckles” he shook his head no and puckered up.

I may be biased, but I find his kisses irresistible!

We were exhausted after everyone left, but it was the best kind of exhausted following a very special day.

Share! What was the highlight of your Christmas?