As you may have seen on Facebook, we started off our Christmas holiday with a new calf on Christmas Eve morning! The Cowboy found him out there with his Momma while doing the morning chores.

Molly is such a good momma that she’s never needed any help–and always has boys! Good for the freezer, but I wish she’d throw a heifer because we’d definitely keep her. Her calves also always start out such a lovely fawn brown, but eventually turn gray like our bull Chester.

We spent the rest of Christmas Eve straightening up the house, baking cookies and chex mix (which is a family tradition here), and walking the dogs. The weather was overcast and 70s. Not much for getting into the Christmas spirit. But we went to Christmas Eve candlelight service and came home for our tradition of ONE PRESENT on Christmas Eve–which was new jammies, of course!

Yes, I made them again this year. I managed to whip them out during quiet time the week before, using this post from My Cotton Creations with old pants as a pattern–which is by far my favorite pants tutorial. If you’ve never tried your own pjs before, this would be the simplest way to start–perfect beginner project! (And I’m not sure what’s up with the rest of her blog, but I double checked my Pinterest link and as of 01/04/16 it’s still working to get to the post.)  One big recommendation I have if you’re a sewing beginner is to use good quality elastic for your clothes. Cheap elastic is, well, cheap. Use it for craft projects, cards, doll clothes, etc. but use the good stuff for people clothes. You’ll appreciate it in about 3 wash cycles.

I just use plain white undershirts for the tops, and cut some scraps to make “matching” sets. On the boys’ shirts, I sewed a couple buttons on for interest (and because I was finishing them up 3 hours before they were going to be opened and I was a little short on creativity by that point) and it wasn’t their favorite feature. I’ll probably end up clipping them off and just leaving the patch of fabric plain. The Ladybug’s heart turned out great though. This year I also used some plain cotton weave for the pants that I had laying around instead of flannel or fleece. I did it because I was running behind and needed to use my stash, but it worked out well because it was 70 degrees out and we weren’t turning the a/c on just for Christmas pajamas!

Then we sent them off to bed and wrapped, wrapped, wrapped…and went to bed.

I’m still sorting through Christmas Day pictures from my “real” camera (these are all phone pics) so I’ll save those for later. But this year we also decided to stay up as a family and watch the ball drop for New Years Eve. (Usually the kiddos go to bed.) The boys and I played Catan Junior (which we just got for Christmas) and Mr. Fix-It and the Ladybug both fell asleep on the couch watching Alaska the Last Frontier. I managed to rustle everyone up from 11:59 pm to 12:01 am, then the boys (yes, all of them) sacked out on the couches and we all went to bed.

Funny how Christmas with children is way MORE fun, and New Year’s is totally LESS.

That was the last couple weeks for us in a nutshell. On to a bright and beautiful 2016!

How was your holiday season?