It looks like Christmas 'round here!
Our mini Clemson themed tree
Our real Christmas tree
Me holding my boys last night (left to right: Stokes, Ryan and William)
Our sweet angels tucked in and waiting for Santa. They were so sweet and peaceful after we serenaded them with a candlit version of Silent Night.
The babies' first Christmas has been a great day! They slept really well last night and we let them determine when they wanted to eat instead of us setting alarms and waking them up. Disclaimer: when the first baby wakes up, they all eat even if 1 or 2 were still sleeping! So we fed them around 2:30 am and then again a little after 6 am. Not too bad!
After the 6 o'clock feeding Thomas and I didn't go back to bed. Instead we came downstairs and enjoyed breakfast casserole and coffee that was sweetened with homemade Irish creme (made by Thomas). Then we opened our stockings. Santa brought Thomas 2 large containers of peanut butter, some candy, several scratch off lottery tickets and 2 DVDs - The Polar Express & Elf. My stocking had a sweet card that Thomas wrote and gave to Santa to go in my stocking, candy, 2 tangerines (Van Pelt tradition to get an orange in your stocking & Santa remembered this year!), lottery tickets and a DVD - Elf! Wow, that silly Santa gave us both the movie Elf! Haha! Great minds... :) We won a whopping grand total of $4 from our lottery tickets. But hey, $4 is better than $0!
Thomas gave the dogs these huge bones for Christmas and they were so excited!
Soon after that it was 9 and time to feed the babies again. After the feeding Thomas and I took turns cleaning up a little, showering and getting the babies ready for the day, re: changing diapers, putting baby lotion on them and changing their outfits.
Fresh new look for Christmas day! These onesies say, "My 1st Christmas", so of course they had to wear them today!
An unhappy little elf (William)
Fresh new look for Christmas day! These onesies say, "My 1st Christmas", so of course they had to wear them today!
An unhappy little elf (William)
Then the boys got to "open" their stockings. They got an assortment of Aquafor, infant gas drops, gripe water, diaper rash creme and they each got a movie as well. Stokes got The Sword in the Stone, Ryan got The Incredibles, and William got Wreck It Ralph. Man, Santa sure did know exactly what the boys needed in their stocking this year.
During the 12 noon feeding we decided it was the perfect time to watch Christmas movies and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Shrek the Halls. Did y'all know that Shrek and Fiona had triplet ogres?!?!?! I didn't, but now I know and I love it!! Glad we watched that one! ;)
Dinner preparations and table setting took place throughout the afternoon. We pulled out our fine china, folks! Never been used and it was about time! I didn't bother with the whole place setting, but please note I got the dinner plate AND the bread plate. Impressive.
The 3 o'clock feeding proved to be fairly amusing. A Christmas Story marathon was on TBS and provided the background entertainment during feeding time. During this feeding both Stokes and William had a major spit up. I was feeding Stokes at the time of this alleged incident and let me tell you, I had spit up on my jeans, shirt and scarf and poor little buddy had it all over himself too! Within a matter of 2 minutes after Stokes spit, William spit. Thomas was feeding him and it mainly got it on William's bib. However, a few minutes after that Thomas noticed a dark, wet spot on William's back. Yep, it was poop. And it got on Thomas's jeans. And his hand. He and I just looked at each other and laughed. What else can you do?!?! Needless to say, William no longer matches his brothers with the cute my 1st Christmas onesies. An outfit change was in order.
Between the 3 and the 6 o'clock feedings, Thomas and I exchanged gifts. We were both happy with what we got! Thomas got a Keurig and here's the story behind that. He started drinking coffee when I was in the hospital on bed rest, but started talking about drinking coffee as soon as we found out we were having triplets! He knew it was inevitable. With all the coffee talk comes Keurig talk. We had a plain old regular coffee maker for years and we really only brought it out when we had guests staying with us. We were seemingly the only adults that didn't drink coffee! Anyway, I put my foot down about us getting a Keurig before either of us actually drank coffee. Makes sense, right? It's not like a Keurig costs $20! Anyway, Thomas had started drinking coffee and was mentioning the Keurig every so often again but was placated as there is a Keurig at the office that he uses on week days. All this coffee talk and his new coffee obsession gave me a slam dunk idea for his present. The boys and the dogs were so sweet and they got him some K-cups. How thoughtful! I got some new boots and they're really cute! I may or may not have sent Thomas the link for the boots and he did a great job fulfilling the request. He also came up with the idea of me having a "Katie day" where I can get my hair cut and use a gift card I already have to get a massage while he keeps the babies. I think I'll wait for the full blown "Katie day" until I am no longer pumping so I can really enjoy my time at the spa. In the meantime, I will definitely take him up on the hair cut. My hair has not been cut since before I went on bed rest (July 22) and is way too long. In addition, the babies have started grabbing it. Ouch. They don't pull yet but my hair is constantly in their hand anytime I'm holding them and they don't want to let it go!
Pictures from our mini gift exhange
We decided to continue the Christmas movie mania by watching Elf. In case you didn't know, the best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing loud for all to hear! Watching Elf took us through the 6 pm feeding.
Thomas holding Ryan
My sweet little elf, Stokes
During this time we were working on dinner. Putting stuff in the oven, setting timers, pulling stuff out of the fridge, etc. MaSha (Thomas's mom) arrived from Virginia around 6:30 and immediately jumped in to help us with dinner and holding babies. We were juggling a few tasks right when she arrived!
In an effort to keep the movie theme going, once Elf ended Thomas put in the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation DVD. This was during the time that we were preparing dinner and then eating so it was more like background entertainment instead of us sitting down in front of the tv and watching it. Plus we've only seen it 10,000 times. :)
We ate around 7:30 and our menu consisted of baked glazed ham, hash brown casserole, pineapple casserole (from our dear friend Carole), brussel sprouts, rolls and some spiced apples that MaSha brought. Everything turned out very delicious! I feel like it was a success for our very first Christmas dinner at our house.
The spread:
Dessert consisted of some chocolate pie that MaSha brought and some Brick Street sweet potato cake that Carole gave us for Christmas. I had a small(ish) slice of each! If you live in or travel to Greenville and have never tried sweet potato cake from Brick Street, you are missing out. NOT. KIDDING. Try it. You won't regret it. But your thighs might.
Both desserts were delectable!
Around dessert time, the babies were starting to fuss. They were beginning to think about their 9 pm feeding and were feeling a little hungry. So we had to each get a baby and hold him while we enjoyed our dessert.
After dessert and cleaning up our plates, we fed the babies their 9 pm bottle and started watching our final Christmas movie of the day, It's a Wonderful Life. We only got to watch a little bit of it, but it's such a classic that Christmas Day isn't totally complete until you see some of it! I think our movie marathon touched on several of the most important Christmas movies. I wasn't disappointed!
We put the babies to bed and decided to open just a few gifts. MaSha brought presents from our family in Virginia and we each opened a few of them. We never got around to opening any of the presents for the babies, so we'll save that for tomorrow. It was a go-go-go day and we were all pooped!
All in all, our Christmas was very merry! I still have a hard time comprehending that we went from a family of 2 last Christmas to a family of 5 this Christmas. We are so blessed to have our boys home with us for this holiday and that they are healthy and growing and doing well. We are constantly thanking God for that miracle.
From our family to yours, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Isaiah 9:6
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
Romans 15:13
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."
P.S. The boys turned FOUR months old today! Since today's post was 100% dedicated to Christmas, I'll do a separate post with some specific updates about each of our sweet babies.
The 3 o'clock feeding proved to be fairly amusing. A Christmas Story marathon was on TBS and provided the background entertainment during feeding time. During this feeding both Stokes and William had a major spit up. I was feeding Stokes at the time of this alleged incident and let me tell you, I had spit up on my jeans, shirt and scarf and poor little buddy had it all over himself too! Within a matter of 2 minutes after Stokes spit, William spit. Thomas was feeding him and it mainly got it on William's bib. However, a few minutes after that Thomas noticed a dark, wet spot on William's back. Yep, it was poop. And it got on Thomas's jeans. And his hand. He and I just looked at each other and laughed. What else can you do?!?! Needless to say, William no longer matches his brothers with the cute my 1st Christmas onesies. An outfit change was in order.
Between the 3 and the 6 o'clock feedings, Thomas and I exchanged gifts. We were both happy with what we got! Thomas got a Keurig and here's the story behind that. He started drinking coffee when I was in the hospital on bed rest, but started talking about drinking coffee as soon as we found out we were having triplets! He knew it was inevitable. With all the coffee talk comes Keurig talk. We had a plain old regular coffee maker for years and we really only brought it out when we had guests staying with us. We were seemingly the only adults that didn't drink coffee! Anyway, I put my foot down about us getting a Keurig before either of us actually drank coffee. Makes sense, right? It's not like a Keurig costs $20! Anyway, Thomas had started drinking coffee and was mentioning the Keurig every so often again but was placated as there is a Keurig at the office that he uses on week days. All this coffee talk and his new coffee obsession gave me a slam dunk idea for his present. The boys and the dogs were so sweet and they got him some K-cups. How thoughtful! I got some new boots and they're really cute! I may or may not have sent Thomas the link for the boots and he did a great job fulfilling the request. He also came up with the idea of me having a "Katie day" where I can get my hair cut and use a gift card I already have to get a massage while he keeps the babies. I think I'll wait for the full blown "Katie day" until I am no longer pumping so I can really enjoy my time at the spa. In the meantime, I will definitely take him up on the hair cut. My hair has not been cut since before I went on bed rest (July 22) and is way too long. In addition, the babies have started grabbing it. Ouch. They don't pull yet but my hair is constantly in their hand anytime I'm holding them and they don't want to let it go!
Pictures from our mini gift exhange
Pretty wrapping, huh?!? I know he didn't wrap this, so it had to be either Pressly or Wendy!
We decided to continue the Christmas movie mania by watching Elf. In case you didn't know, the best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing loud for all to hear! Watching Elf took us through the 6 pm feeding.
Thomas holding Ryan
My sweet little elf, Stokes
During this time we were working on dinner. Putting stuff in the oven, setting timers, pulling stuff out of the fridge, etc. MaSha (Thomas's mom) arrived from Virginia around 6:30 and immediately jumped in to help us with dinner and holding babies. We were juggling a few tasks right when she arrived!
In an effort to keep the movie theme going, once Elf ended Thomas put in the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation DVD. This was during the time that we were preparing dinner and then eating so it was more like background entertainment instead of us sitting down in front of the tv and watching it. Plus we've only seen it 10,000 times. :)
We ate around 7:30 and our menu consisted of baked glazed ham, hash brown casserole, pineapple casserole (from our dear friend Carole), brussel sprouts, rolls and some spiced apples that MaSha brought. Everything turned out very delicious! I feel like it was a success for our very first Christmas dinner at our house.
The spread:
My plate:
Both desserts were delectable!
Around dessert time, the babies were starting to fuss. They were beginning to think about their 9 pm feeding and were feeling a little hungry. So we had to each get a baby and hold him while we enjoyed our dessert.
After dessert and cleaning up our plates, we fed the babies their 9 pm bottle and started watching our final Christmas movie of the day, It's a Wonderful Life. We only got to watch a little bit of it, but it's such a classic that Christmas Day isn't totally complete until you see some of it! I think our movie marathon touched on several of the most important Christmas movies. I wasn't disappointed!
We put the babies to bed and decided to open just a few gifts. MaSha brought presents from our family in Virginia and we each opened a few of them. We never got around to opening any of the presents for the babies, so we'll save that for tomorrow. It was a go-go-go day and we were all pooped!
All in all, our Christmas was very merry! I still have a hard time comprehending that we went from a family of 2 last Christmas to a family of 5 this Christmas. We are so blessed to have our boys home with us for this holiday and that they are healthy and growing and doing well. We are constantly thanking God for that miracle.
From our family to yours, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Isaiah 9:6
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
Romans 15:13
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."
P.S. The boys turned FOUR months old today! Since today's post was 100% dedicated to Christmas, I'll do a separate post with some specific updates about each of our sweet babies.
I loved everything about this post! I can't wait to meet your little men!
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