Mommy's Controlled Chaos: A Christmas to Remember

WARNING: This post is rather long. I had A LOT to catch up on! :)

This Christmas season was one of the most exciting in a while for me. Not only did we get to experience Jillian's 1st Christmas but it was also the first Christmas that Jordyn seemed to really "get" what was going on.

I am always SO excited for the week of Christmas and always SO excited when it is over! I guess all of the go, go, go in the Scherpinski home is more than exhausting and by the time it has all ended we are ready for it.

You would think that since I wasn't working this time around things would be less chaotic but that couldn't be further from the truth. I am SO much more organized when I have time constraints and since I really didn't this year I felt like a hot mess.

Christmas Eve was spent at my in-law's house and we had a really nice night. Very low key and relaxing which is just what I needed since I knew what the day ahead had in store. We had some
hors d'oeuvres, did a little wine tasting and played a new board game (a very hard board game haha).

Jillian was also 5 months old on Christmas Eve which is just so hard to believe! Crazy!!!

Opening her first present!

5 Months Old! Love this little baby so so much!

Kisses for my girl!

Jordyn and her new pink piano.

I went to bed on Christmas Eve SO SO SO excited for Christmas morning!
I was up WAY earlier than everyone else the next morning. Miss Jordyn slept until 8:30! I don't think Jordyn has EVER slept past 8:00 and she chose Christmas morning to sleep, sleep, sleep.

When we heard her upstairs John went up to get her and I waited downstairs with the camera!

Jordyn and Dad walking down the stairs and seeing all the presents!

She was so excited when she saw the presents. I tried to control the unwrapping as much as I could but boy was it hard!

Growing up we always took our time while opening gifts. My mom would hand my brothers and I each a present and we would watch one another to see what we got. I loved this. It was so much more about the experience than the gifts themselves. I want this for my girls. I want them to be excited for one another and not just for themselves. Jillian is obviously too young to be involved yet but once they are both of an appropriate age I will continue this tradition.

It was a lot of fun watching Jordyn open her gifts. The excitement on her face was priceless and quite funny. She got overly excited about the funniest gifts! Socks! A blanket! Blocks!

Her main gift from John and I, I mean Santa, was a bounce house! She LOVES bounce houses and so we thought, why not! It is small enough for the garage or perfect for the backyard on a nice day!

Her face when she first saw the bounce house!

Priceless!

She loves it!

After the madness of gift opening had come to an end we started getting the house ready for company to arrive.

First- my parents and my brothers. More presents, more presents, more presents!

Later in the afternoon more family arrived- a total of 16 people! Fun, fun, fun!

The day was filled with food, wine, games and memories being made.

Come Sunday night I was exhausted. I woke up Monday morning and my house looked like a tornado has hit it. It is Thursday afternoon and the tornado and yet to leave. I feel like every time I get one pile cleaned up, another pile appears. It is definitely hard to tackle the messes with the girls home. I am hoping that this weekend everything can get done since John will be home. Usually Christmas is packed up and put away a couple days after the madness and I have yet to even begin to take the tree down! Oh well! As my good friend told me the other day- it will eventually get done. And she is right!

Here are some more special pictures from the fun times!