See Diemers Grow: Christmas 2016: A Winner!

It's been ALL Christmas ALL the time, 24-7, for more than a month.

Parties, decorating, cooking, movie watching, advent calendaring, elf on the shelfing, caroling, and the always eventful trip the mailbox.

No complaints from Sage. He was loving it! My little holiday guru.

He got into the habit of each evening asking if we could "have some Christmas fun" before bed. And somehow, we always managed to think of something. (We even had a fake snowball fight with cotton balls one evening...)

The week leading up to Christmas was eventful. We had a lot to get ready, traditions to uphold, and memories to make.

7 days to go:

Cards from the grandparents with cash for the piggy banks. Always welcome!

A Saturday night Christmas party at a friend's house. With loads of kids. And load of very good high-end beer. Did I mention my friend works for New Belgium?!

Our first gingerbread house experience.

Decorating the tree.

(No gifts yet. Except that sweet kitty hiding out below.)

A few more days of school.

(This is Kale passed out on the couch just minutes before we had to leave for the day. Poor thing woke up too early, and followed me to the shower, before the sun even rose.)

Some festive after-school snacks.

(Which, by the way, they totally hated. The mac n' cheese was a hit, but the banana faces just sat there and rotted over night. So much for being creative!)

The bi-weekly baths.

(Don't judge me. Your skin needs its natural oil in Colorado.)

And then it was time.

Let the holiday weekend commence! 3 days to go!

On Christmas Eve Eve, we took our annual trip to the Garden of Lights.

On Christmas Eve the kids opened up their final calendar door, to find a very special, and very blue, piece of candy. The neon lips lasted well into the afternoon...

Be sure to pay close attention to Kale in the background behind Sage.... Love it!

Then it was time to make sugar cookies, from scratch, that we could decorate and set out for the "man of the hour" who would be arriving at our house that evening. Sage wanted to ensure that Santa had a special plate of cookies waiting for him!

Sage worked that electric hand beater like a pro.

After chilling in the fridge for 2 hours, it was time to shape the cookies.

We rolled them out in powdered sugar. Which quickly became a huge mess. Kale was far more interested in the white powder, than the cookie-making process.

Hey look ma! We got our jammies messy!

And then the best part... decorating!

What a plate! So many colors!

And Matt helped Sage write the sweetest note to Santa. Multiple notes, actually.

Then... late into the evening...Santa made his debut.

And the scene looked spectacular.

All the gifts carefully wrapped, and arranged just so...

Sleeping children just a floor away, dreaming of the fun to come.

Always my favorite moment of Christmas.

It all leads up to this...

Christmas morning:

I decided to add a new casserole to the mix. The egg and "sausage" is a long-standing tradition. To compliment it's savory profile, I made a Paula Dean french toast casserole, very sweet and VERY buttery. I had my doubts while assembling it, but it was delightful! Absolutely wonderful!

Then we began the gift opening. It would be a full day of "open a gift, play with a gift." And I'm glad they savored the activity. But around 2 o'clock or so, I was sort of done with the present charades. I had a dinner to make!

Sage enjoyed being the "Present Master".

Sorting, organizing, delivering the gifts.

Santa's wrapping paper was special, and looked different from all the rest. Handmade by elves, so I assume...

This gift won for popularity on Christmas day. It's a magnetic marble run, limited only by your imagination. It requires keen engineering skills, a strong understanding of gravity, and some patience. But once you got your run mapped out, it was awesome!