By mommie2zs in Family, Rochester, Love, Monkey, Buster, Yessa — 26 Dec 2025

Christmas Eve and Day 2025

Monkey in some beautiful new clothes. Yessa and I in our new Christmas sweaters. Buster in a t-shirt from a past Christmas, and...Buds.

I'm jumping all over the place with posts, but we just drove the kids back to Bing on Sunday, and I am missing them and feeling a little mopey, so writing about our time together eases some of the sorrow.

Christmas 2025 was a delight!!

It began with Christmas Eve traditions, as always, plus a few extra items this year.

Waffles went to the vet in the morning. Then Monkey and Buds went to pick up a little table Monkey had purchased.

Buds, Yessa, and I did CrossFit at noon, and the rest of the day was filled with cooking and planning and watching and chatting.

We watched a Christmas Eve Service online, which brought me much joy.

We opened our traditional one-present-per-person gift. Since we weren't doing pajamas for everyone this year, Yessa, Buds, and I opened our sweaters, but Monkey and Buster branched out on what they wanted to open.

Dinner was the traditional ham, mac-n-cheese, rolls, broccoli, and sweet potatoes. We ate in the family room, relaxed and enjoying each other's company.

This apron used to drop below her knees.

Christmas Day was equally relaxed. Buds and I were up early and were joined by Monkey who watched some of our favorite cooking show with us while we waited for the other family members to awaken.

Once Yessa was up, the cinnamon rolls got rolling.

We also had our traditional cheesy or jammy pull-apart bread to balance our cinnamon rolls. No large meal on Christmas Day, just snacking and enjoying whatever leftovers we chose.

Once everyone was up and the cinnamon rolls were in the oven, we began opening presents. Monkey is the big gift giver, and she helped Buds and me out with choosing presents for her siblings, and then when we decided to do Secret Santas again within the family, she got to buy even more presents, plus she always loves to buy gifts for everyone, even if they aren't her Secret Santa recipient. Yessa also crocheted gifts for people, including the world's cutest turtle for Buds, and headbands for Monkey and me.