Ree Drummond's Kids Come Home for Christmas and Pose in Annual Matching PJs Pic!
Ree Drummond/Instagram
Ree Drummond nearly had all her kids under one roof again this Christmas.
The Pioneer Woman star and mother of five — who shares daughters Alex, 24, and Paige, 21; sons Bryce, 19, and Todd, 17; and foster son Jamar, 19, with her husband of 25 years, Ladd Drummond — almost had a full house again on Saturday, with all but one of her kids coming back to Pawhuska, Oklahoma, to celebrate the festivities.
Missing in action was Alex. She and her husband, Mauricio Scott, tied the knot back in May, and spent their first Christmas together as a married couple visiting Mauricio's hometown in Monterrey, Mexico.
"The way that we're doing this whole marriage-holiday-thing is we're doing Thanksgiving with one of our families every year, and then Christmas with the other family, and it'll flip-flop," Alex explained on Instagram, according to the Pioneer Woman blog. "So next year we'll do Christmas with my family."
"I'm really excited about Mexico," Alex added. "It's my first time going to where Mauricio is from. I got to meet a lot of his family at the wedding, but I'll get to meet a lot more of them, which will be fun."
Their absence meant the Drummond kids' annual matching pajamas picture wasn't quite complete. "I swear if we aren't doing matching Christmas Eve jammies when we are in our 50s I will be UPSET," Alex said last year of the sweet tradition.
Ree Drummond/Instagram
Still, Alex did get plenty of time with her family this season.
Last week, she and Mauricio went to Vail, Colorado, with Ree and her nephew, Stuart Smith, for a wintery getaway. "Nephew, Daughter, Son-in-Law!" Ree said, captioning a pic on Instagram. "Three of my (seven? no, ten!) favorite youngsters right here. We're all in different places now, but had fun together last week.❤️"
Both Ree and Alex shared plenty of photos from the getaway on Instagram, including a picture of the two posing in front of a picturesque backdrop. "Our happy place," Alex said.
And while she missed Christmas Day with her siblings, Alex and Mauricio did head back to Oklahoma from Vail to exchange Christmas gifts with the rest of the Drummond crew before heading out to Mexico.
RELATED: Ree Drummond Spreads Holiday Cheer in New Trailer for Candy Coated Christmas Scripted Movie
This isn't the first time Ree hasn't had all her kids together for the holidays. Bryce wasn't home this past Thanksgiving.
It is a fairly new thing for Ree, however. She told PEOPLE in October that she and Ladd were getting used to being near empty nesters, with four out of the five of her kids having moved out.
"We are in such a different season now, Ladd and me. We have only Todd at home," she said at the time. "We are almost empty-nesting!"
As big of a change as that is, Ree revealed that she's "embracing" the new phase of life.
"I used to get sad when the kids left for college. When the girls left, I cried and wailed and mourned. But now, now I just sort of embrace what those changes bring," she said. "Right now, it's bringing a little bit of peace, serenity, and quiet. The kids are almost all grown and we can enjoy them when they come home. But then when they're gone, we really enjoy that too."
"That doesn't mean chaos isn't on the horizon, because it always is," she joked. "It always is somehow."
Having Todd at home is easy, Ree said. The teen is a junior in high school and a quarterback on high football team, so she and her husband have "got football just coming out of our ears."
"All we think about right now is football," Ree told PEOPLE. "But it's easy. Todd's ... we don't say we saved the best for last in any sort of capacity, but we joke that we saved the best for last. Todd just makes it so easy. He's a great kid. He talks to us, tells us how his day went, and then he gives us a fist bump and goes up to his room. It's just great. We're enjoying it."
