Our Christmas was pretty quiet this year (as quiet as it can be with five kids). We didn't have big plans or lots of people over. All of our out-of-the-house festivities were pretty much done the Friday before Christmas. We just spent a lot of time at home, together, without a schedule, without a plan, without expectations. It was so wonderful for our family. Sure, we've driven each other a little crazy at times, but that's part of family life and it always works out.
We got all the essential traditions in on Christmas Eve - jammies, new Christmas book, reading the Christmas story from the scriptures, ham and restuffed potatoes for dinner, making cookies for Santa, singing Christmas carols.
When I put the ham in the oven, I didn't realize it was going to take 2 1/2 hours to cook. All day I was thinking more like 1 1/2 hours, so that pushed dinner back to about 7ish. Oops.
With pretty anxious kids we ended up doing jammies, scriptures, and carols before dinner. They loved their jammies and slippers and were excited that Husband and I got jammies too. It has been years since we've done that, so that was fun.
Reading the Christmas story out of the scriptures was fun this year because we have two kids that can comfortably read the scriptures on their own. It was fun taking turn reading scriptures and passing the scriptures to our kids. Every now and then we would pause for Third Daughter to fill in the blanks. She knows so much of the story and even knew the words the angel said to the shepherds. It was pretty awesome to hear her pipe in with, "Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy." (Luke 2:10) I'm pretty sure she picked that up from Charlie Brown Christmas :)
After dinner we got started making cookies for Santa. We decided on chocolate chip this year because Santa loves my chocolate chip cookies. The girls helped and loved that. They decided to put an extra plate of cookies in their room to see if Santa would come up there to get some. They also put out carrots for the reindeer, milk downstairs and egg nog upstairs to give Santa some variety. That was very thoughtful of them.
They wanted to have a sister sleepover in the same bed. That lasted about five minutes. After kicking each other and struggling to get comfortable, they eventually found their ways to their own beds and eventually fell asleep. We were all asleep by midnight, which was very nice.
Each of our kids woke up at least once that night (not at the same time). Some woke up twice. Not the best night sleep for Husband and I, but we didn't expect anything else.
The kids woke up around 7:45 which wasn't bad at all. They piled on our bed and we waited for the Sons to wake up, which wasn't too long after the Daughters. We brushed teeth and lined up on the stairs. Christmas morning anticipation is so much fun.
The opening of presents was amazing. We kept things very reasonable this year which was such a great idea. Everyone was happy with what they got and we managed to get through the day without a single melt down. That's got to be some sort of record!
Some favorite presents::
First Daughter - Kit (American Girl Doll), iPod shuffle, Hugo Cabret (book and movie), rainbow loom
Second Daughter - Saige (American Girl Doll), Lil' Big Top Lalaloopsy, new Piggie & Gerald book
Third Daughter - Caroline (American Girl Doll), Anna from Frozen, more Little People Princesses
Son #1 - bus, truck, cars, moon, Winnie the Pooh
Son #2 - rice cereal, a new toy that I have no idea how to describe
Husband - pants that fit him, T-shirt with the moon on it for Son #1, giant Reeses peanut butter cups, cologne
Me - new iPhone 5C! no more cracked screen for me! Kirsten (my American Girl Doll I had when I was a kid)
Christmas Book::I Spy! Christmas
Christmas Movie::Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Family Game::Monopoly
We also got some new games - Dominoes and Monopoly - that we have had a lot of fun playing, lots of fun books to read, and lots of yummy treats to share. The girls all got presents for everyone in our family which was super thoughtful. I didn't even suggest to them to do that. They used their own money to buy things at the Third Grade store at their school (I helped Third Daughter since she doesn't have a store at her school). I love that they thought to get presents for their family members and every gift they got was so thoughtful.
The best part about Christmas morning was watching this boy finally have cars to play with.
He just played and played and played. We hardly heard a word from him all morning.
Later that morning we headed to Husband's Aunt's house for the annual Christmas brunch. It is one of my favorite parts of Christmas morning. We had a wonderful time visiting with our family and enjoying each other's company.
The best part of this Christmas break has been to have Husband home. He has been able to be home since Christmas Eve and it has been so wonderful. I love having him here and so do the kids. It is such a great feelings having my family together. I feel very blessed.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
I hope you were able to feel peace and love from those around you, and more importantly from the Savior, Jesus Christ. That is a gift that He can give us any time we seek it, not just at Christmas time.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
I love the Savior and I love celebrating His birth.
He is the greatest gift of all, from our loving Father in Heaven.
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Thanks for stopping by!
2 comments:
Loved reading about your Christmas. :) I can just picture son 1 playing for hours with those cars and bus.
What a great report! Sounds so wonderful.
American Girl dolls - we never gave one to Claire and she has told us that that is one thing she probably will never get over. :-/
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