Sunday, January 19, 2014

Christmas Day 2013

We had a fun Christmas day.  Elden fell asleep really early actually Christmas Eve, which I forgot to mention in my last post. He ate dinner and fell asleep about 7pm.  We even had to wake him up around 8am.  Clark woke up really early Christmas Day, about 5:30 I think. Lee woke me up at 7:30 and I said something about if it really was time to get up yet. 

The kids were really excited and dancing, it was so cute.  First after everyone was up we ate pumpkin pie and drank egg nog for breakfast.  A few years ago I started making individual pies for Christmas breakfast and did it again this year.  I have only 2 small pie pans so it took a little while to make 9 pies.  I need to get some more mini pie pans! After pie the kids line up to see their stockings.  My parents always hung a sheet covering the room where the tree and stockings were.  We do the same.  I think it's a fun way to keep it all a surprise.
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Usually we line up oldest to youngest or youngest to oldest and this year we decided that we would switch it up.  Some how Cal was first and Shanna last (completely out of any order) but no one was complaining!
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Lee took the kids in one by one to see their stockings.  Not much of a surprise this year.  They each had one gift out by their stocking and one gift inside their stocking.
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Clark and Cal each got a wallet with some money in it. They were not expecting it, and loved it.  Blurry pictures....
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The money was a hit.
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Shanna asked if she could keep the chair. Why yes you can Shanna!
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Haley and her stocking stuff.  Everyone gets a box of cereal, an orange, candy and a little gift.  We usually do a can of olives but I completely forgot about them this year. None of the kids even noticed.  Some of the kids aren't as crazy about olives as they used to be anyway.  I almost put cans of tuna fish in their stockings to be funny, but forgot to do that too.
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A couple years ago I made stockings for my parents.  It was fun that we all had matching stockings hanging on the wall and for Christmas morning.  When I was at my sister's and parent's house at Thanksgiving I found my parents stockings and brought them home with me.  We had them hanging up with ours the whole month of December.
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As per tradition, since my dad was here, we let him hand out gifts.  He hands them out one by one while each person opens them.  Sometimes people want to open things even faster, but in general one present is opened at a time.
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Shanna and Haley each got a craft box.  I had fun buying different things for it.  I would go to Michael's and give Clark and Cal a coupon and have them buy stuff for me. 
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I told Lee I wanted clothes for Christmas.  I "need" some more too.  Really in the scheme of things I don't need any more clothes, but I have a very small wardrobe and would love it make it a little bigger! He got me some gift cards (Old Navy, Dick's Sporting Goods, Bath & Body Works), cute slippers, a water bottle and yummy chocolate. 
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We didn't get a very good picture but Clark got a big Lego set, Galactic Titan.
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Cal also got a Minecraft Lego set too.
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I love Elden's faces.
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A gift from Haley to Lee.  Seriously I hope Lee doesn't get any extra hair after the resurrection.  He would look so different!  Hopefully my sense of perfection will change, right?! I got Lee some books (Killing Lincoln and 1776), a Men of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD, a drill bit set, two sweaters, an electric razor and a gift card to a grocery store. Someday we'll spend oodles of money on food, but right now, Lee's enjoying his grocery gift cards.  I got him one for his birthday last year too.
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Haley gave my dad a little k-nex figure.  I think that is what the brand is. Basically it's like a Lego mini-figure.  I wonder if he's assembled it yet?
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I saw these at World Market and gave some to my mom and dad each.  I thought they were funny.
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Thankfully when Shanna and Haley were in the room they didn't notice this till we pointed it out to them. 
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Isn't their reaction just perfect?  Too bad Haley was mostly cut off.  Oh, and like our temporary bookshelf for the bulk of our books? We want to do some built in bookshelves on either side of the TV, but that will wait till 2015.
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Lee assembled this at his office on Christmas Eve. I primed the table and the chairs Christmas Eve too.  I was going to paint them Christmas Eve but when it was about 2am or so I decided that I could paint them later.  Plus I wanted to put their stockings on the chairs and I didn't want wet paint to get on them. I finally painted the table and chairs about 2 weeks ago (first part of January).
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Time to break out the Legos.... They previously had a little silly string war that morning as some of the kids gave each other silly string.
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I love the little figures that came with the Minecraft Legos. One of them was a pig.
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Some traditional on-the-couch-Santa-hat family pictures Christmas morning.  I totally forgot to post one online that day.  Oh well.
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Our two neighbor girls came over later that morning for just a little while.
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This beard looks a little too good on you Elden.
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Later Lee made brunch which consisted of a yummy egg casserole and bacon.  And if you are reading this far I will tell you something crazy I did.  I think it's kind of funny and I can't believe I did it, in a way.  I didn't plan very well for the egg casserole and we needed eggs.  I also needed some dishwasher detergent.  I could have washed the dishes by hand, but with it being Christmas and having my parents there AND having been so busy, I didn't want an extra task to do. Christmas morning my mom and I walked over to Family Dollar-it's just around the corner from us.  I had seen a sign stating that they were open Christmas Day from 10-5. My mom and I reasoned that they were open regardless.  So I bought some eggs and some detergent.  I actually completely forgot about this little outing until I was at the very end of this blog post. It felt like I was shopping on a Sunday...it was kind of weird.  The lady at the register didn't seem too jolly either. Next year I'll plan better for dishwasher detergent and eggs!

That afternoon I talked to two of my sisters, Lena and Lois, on the phone and some of us watched movies here and there.  We had It's a Wonderful Life going, and The Night They Saved Christmas.  Haley wanted to watch Cricket on the Hearth.  Oh what a weird cartoon.  Sunday nights we get on google+ with my family.  That Sunday after Christmas when we were up in Pennsylvania, I told my siblings about Cricket on the Hearth and I was busting up laughing.  Now I want to watch it with them just so they can see it.  Bertha!  I made bbq pork sandwiches in November and had some meat leftover.  I froze the meat and saved it for Christmas Day for nachos.  We of course had pumpkin and cranberry pie to eat too and lots and lots of goodies. (The cranberry pie is oh so delicious!)  Seriously, one of my favorite things about Christmas is all the goodies!  I loved that when I was a kid because we didn't have them very often.  And have you guys tried Trader Joe's Peppermint Joe Joes?  SO good!  They are an official Christmas staple now!  I'll have to buy extra for this coming Christmas.  Christmas night my mom and I got on google+ with three of my sisters (Deb, Steph and Lois too).  It was a very fun day.  Haley told me a few times about it being the best Christmas.  I love Christmas.  It's wonderful celebrating the birth of our Savior and participating in lots of family traditions. We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas too.  Can't believe it's over already.  It makes me a bit sad when Christmas is done and over. 

2 comments:

Lois said...

Yes, it was a VERY fun Christmas. So glad we got to spend it with you! Thanks for all the gifts and goodies and the yummy food. Thanks especially for all the FUN!!!

Love, MOM

andyandsteph said...

Lol - we will have to watch Cricket on the Hearth sometime! That was really funny on chat. I love Shanna and Haley's expression at seeing their play kitchen.