CHRISTMAS EVE AT OUR HOME

Dinner.

I decorated my table this way last year; with the (what I call) "Cindy Lou Who" tree and other glitter trees and ornaments in the middle of the table, I loved it so much that I had to repeat it. 

We do not have a specific menu for our Christmas dinner.  Sometimes we go with the traditional ham, but often times we have an Italian dinner.  This year I made manicotti.  It is one of our favorites, it takes a little extra time, the sauce cooks ALL day, the pasta is homemade, but it seems special and very much worth the effort for our celebratory dinner.

As you can see from the picture, we went all out this year, spared no expense...paper plates and all!

The kids and Jonathan delivered gifts and goodies to our friends and neighbors while I finished the dinner preparations.

Upon their return home, we inhaled a delicious meal and then enjoyed the story of the Savior's birth in Luke 2, while the children acted out the nativity.  (We began the nativity at around 10 PM).

Megan--the angel, Smash--the shepherd, Emily--Mary, Nathan--Joseph, and Bitty as baby Jesus.

We have a tradition of opening one present each on Christmas Eve; the kids receive their  holiday pj's.   

This year, since Smash was going in for surgery early on the 26th, we had an unusual request.

He came to me and asked if there was any way that we could open ALL of our presents early.  When I told him no, he asked why.  I let him know that I wasn't ready to open our gifts yet, and in order to open ALL gifts, he would have to wait for Christmas.  His response was a droopy face, and an "oh."

So I asked him why he was so intent on opening presents early. 

His response was this, "Well, I think it will be really hard to have one REALLY good day and then a really bad day the next."

I understood his meaning behind the words.  He couldn't possibly have a fabulous day, open fun things to play with and then go off for surgery the next and not be able to take full advantage of play time.

Our traditions on Christmas day are such that we don't really get to our presents until the afternoon.

So, taking pity on the poor kid, we decided to open our family gift early, in order for the kids to have more play time with it.

The pictures really tell the story.

   1.  Enter bag -- the kids are trying to guess what may be hidden inside the bag.

   2.  Each child may lift a corner of the tissue hiding gift inside.

   3.  After all 4 corners had been lifted, Emi gets to expose more of the gift.

  4.  Smash sees a smidgen of the gift and believes he knows what may be inside.

  5.  He has figured it out and the others are catching on...

  6.  YES!

 

(A dream come true).

Wii (we) received a Wii for Christmas!

My sister, her friends and I, were all on the look out the past couple of months, my sister's friend actually found it and my sister hooked us up with guitar hero as well!  It really does matter who you know.

Wii were all overflowing with excitement over this very-hard-to-get-your-hands on game!

Comments

[Stacy]

Wi are so glad that you guys had a great Christmas Eve, and that Smash had all of his dreams come true!!!

[Louise Baca]

Wii are so happy you got the Wii!!!!! Way to work it Smash!

[Jonathan]

I am so grateful for the traditions we have created.

These pictures are marvelous, they capture the memories in a wiionderful way!

I especially like the re-enactment of the nativity - Megan is proud that she has her lines underlined in her Bible!

Thanks Marilyn for all of the work and capturing the moments.

Jonathan

[Emily]

Wii had such a great Christmas Eve! Dinner was Delicious!!!
Wii had fun delivering treat bags and then acting out the nativity. It was so exciting when wii got to open a suprise present. At first no one had a clue what it was...(even with clues!) Smash knew first and he was SOOOOOOO excited! Nathan does not get excited easily but he was thrilled! You could tell that he liked it!! It was sad when wii went to bed, but mom and dad said wii could play the wii in the morning when we got up!
Christmas eve was so exciting!
~Emily

[Megan]

I had a great Christmas Eve. :)

We did alot of fun things that day!

~Megan

[Gayla]

OH MY GOODNESS! LOLOLOLOLOLOL! I'M CRYING I'm laughing so hard at Smash!!! What a hoot!!! YEA FOR Y'ALL! I guess it's on..... Lloyds vs. Cruikshanks. We got one, too! Codi boxed and beat everyone so man times on Christmas day that she was SO SORE on the 26th, she didn't want to touch the game. FUNNY!!!