This was a full week! Besides getting the shopping done and the house in some sort of order, we did a lot of cooking and baking for our Christmas Eve get together. This year the girls were not as interested in helping with this part. Tuesday night they ended up having a sleepover over at my dad’s with all the cousins while Joel and I stayed up cooking and baking. Here are some pictures before the girls decided to bail out on us.
On Christmas Eve, we got together at my sister’s house. Everything started a little late due to the weather and some of us having to work longer than expected, but turned out very nice! We all ate way too much!
After dinner, we did the big Secret Santa reveal. We let Kaitlin go first because she had been about to burst all night waiting for this part. She takes these games very seriously and had come up with several theories as to whom her Secret Santa was based on the clues she had gotten. In the end, she was very surprised that it ended up being her aunt Ivette, she was almost sure it was somebody from my other sister’s house.
By the time we left for home, it was almost midnight. When we got home, the girls found a gift under the trees in their rooms. They knew it was a new pair of Christmas pajamas. This year they surprised me with a new pair too.
Something we did differently this year was I hid the presents instead of putting them under the tree as we normally do. So the girls had no idea what they were getting. Traditionally, we let them sleep downstairs by the tree so they can get an early start Christmas morning, but this year I told them they had to sleep in their rooms so they could not see their presents. Actually, what I said was so that “Santa could come in and put their presents under the tree”. Natalie had a good laugh but you could see she hesitated a little bit pondering if it could be possible. Yes, I am one of those Grinchmommy’s that never let her children believe in Santa Claus, but I can see how it could have been fun especially with Natalie.
Christmas morning started surprisingly late. The girls were so exhausted they slept in until 9:30 AM and then came into our room and hung around with us in bed for a while. Then we finally went downstairs to start the proceedings. The plan had been to do a short worship and read the Christmas story before opening gifts. However, once the girls got downstairs their excitement was just too much so we ended up doing stockings first and then taking a break to read the Christmas story.
Gift opening was exciting. They did not get as much as in previous years but everything they got was something they really liked. The highlight was when their opened their new Nintendo DS. They were in total shock. Neither one had expected that at all. Natalie immediately wanted to call her cousins to tell them she now had one. Immediately she told me that she did not need her Leapster anymore because she was no longer a little child. We had a good laugh with that.
In the afternoon, my sisters and their family came over to our house and the kids had a good time playing and running around. When they all get together the house goes to shambles, but it is fun to see them enjoying themselves so much.
The evening ended up with a night at the movies. Everybody wore their new pajamas and headed to the theater to watch “Marley and Me”. We met with Lilly's family and Diana. Everybody had a good time, but I am not sure this is a tradition I am going to continue. The movie theater was so crowded, even though we arrived 45 minutes early we were not able to sit all together. I had no idea so many people go out to the movies on Christmas Day! This was my first year and I was just amazed. I guess we have been living under a rock all these years.
Hope you had a blessed Christmas and enjoyed the time with family and friends.
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