This post is divided into two parts--Christmas Eve and Christmas.
CHRISTMAS EVE:
- blankets
- baking
- family FaceTime
- dinner
- nativity
- Christmas Eve rules and bedtime
- Stocking-stuffing
1. BLANKETS
In the weeks leading up to Christmas this year, I purchased 20 yards of fleece and sewed it into five big double-thick blankets--one for each of us. I don't love sewing, and had to really work to force myself through the arduous cutting and sewing process, but those soft WARM blankets were worth every stitch. On Christmas Eve morning, Jeff and I got the fleece blankets out from under our bed and gave them to the kids. It was a happy warm fuzzy cozy Christmas Eve morning gift. Christmas Eve is better when you're wrapped in a blanket. Especially a blanket that was handmade with love! I love homemade Christmas gifts. When I was a teenager, my parents instituted a homemade Christmas, where 100% of the gifts we gave each other had to be made by our own two hands. That made everything so much more meaningful, and I have always tried to make at least one gift each Christmas ever since. I plan to have a homemade Christmas or two with my own kids in the future.
{sew crazy!}
2. BAKING
After lunch I gave the boys (both Jeff and Jay) much-needed haircuts. I managed to sit down and read a dozen or so pages in my current book before Amber woke up from her nap and it was time to start the Christmas baking. In one afternoon, I made:
- 1 chocolate chip sour cream pound cake
- 34 cranberry muffins
- 1 pan of cheesy potatoes (not baked, just prepped to pop in the oven on Christmas)
- 1 jar of sweet red wine vinaigrette dressing for the salad
- 1 cup of candied pecans for the salad
- 1 gallon bowl packed with chopped romaine lettuce
Jeff dissected a pomegranate for me too (for that high-maintenance, delicious Christmas salad). I listened to three entire Christmas albums while I worked. It was intense, but I got it done early to minimize work and maximize enjoyment on Christmas Day.
A true Christmas Eve miracle: my bundt cake came out in one piece!
3. FAMILY FACETIME
Just before Christmas Eve dinner, we FaceTimed the Broadbents (my sister's family) and opened each others' presents. Thank goodness we still have an iPad, or else we may never get to talk with my iFamily, because it takes at least 45 minutes to orchestrate a group Skype call every time we have a missionary call home. The Browns are Skype-challenged. But we had such a nice, chaotic evening. There's something so cozy about Christmas Eve after sunset.
{wearing our gifts from the Broadbents--Em made us Star Wars-inspired t-shirts}
4. CHRISTMAS EVE DINNER
In a break with deep-seated Brown family tradition, we had tamales, cranberry muffins, and lettuce for dinner. For my whole life, turkey soup and cranberry muffins were standard Christmas Eve dinner fare in my family when I was growing up, and I have made it for my own family every year. My sister makes it for her family. My brother makes it for his family. But the closer Christmas Eve came this year, the less I found I wanted turkey soup. We decided to embrace local Latino tradition and eat tamales on Christmas Eve instead. Grandview may not have many restaurants, but it does have some quality Mexican food dives. We chose the illustrious Garcia's Tex Mex drive thru for our tamales. I picked them up on the 23rd and we reheated them in the oven next to the cranberry muffins the next night. Happy though I was to ditch the turkey soup, I could not bear to give up my yearly cranberry muffins, so it was a rather eclectic meal. Normally I don't love Mexican restaurant food, but those tamales were perfection.
5. NATIVITY
After dinner we FaceTimed Grama Meri and Grampa Charley (my parents) and the kids opened their gifts. After that, Jeff read Luke 2 aloud while I helped the kids act it out. It was awesome. Jay played Joseph and a shepherd (alternately), Rose played the heavenly angel, and Amber played Mary. We used the bouncy blue blow up pony as the donkey (which Amber-Mary hopped in on with a doll stuffed up her shirt. The doll popped out while she hopped--I was practically rolling on the floor in laughter from behind the video camera). I don't think we even acted out the nativity the last two years--I think we did paper puppets instead. I like acting it out much better.
6. CHRISTMAS RULES AND BEDTIME
Right after the nativity, we brushed teeth, said family prayer, and laid out the Christmas morning rules before closing the kids' bedroom door. The rules were:
- There is a line in the hallway by the bathroom door (Jeff put masking tape on the floor). Don't cross the line before we turn on Jingle Bells in the morning
- Don't come into the parents' room before 5:30am.
- Don't let Amber cross the line!
Jay and Rose have been looking forward to Christmas Eve for months because it was the first time Amber was allowed to have a sleepover with them. Rose drew out a careful sleepover map/floorplan, and they followed it exactly (Jay got three pillows because he's the oldest). We said we'd do stockings and gifts starting at 6am, then closed the door.
{the plan/awake/asleep}
7. STOCKING STUFFING (aka the best time of the whole year to be a parent)
We watched an episode in the basement to wait for the kids to fall asleep, then we snuck upstairs and filled the stockings. I realized that I had forgotten to wrap the sugary cereal but we were both not in the mood for wrapping, so we stuck bows on the cereal boxes and left them on the kitchen table.
*INTERMISSION*
go get a snack, this post is only half done!
CHRISTMAS DAY:
- waiting at the line
- opening stockings and gifts
- Christmas Sunday church
- Brown family missionary Skype call
- White family Christmas dinner
- tired kids asleep
1. Waiting at the line:
Jay was jumping with excitement, Rose was half asleep, and Amber was crying because nobody would let her hop down the hall on Rody the pony.
2. Opening stockings and gifts--I was too busy enjoying it to take many pictures, but the kids loved their presents. I have avoided getting plastic army guys for years, but it was time. Jay was stoked. He also got some Tinker Toys and cap guns. A few weeks ago I scored a sweet Kidcraft Barbie house at Goodwill, and that was Rose's main gift, along with some furniture to go in it. Back in the early fall, I got a red trike at our neighbor's garage sale with plans to give it to Amber for her birthday. But we were away from home on her birthday, so we saved it for Christmas. Amber also got a baby doll with a bottle (she's our first kid to really care about baby dolls), and a vintage Fisher Price cash register. Jeff and I counted our various big purchases throughout the year as our Christmas gifts to each other (like, I got a laptop over the summer and he got a new GPS running watch last month). But Jeff still snuck in a four slot toaster under the tree for me, and I LOVE it. My aunt Stefani gave us our first toaster which served us well for ten long years, so I had to text her a farewell picture.
Calmly feeding her new baby doll.
3. Christmas Sunday church: Everyone got dressed up in their Christmas Sunday best and actually cooperated for a frosty family photo before we left for church: another Christmas miracle. I tried to take a few kids-in-Christmas-clothes pictures after church. Even though church was only an hour, the kids were in no mood for Christmas Sunday clothes pictures afterwards.
4. Missionary Skype call: We had our last ever missionary sibling Skype call! Mel gets home from Cambodia in March. I hope we still get together for a family Christmas group Skype call every year, because it is awesome. [for some reason our computer did not get the video feed from Brad, Dani, and Derek]
5. White family Christmas dinner: we hosted Christmas dinner at our house with all the local family and I managed to force the reluctant relatives into a grandparent picture before everyone left. Thanks to my preparation, the meal was easy to prep!
Grama Leslie and Grampa Dan with all six of their grandkids on Christmas
6. The kids fell asleep so fast on Christmas night, and they looked so peaceful that I had to take pictures of them for the second night in a row. Uh-oh, am I turning into the creepy mom from that old book, Love You Forever?
Merry Christmas to all!
