Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas this year. We did things a little differently, maybe started some new tradition, but we'll see. We chose to stay home on Christmas eve and Christmas day this year rather than go visiting family. It was great. There were no schedules to adhere to, no racing around trying to fit everything in. This is how we spent the 24th and 25th:

Christmas eve day we spent at home. I made the kids do an extra good job on their chores, it took some of them several tries before tasks were completed to my liking. Other than that, we didn't do much, just hung around being lazy. At about 4:00 we started dinner prep. Knowing we would be at home Christmas eve, earlier in the month I asked everyone what we should have for dinner this night. We decided to do something that we NEVER do. We took the kids to the store and each person chose "fun" food. Think "heat and serve" meals in the frozen foods section. As I said, we do NOT eat this stuff, ever. The kids were in Wonderland, trying to decide what to choose. We bought frozen pizza, fried chicken, Uncrustables, burritos, potato skins, sausages, and Tornados. The kids were so excited to eat "junk food" for dinner. Brent was too. As for me, I did indulge but I added a large side of steamed veggies to my plate, for which my sweet husband made fun of me. Oh, and I did want Tiny Spicy Chicken but just couldn't bring myself to purchase the frozen stuff from the store with all the preservatives and unnecessary calories, so I made my own.




No, we don't condone under-aged drinking. It's sparkling cider.


After dinner we began our usual Christmas eve ritual. Everyone heads downstairs to the tree where each family member receives a new pair of pajamas. We don our new sleeping attire and read our new Christmas book. This year it was "Christmas For A Dollar". After that, the kids had hot chocolate while Brent read the Christmas story from the bible and we also talked about the prophesy of Samuel the Lamanite and what the people in the America's were witnessing at the time of Christ's birth. We set out cookies and milk for Santa and the kids headed for bed.



Christmas morning we decided we would check our stockings first. Then we had a small breakfast and headed back to the tree so see what else Santa left.
Brooky got "Rebecca" from The American Girl series.
And an art easel, she is becoming quite the little artist.
Damon got a video MP3 player, complete with videos already loaded. Between that and the video games, I haven't seen or heard much of him all weekend.
I made aprons for each of the kids, Damon immediately informed me he didn't like his and didn't want it.
Brittany has been asking for her own sewing machine for months.


Ellie got tennis balls. We opted to not open them because we knew she'd do her best to get someone to throw them to her. Annoying. However, she kept at it and managed to open the package all by herself.


Brent gave me a set of golf clubs, they're pink, so I guess I'm gonna learn to play golf this year.

Santa left each of us a can of Silly String in our stockings, so we had a Silly String war.



Brent's assistants gave him Rock Band 2 for the XBOX 360. He and the kids have spent many hours jamming with that. I even gave it a try, but really, video games just aren't my thing. I'd rather waste my time doing something else.

The kids drew names for each other, as they always do, but this year the stipulation was that they must make the gift. I was pleased with the thought and effort they put into their gift-giving this year. Brittany drew Ellie's name so she made a batch of dog biscuits.

Brooky made some no-slip socks for Brittany.

Damon had Brooky's name and he made "treasure soap". We didn't get a picture of it but we bought transparent glycerin soap at the craft store, melted it in the microwave, added coloring and scent, poured it into a soap mold and stuck a bead bracelet Damon had made in the center. When Brooky uses up her bar of soap, she'll get the bracelet.

Ellie drew Damon's name and made him a "learn-to-tie-your-shoes" game. No pic of that one either.

We spent the rest of the day in our pajamas playing with our toys. I was a little concerned the kids would be upset because we didn't go to Grandma's house this year. They weren't. As I asked them about it later, they each said they were happy with the way the day panned out. This will likely become a new tradition for us. My mom and Grandma Audrey did stop by that evening and we attended a big Hutchison party and partied with Brent's family a week earlier, so everyone was covered.

Hope you all had a great holiday.

Here are a few pictures of our house. It's mostly the same as last year, except I changed my upstairs color scheme to black and red with silver.

Living room trees.








Downstairs tree.