My Christmas Eve was spent doing a lot of stuff in the kitchen . . . making these delicious Christmas cheese braids, making Christmas 7-layer jello, making Christmas Eve rice pudding, etc. Ben was doing . . . something. Probably a lot of house cleaning and last-minute Christmas shopping. :) (December is always a busy work-month for him and so it's hard to get the time!) Jonas . . . was off with friends. Miles, Emmy, and Lucy delivered our dozen tins of toffee. As a "Christmas gift" to Emmy, I let her drive while out delivering - even though she's technically not supposed to unless there is someone like 21 or older. Oh well. I fully trust Miles. Not Emmy quite so much, but enough. They had a fun outing.
Our reindeer got a makeover on Christmas eve - cute "scarves" and a Rudolph nose for the little one. Love these guys! :)
We had planned to send the kids bowling that afternoon while Ben and I finished up dinner. But it was closed that day and there is literally nothing else to do in our town (okay, maybe I am being a little dramatic . . . but I am in a I-hate-living-here phase at the moment). Sadness! But luckily Everett and Oliver were available and so our kids played these fun online games together.
Then it was dinner time: Swedish meatballs and Christmas jello. We had three elders over and I am so sad I didn't get a picture with them! They were fun and so great to have over. Elder Hyer, Elder Bailey, and Elder Warren. We ate, played a super fun and funny game of Telestrations, watched the Christ Child, and then gave them gifts to open: cool Colorado socks. Fun, fun.
If you don't know what Telestrations is, it's kind of like pictionary meets telephone. We learned the DIY version from Brittany, my sister-in-law. One person starts off with a saying. The next person reads the saying, then draws a picture of it. The next person looks at the drawing only and then writes down what they think it is. And so on. Here's a funny one:
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Haha, so funny. What started out as "Santa on his death bed." Ended up as "The peanut dad makes his peanut kid do chores." :)
The kids started this tradition on their own. We had gotten a smaller "kid" tree one year and the kids started putting "gifts" to each other under it. Gifts like half-broken toys, hand-me-down toys, paper toys, DIY crafts, etc. You get the idea. Sweet for sure. But as they have gotten older, the gifts have become quite impressive. Emmy definitely gets the most excited about the gifts she gives out. She loves it. Here she is holding an elaborately-wrapped gift from Miles. It was not a gun, of course. Miles made this gun out of a Life cereal box. Neat-o. Miles gave Jonas a super-cool hoodie; Emmy he gave an awesome painting of a yak and this hair dryer/volumizer she totally wanted; for Lucy Miles got her scriptures. Actually, Ben and I bought scriptures and Miles painted them. How special! Jonas got (on Christmas Eve and on borrowed money from me . . . because I wanted him to participate as well as have to think about what to get others . . . ) Miles some fenders for his bike (well, he will get them . . . the store was closed on Christmas eve); Emmy got some hair stuff, a really pretty earring/necklace set, and a cool airpod case; Lucy got from Jonas some hair stuff and really cute and perfect-for-Lucy jewelry. Emmy got Miles a $50 gift card to the climbing gym in Rexburg, plus a cool leather journal for his artistic doodlings; Jonas got a nice pair of jeans and a cool belt buckle; Lucy got adorable purple Ugg boots and an awesome fleece sweater. Lucy got Miles an awesome Studebaker tshirt and some circus peanuts (gross, I know, but he loves them); Jonas got a soft and awesome American flag blanket; Emmy got a super-cute baseball hat that looks so good on her. I promise I won't write all the other things the kids got for Christmas this year. I just love what they get for each other. So thoughtful for each sibling.
While Santa came and delivered gifts . . .
After checking out Santa's goodies, we got ready for church . . .
The kids in line . . .
Christmas morning! The kids got us up at 7:30 and we checked out what Santa brought. Fun. :) The boys had gotten "big" gifts from us, but not the wrapp-able sort (plane ticket for Miles to Germany and a season's pass to Powederhorn for Jonas. Both gifts are also birthday gifts, too. Plus Miles had to pay some money of his own . . . ) So luckily Santa had delivered some gifts to everyone. The boys got lego sets because why not. :)
The girls got dresses from my mom and they loved them and were so excited to wear them on Christmas Sunday. Church was good with lots of good songs sung by beautiful voices.
After church, I had signed us up to deliver meals from a community organization to those who were homebound or lacking in funds. So we stopped by the fairgrounds on the way home from church and had to wait in quite a line to get our meals and addresses. Each car had 2 houses to stop off at and so it wasn't too bad (standing in line took longer than driving and dropping off the meals). Jonas and Miles took a group, Ben and Lucy another, and Emmy and I went together. Emmy and I were invited in to the last house we went to. Two cute older ladies - one elderly lady taking care of her even more elderly mother. :) It was nice to do.
After that we finally got back home and ate our brunch - Christmas cheese braid with orange julius. Best ever breakfast. Then it was back to opening up gifts. Like I mentioned earlier, the boys didn't have many gifts to open bc they had gotten "big" items already. But they still got some food, socks, etc. And they were more than fine and grateful for their ski pass and plane ticket and so it was all good. Emmy mainly got clothes and accessories. She loved them all pretty much. And Lucy got some clothes, friendship bracelet kit, and more.
This gift was a totally fun surprise for her - an adorable bluetooth keyboard. The kids do all their work on iPads and I can't stand the on-screen keyboards. So I saw this over a year ago and am glad I got it for Lucy. She totally LOVES it.
Jonas and his super cool "farm truck" from Lego. It's really an awesome set. The details that go into these lego kits are so amazing. Miles got a Mars Land Rover and it's equally awesome. It's a fun project for the boys to work on on Christmas day. :)
We ended the day with a movie (The Mafia Only Kills in Summer), fondue dinner and dessert, and another movie (Groundhog's Day) taking us to midnight. Haha. Fun times.
1 comment:
Merrrrrrry Christmas! and that telestrations was amazing.
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