For the past two years, we traveled to Illinois to spend Christmas with extended family. This year it was time to stay home. Rob had time off from the 23rd-Jan 2, so we looked forward to a nice long time together as a family.
I had planned to only take the week between Christmas and New Year's off school, but after Thanksgiving I felt that two weeks might be better for the kids. I told them if we could get three weeks of work finished in two weeks, we would get two weeks off and that's all the motivation they needed! They worked very diligently to complete everything in time (and because I'm nice, I let a few things slide here and there.) We spent the week before Christmas shopping for the final gifts, baking goodies, and sending the final few Christmas cards. This year I decided I wanted as little to do with the baking process as possible, as the children tend to drive me insane when we all bake together. I let each person in the family choose their treat then told them THEY had to make it. That's not really a problem, since all three of the kids can cook and bake with only minor limitations. Matt made Christmas M&M cookies, Ben made Buckeyes (with me doing the actual chocolate dipping), Anna made sugar cookies (just needed someone to handle the oven--she even made the frosting herself!), I made double chocolate biscotti, and Rob attempted mint bars, trying to modify parts of it to fit how he and I can eat. We cannot have refined sugar so we had to figure out how to make the mint frosting layer. Well. Let's just say it's a good thing the brownie part was good or the whole thing would have been a disaster. He did manage to salvage the filling and use it in a bizarre version of scones. I'm not sure how he did it, but they tasted good! And my biscotti was so fabulous we ended up making a couple more batches over the course of the next week.
On Christmas Eve we decided to have some fun and take the kids sledding. We missed going sledding last year somehow, so they were overdue. They had a blast and were the only kids on the hill until another family showed up. All six kids sledding had a blast and had races, etc. I even went down the hill once, laughing like a loon the entire time. (Until I had to walk back up the hill...ugh!) I left early to get hot chocolate ready for the cold crew. The kids jumped in the showers afterwards and after dinner, we headed to church for the Christmas Eve concert. I love, love, love attending a service on Christmas Eve. It just seems "right" to me somehow. We didn't have one when I was growing up, so it's not something I am used to. More like something I adopted as an adult that I would love to be part of every Christmas Eve. This year the church had a sacred concert with a pause in the middle for our pastor to sit on the stage with the children and read the Christmas story. Only Anna went up this year, as they boys decided they are too old.
After the service, we drove around looking at lights. We found some fun displays in parts of town we don't normally see and our favorite display included a peacock! We arrived home to find the police across the street! Someone drove into a light pole at the neighbors and it looked like a hit and run. Kind of fun to watch, especially since no one was hurt. The kids went to bed soon after the excitement was over and Rob and I put out the final stocking stuffers and the "Santa" gifts. (We have a long-running joke about putting out cookies for Santa and getting gifts the next morning. We have never done the Santa thing in our house for multiple reasons.)
I got up to use the bathroom around 5am Christmas morning and ran into Matt in the hallway. Turkey. We told the kids not to get us up until 7am so they had a LOOOOONG wait! We giggled to each other in bed as we heard them sushing each other and trying to stay quiet. Right at 7 they came in to get us up, and of course like all parents everywhere, we dragged out getting ready as long as we could. Generally we start with the "Santa" gifts, which are the only ones they are allowed to open all at once. This year "Santa" got them fun shirts. Then it was stocking time and present opening! We like to do it one at a time and we start with whoever has a gift closest to Dad, then just make sure everyone gets a gift before starting the next round. We had gifts from the grandparents under the tree too, and the kids all buy gifts for everyone. We had a grand time watching everyone's reactions to the gifts and the kids were very happy.
I should mention how Rob and I do gifts. A few years ago we were really strapped for cash so we took a tip from a friend and bought a few presents from thrift stores, and then one main gift off the list. The kids like the idea, as they have no idea what they are getting and it makes the gift opening more fun. This year we found some really fun things. Matt received a Star Wars puzzle, juggling balls, a Lego set I didn't want anymore, and his main gift was a tablet. (It would have been my Kindle Fire but the kindle died one week before Christmas so we had to scramble to get a new gift!) For Anna we found a cute sweatshirt, a Snowgli from Frozen that talks, a big bag of fabric, and her main gift was a new doll. Ben got a book about the homerun race between Sosa and McGuire (that apparently was a Christmas gift from "Uncle Dave" back in 1998), a Sammy Sosa jersey I found at a bag sale ten years ago and have kept in storage, Blockus, and his main gift was a Lego set.
After the gift opening we all had breakfast and got ready for church. The kids weren't too happy about leaving their gifts and going to church, but they did enjoy the service. We opted for something different for lunch: Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches and fries. It's hard to make so we don't do it too often and gluten-free baguettes are pricey, so it was a wonderful choice. We spent our afternoon relaxing and enjoying our presents. Rob and I put out cheese, sausage, and crackers for a light supper and we enjoyed a movie together. It was a great Christmas!
The rest of our week was relaxing and involved several outings together as a family, a nice date for Rob and I, Matt's first youth group 1/2 nighter (the all-nighter was cancelled this year), and other nice events. We had a wonderful week together!
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