Christmas Eve 2009

Our family in our Christmas jammies in front of the Christmas tree

The feast! Ham, Au Gratin Potatoes, salad, rolls, mmmhhhh

Christmas Eve was great this year. It was very similar to how I remember it being as a kid. It was the first Christmas Eve in a few years that all my brothers and I were there together. Mom and Kerry made a wonderful sit down feast for all of us to enjoy. We had ham, homemade rolls, Au Gratin potatoes, salad, punch, I think the only item we might have been missing was the jell-o salad. :)

After dinner we had the traditional Christmas Eve Program. Several years ago, Mom and Kerry decided to turn this over to the kids. So now, every year one of the kids is in charge of the whole sha-bang. The only requirement being that the Christmas Story gets read at some point. This year was actually supposed to be Tanya and Nelson's turn, but due to a family scheduling conflict (it was their turn to be with Nelson's family) they got skipped and we found ourselves in charge. I meant to plan something great, grand, and wonderful, but I ran out of time. We did manage to make a "name that tune" game on the computer that played 5 seconds clips of random Christmas songs, and everyone had to guess the title and artist. That turned out pretty fun I think. Tanya won (she and Nelson and Graham dropped by after things were winding down at the Strongs), and Mom got a close second.

By then our kids were getting pretty crabby and ready for bed. Aaron read the Christmas story out of the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and while he read Lincoln helped me put up the right characters at the right time from our Little People Nativity set. Linc thought that was great fun, and when it was over he kissed each one and said good-bye. "*kiss* bye Baby Jesus. *kiss* bye Mary..."etc. Then he wanted to set them all up again and re-put them away again. I'm glad we got the Little People Nativity this year. It's been fun to watch Lincoln play with it all season. He knows the names of all the pieces, and knows how to set them up in their right places. It's cute and it's been a fun way to teach him about the Christmas Story.

After we read the Christmas Story, my family has a tradtion where a few weeks before Christmas every year my mom and Kerry give each family $50 and they get to spend it one someone in need. Then on Christmas Eve we report what we've each done. I love this tradition, because it's about something bigger than you and bigger than presents. I think it's a good reminder of Christ. I also love to hear how each family spends their $50 dollars so differently, but all the ways are so great, and really are helpful to someone.

After that, we all opened our jammies. Aaron got me a yellow bathrobe with slippers to match. I got Aaron a nice pair of slippers, and Lincoln and Ivan both got a warm pair pf blanket sleepers.

Then it was time for the children to go to bed. They are still both too young to really understand what happens on Christmas morning, so if we're lucky we might get to sleep in one more year. :) Well, except Aaron, who is taking Kelly to the airport at o'dark-thirty so that he can spend Christmas in WA with the family there. Good thing he's going too, because he's delivering all of our Christmas presents!

My mom's pretty tree with all the piles of presents underneath. When you have 7 kids plus some spouses and grandchildren that makes for a lot of presents!