We started all of our Christmas events this past weekend. Usually, Christmas is jam packed into a steady and constant 3 days, but this year it's much more spread out. Now that Stephanie and Erin are married, and they have family obligations with their husbands, we had to shift our plans a little, which worked out just as well. Friday night, the 19th, we went to my parents and decorated 90-something Christmas cookies. The kids absolutely loved it, and really stuck with it long after the adults were over it. Here are some pictures of the kids decorating.
Here's one of Alli working extra hard. Look at the concentration on her face!
Here's a picture of several of the finished products.
We spent the night there and then got up early and opened presents the next morning, and then cooked a big lunch of finger foods and pretty much grazed all day while playing a marathon game of Mexican Train. I actually didn't play for most of it. I just don't have the attention span any more to sit still for that long. I did jump in on the last 2 rounds and played on Drew's team, though, and she ended up winning (not just because of me, and definitely not because they let her win, either), so it was nice to get in on the tail end of a victory. Here's a picture of the huge mess of paper from the present opening. 
Tonight, Andy's mom and grandmother came over and had dinner with us and brought gifts for the kids to open. We had a nice dinner, and the kids got some much needed clothes. Here are a couple of pictures of that. 
So, it's been a great start to all the festivities, and tomorrow night we have our party with the Clark's, and then Big Red himself comes to visit. We're trying to start some of our own family traditions since so far, our plans have just consisted of carrying on the same old traditions from when we were kids, which is great -- I hope to continue that for a long, long time. But, we also want our kids to have something of their own, so I'm planning on cooking a big breakfast just for our family Christmas morning, and then I'm sure that will be followed by hours of playing with gifts from Santa.
Here's a picture of several of the finished products.We spent the night there and then got up early and opened presents the next morning, and then cooked a big lunch of finger foods and pretty much grazed all day while playing a marathon game of Mexican Train. I actually didn't play for most of it. I just don't have the attention span any more to sit still for that long. I did jump in on the last 2 rounds and played on Drew's team, though, and she ended up winning (not just because of me, and definitely not because they let her win, either), so it was nice to get in on the tail end of a victory. Here's a picture of the huge mess of paper from the present opening. Tonight, Andy's mom and grandmother came over and had dinner with us and brought gifts for the kids to open. We had a nice dinner, and the kids got some much needed clothes. Here are a couple of pictures of that. So, it's been a great start to all the festivities, and tomorrow night we have our party with the Clark's, and then Big Red himself comes to visit. We're trying to start some of our own family traditions since so far, our plans have just consisted of carrying on the same old traditions from when we were kids, which is great -- I hope to continue that for a long, long time. But, we also want our kids to have something of their own, so I'm planning on cooking a big breakfast just for our family Christmas morning, and then I'm sure that will be followed by hours of playing with gifts from Santa.
1 comment:
Thank you so much for saving and recording this. Even though I was there I loved reading about it and seeing the pictures. I hope Santa is good to you all.
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