We spent the morning of Christmas Eve at home, with all of us taking a quick trip outside to deliver soft ginger, sugar, and coconut cranberry cookies to our three closest neighbors. Tim and three of the kids went down for naps after lunch, while Silas and I ran a quick errand.
The next thing on the agenda was our church's Christmas Eve service. This is our eighth Christmas there, but we'd never attended the Christmas Eve service because we were either having guests arrive at our house or were out of town. We snapped a couple quick pictures before heading out. One smiling, one silly. Par for the course.
After the service we headed to the home of a family from church. They and another family had extended an invitation a few days earlier for us to join them for Christmas Eve dinner. We took a plate of cookies, as we'd baked about a million, but otherwise they did all the cooking. Such a treat! Ham, beef, homemade pasta, asparagus, green beans, rolls, pineapple, blueberries, raspberries, ice cream, and cookies (theirs and ours). Delicious! The adults visited, the kids ran around like maniacs, some of the kids did a last minute repeat of part of the Christmas program and others showed off their singing skills. Fun evening!
It was already past bedtime when we left and we had stuff to do when we got home, so we decided to make a late night even later and spent some time driving through a couple neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights. Sometimes you just have to kick responsibility to the curb and score some "cool parents" points, which is exactly what we did.
We had an Advent stocking to take care of when we got home, then it was time for each of us to open one gift before going to bed. I received a gift from Naomi and I love her expression of happy satisfaction that I liked what she gave me.
Naomi opened a gift that was from Tim and I. Sorta. A few months ago I received a note from a friend I've known online for six years, but never met in person. She's an excellent seamstress and, knowing that Tim's unemployed, wanted to make Naomi a dress for Tim and I to give to her. Isn't that sweet? Well, she not only made a dress and bloomers, but also made a matching doll outfit. It was her first Cabbage Patch outfit, but you wouldn't know by looking at it. Naomi loooooooved it and asked if she could wear it to bed. As of now, she still has it on. We'll make her change when she wakes up, as 36 hours is more than enough time to wear a newly acquired outfit, but I have a sneaking suspicion it will be worn often.
Tim and I watched White Christmas after the kids went to bed, then hit the sack ourselves.
We woke up this morning to our first Christmas spent entirely with our immediate family. I love spending the day with a bigger group of people, but we also had a wonderful time without anyone else around. Thanks to the generosity of multiple people, both known and unknown, our unemployed Christmas resulted in the most gifts we've ever had under the tree. We are not a family who goes crazy at Christmas, even when we can, so I don't really care about the number of gifts from a quantity standpoint. This year, though, it was a tangible reminder of a gracious God and a life surrounded by amazingly thoughtful and generous people. So special!
We had a very leisurely day - Tim reading The Legend of the Three Trees, which he does each Christmas and Easter, opening a few gifts, doing a box from our nativity set, taking a water and bathroom break, opening a few more gifts, doing another nativity box, getting cider started in the crockpot, and so on, breaking for other exciting things like changing diapers and rotating laundry. We are a "one person opens at a time" kind of family, so opening presents is never chaotic, but today was so mellow. Loved it!
Our kids have always been amazing gift givers, thoughtful in the things they choose and always excited to hand their gifts to the recipient. This year was no exception. Like anyone else, they love getting gifts and were thrilled with every single thing they opened. I heard "no way!", "oh my word", "yes", and "awesome" quite a bit today, along with lots of eyes popping out of heads and jaws hitting the floor. The flip side of their love of receiving is they they never ask if they can open a gift next, but are always chomping at the bit to be the next to give a gift to someone else. I'm so thankful for their generous hearts in giving and I love watching their enthusiastic gratitude in receiving. It's a perfect balance.
As for food, I had absolutely no desire to spend the day in the kitchen, so lunch and dinner consisted of a smorgasbord of snacks. Our not-so-gourmet menu consisted of salami, cheddar, jack, two kinds of Wheat Thins, two kinds of Triscuits, three kinds of Kettle chips, grapes, fresh pineapple, mandarins, Chex mix (given to us by a friend), cheese puffs and pretzels (given to us by a neighbor), tamari almonds, pistachios, and the cookies we didn't give to our neighbors. It was perfect!! The kids loved eating snacky stuff I don't usually buy and I loved not having to plan, prep, cook, or clean up a huge dinner.
Teebs took a nap, two of the kids and I drove down the road for a quick cookie delivery to another family, then we spent part of the afternoon opening the rest of our gifts. Our living room looked like a tornado had blown through by the time we were done, but everyone was pretty happy. And silly.
Did you notice that in both smiling pictures, Christmas Eve and Christmas, Tyler is looking at the camera, but he's looking at the rest of us in both silly pictures. He's probably wondering what's wrong with his crazy family!
Our older nappers didn't nap and they were up crazy late last night, so everything slowed down in the evening. The boys learned how to play Stratego, I put away some gifts, Naomi watched White Christmas, Silas worked on making survival bracelets with some cord he received as a gift, Tim and Tyler konked out for a bit, and I played Cash Cab with Devon for the first time.
The house is still a mess and I'm totally exhausted, but it was a wonderful day!
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3 comments:
You forgot to mention one very important part of the day: Calling Papa and Nana and Aunt Ashley and singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". It was great!
My husband has been out of work 2x at Christmastime due to back surgeries. (the first time Christian was 6mo and the 2nd he was 2yo, just before Sophie was born) Both years were as you said, probably the years we had the most presents under the tree.
Looks like you all had a fun day!
What about Tim's bike from Silas?!!!! ; )
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