Christmas

We had a nice Christmas Eve devotional, with our candlelight singing.  I have realized that we don't sound very good singing, but it's still meaningful to sing together, and Weston was belting out the songs this year.  We shared some testimonies and thoughts following the singing.  We did something a little different after that - Jared suggested we make snowflakes and write something on it as a gift we'll give to the Lord this year (we've done something similar before, but not writing it down to look at next year).  One of our friends gave a talk recently at church also describing how they write something down and put it in a nice present-box to look at the following Christmas.  So we all took a few moments to make a snowflake, write a gift to give, and put it in a little basket for next year.  Then we got to eat our sugar cookies.    

We usually open a family present as well, which wasn't very spiritual, but it was some church comedy movies.  We watched one of those called "Church Ball".  The kids all get their favorite box of cereal for Christmas morning, which they can easily eat as soon as they wake up (usually earlier than I want to get up).  Then we open presents, and while everyone else is enjoying their presents, I make brunch.  I actually prepared the cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve and then baked them in the morning, so it wasn't much work.  I also made a breakfast casserole.  By the time we have brunch, it's usually 11:00 or 11:30, so we don't even do lunch.  But then it's on to preparing for Christmas dinner - rolls, ham, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, and sweet potato casserole.  It's almost like preparing Thanksgiving meal without the turkey.  We also had 3 different desserts - apple pie, key lime pie, and Twix cheesecake bars.  I made the bars and key lime pie on Christmas Eve but made the apple pie on Christmas Day.  There's not much rest for the adults on Christmas (or in my case - pretty much me doing all the baking).  But luckily all the presents were wrapped before Christmas and ready to go, so it was just a lot of cooking (and cleaning).  Alex helped clean everything up.  

We did get to zoom in with family on Christmas morning with Alex's parents and Aunt Jane and with my family on Christmas afternoon.  We got to see my parents open their Bandera book.  The kids all seemed pretty happy with their gifts - I love the joy and excitement on their faces, even when they open something that was on their wish list (shouldn't be much of a surprise).  It's not as exciting for Nathan and Jared - they're past the Lego phase, so they get random things like hats, clothes, wallets, money, or gift cards.  We couldn't even get them to make a wish list.  Nathan got a fancy rain jacket, which will probably be useful for his mission.  It was fun to see Nathan get an OSU hat from Alex's parents (in OK) and a K-State shirt from Jane (in KS) - they're putting their "votes" in for Nathan's college selection!  I guess a couple of my siblings and in-laws should have sent something BYU for him.  (BYU actually might be the top spot if he gets accepted, as Nathan has realized the financial differences - BYU is much more affordable.)   

Weston seems to have started a tradition of getting Charmin toilet paper - he had it on his wish list again.  It's so funny to see how excited he gets about his own nice toilet paper.  Owen, Weston, and Savannah were equally excited about the new Lego sets.  Savannah got some Calico Critters too, which she's really into right now.  I guess Christmas was a success again!  Lots of happy faces and good food.  I'm happy to have "survived" another Christmas - it's a lot of work... but also sentimental as another last with Nathan.     

They don't look very excited... but they do like doing our candlelight devotional.