So with Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday this year it made things a little bit different as far as seeing both sides of the family and fitting everything in. Truth is I wish Christmas or at least Christmas Eve would always fall on a Sunday. It really is the best day for it and sets the tone for what Christmas should be all about. Since we had plans to be with both families Christmas Eve we decided to do our fondue night the night before Christmas Eve. I LOVE this new tradition. The kids love it too. We bought steak, shrimp, chicken, apples, carrots, breads, strawberries, marshmallows, chips, rice crispy treats, pretzels, all sorts of different food. It's so good and just a really fun thing to do together. One of my all time favorite traditions is this night sleeping underneath the tree. I used to love doing that with my siblings so much. I feel like my kids already do it throughout the year it probably doesn't feel as special to them…they literally sleep by each other all the time…but I hope that night feels a little bit different to them. Christmas Eve morning we woke up and I made a big breakfast for them then we all got ready for Church. They only held one hour of Sacrament. Then we came home and I started right away getting ready to host all the Christensen's. We had a "Feliz Navidad" party with tons of delicious Mexican food. Kathy had a sweet little lesson for the kids and so did Toby. Best party of this gathering was the Grandma June got to be there with us. What a blessing that was! I was worried it was too loud for her but she told me she loved every second of it and she cried when she expressed she felt like Grandpa Ned was there with her too. So very sweet. After they left and we cleaned up we headed over to my parents. We had a lesson there too from my Dad and did our traditional nativity and opening of ornaments and pajamas. The night over there didn't go quite as we were hoping. For some reason the kids were really quite hyper and hard to control and it just didn't feel as "spiritual" as it should have. We need to make some changes because our family is just growing so much and there are so many kids…it's just getting harder to "control" in a sense. Still a fun night but just a little more crazy than usual. We gathered up the kids and headed home to get ready to Santa! We spread out the reindeer food, set out the cookies and grinch milk and carrots, set up all the sleeping bags upstairs, and started 'tracking' Santa on the iPad! Tate was so worried that he was close and wasn't fall asleep and was kind of a mess. Funny kid. We put on Polar Express and they were all out within minutes. Christmas Eve is truly magical.
The kids started texting us bright and early Christmas morning. Tob and dragged ourselves out of bed, headed up the stairs, and assured the kids that Santa had indeed come;) When I told Tate that he yelled "Yes! That means we were good this year!" Guess he was pretty concerned that he might not have been and therefor would have woken up to no presents. I love him. We had our prayers, our discussion on what Christmas is truly about, and then….headed on down to the presents! I love watching each of their faces as they see what Santa has laid out for them! We opened gifts, set up presents, opened stockings, laughed, got excited, the kids ate their breakfast boxes, and just savored the joys of Christmas Morning. It's just the best. We then spent time going to both Kathy's and my Parents. We ate waffles and breakfast food at Kath's and had a big meal set out at my parents. Kath gave us the coolest music machine to keep outsides, and a foosball table. My Parents gave us all adults Yellowstone pi's, echo dots, and lots of Raider stuff. The cousins all exchanged gifts too! My all time favorite part of Christmas Day Night is the movie that Josh always puts together. It's so fun watching the collaboration of all of our pictures and reminiscing on all the memories of the year. It's truly priceless. Christmas was a success this year. I tried really hard to fulfill all of our traditions, add new ones, spend quality time as a family, and teach the kids above service and CHRIST. HE is the reason we have Christmas. It's hard to have a balance but I never want my children to be confused about what's most important during this season. It's been a wonderful time of year for my Family.
