Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas Eve Photos

When I and Mark were children, our families both opened gifts on Christmas Eve. We kept that tradition when we married and that's how Kara was brought up. Matt was a good sport when he married Kara and let us continue on in our tradition. It works well because Matt & Kara can spend Christmas Eve with us and Christmas Day with Matt's family.

On Christmas Eve we eat potato soup and hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls for dinner. We light the candles on our nativity carousel. We read the Christmas story.


We sing a few Christmas carols. We unwrap our gifts!


If you saw the photo I posted of the Christmas tree a few days ago, you will know there were lots of presents under the tree. There are nine people who live in our house, so the gifts were not all for the children.

We try not to overdo with gifts at Christmas. Kara and Matt gave the children a toy, a piece of clothing, and a book each. Mark and I gave them a toy and a book. Great-grandma gave them a toy. They each purchased one item for one sibling. Grandma Vicki sent them a toy. That's eight gifts each before Santa. And, they each got four or five more items at Grandpa Tim and Grandma Karen's. They did quite well despite our efforts to keep it reasonable.

Jake, Viva, and Bentley helped distribute the gifts. Lincoln only managed to open two gifts before he needed a break. Jake was a little disappointed that Bentley received a cool Lego watch and he didn't. It's not easy being the slightly younger brother. The older children all got awesome puzzles from great-grandma. They scored fun new tee-shirts from their parents.

Viva received a few dolls (a princess, a fairy, and a ballerina!), which is what she wanted, so that was great. She also got a stencil set, a mosaic set, and a Princess tote bag. The boys got Erector sets, zoomorphs, and cool science toys. Lincoln received a play table and some cool baby toys.

Santa brought the children (to share jointly) three games, a Lego set, cool colored Lego bricks, a marble run, a musical instrument, art supplies, and stockings overflowing with fun, small items. Santa also left for Bentley a shiny dragon, for Jake a sock monkey, and for Viva a doll. Lincoln scored a Skwish ball from Santa. Oddly enough, none of his siblings ever owned one.







It was a good holiday at our home. We hope yours was a good one, too!

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