Christmas 2014

We've had a lovely couple of days filled with family, friends, and much food. 

On Christmas Eve, we started out by heading to church where our family is heavily involved with helping to put on/direct the Christmas Pageant. It went well and after we got everything put away were able to come home and start dinner. One of the things we had was linguine with clams. Do you think TM liked it just a little bit?

Dessert for Christmas Eve dinner is always a cake to celebrate Jesus' birthday. We sing and everything. I tried a different one this year and it was a hit. White cake with a cherry/cranberry filling and orange-butter cream frosting.

Then it was off to bed for everyone except M. and P. who were working sound at the 11pm service and for me and J. who were still working on getting things ready for the next morning. I had to finish a little sewing before I put these little guys into stockings.

Cute, huh? I love the way they turned out, but it was one of those things which sounded good in theory and not so great in reality. They took far more time than I was expecting. 

The next morning, the littles let us bigger people sleep in until the entirely reasonable hour of 7:45. In our family, everyone waits upstairs until J. and I get things ready and slurp a little coffee. Then everyone lines up and gets ready to start the day.

You'll notice that Gretel is in the picture as well. It somehow seems fitting that we caught her barking. It is something she does a lot. 

We then go to the dining room to light our Christ candle, read some Bible verses and say a prayer.

After that it's stockings followed by breakfast. Breakfast is always homemade cinnamon rolls and grapefruit (with maybe a little chocolate Santa as well.) Following breakfast we spend the rest of the morning opening presents.

I made a few hats for various people...

D.

G.

L.

H.

H.'s gift from her grandparents this year was an American Girl doll. It's hard to tell in the picture, but she is very excited. (It was also a Christmas which did NOT include a seizure. Hooray!)

More pictures from the morning..

A. (and some other older children) received some cold, hard cash from grandparents.

M.

G. and L. with their new (and enormous) stuffed animals.

We had been given the American Girl treehouse by friends who were moving a while back and I was keeping it in storage until I had someone who was ready for it. With H. getting her doll, it seemed the perfect gift. (Thanks to our friends who handed it down to us!)

After presents it's time to eat again. Our Christmas lunch is always waffles, bacon, and sausage, after which people slowly get dressed, play with new things, read new books, and generally sit around  and relax. Mid-afternoon we pack everyone up and head to J.'s sister's house where there is more eating and more family. We always have Christmas crackers at dinner (you know, the things filled with little toys that you pull apart), if you are wondering about the paper crowns.

B.

Various family members and J., A., and E.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas.