Christmas

Usually Christmas Eve morning we do our own little family Christmas. We do it traditionally except that everything including the stocking are from mommy and daddy and not Santa. (Santa comes to my in-laws house Christmas Eve evening.) We also decided we wanted to "make" each of the kids a gift along with the gifts we bought them. We never buy them much because they get so much from grandparents and birth families. We buy them each a gift and then one combined gift and then this year we added the "homemade" gift which we will keep as a tradition. So the kids woke up with their gifts and filled stockings under the tree. The kids woke up at like 5 am so excited about what was under the tree. We were able to fight them off and they played in their rooms until about 5:45 when Oak got hurt while playing and then we just decided to get up and open presents since everyone was already up. We were completely done by 6:30.

The "homemade" gifts we did for the kids were an art/craft kit that I put together for Oak because she loves to craft, color, paint, glue and cut. She would spend all day doing that if she had the opportunity. And for Mac we made a lego table out of a children's table we already had. Hubs painted it but we couldn't find the lego plates to glue to the top of it. But Mac still loved it and hopefully we kind find some eventually. We also had the kids shop for gifts for each other this year for the first time. I gave Hubs a canvas photo that he had been eyeing that my brother-in-law had taken. And the kids got him STAR WARS on DVD/Blueray. Hubs got me a new set of stainless steel pots and pans which is what I asked for.

At 7am I ran to the store and got OJ and donuts. YUM!

Every Christmas Eve Daywe go bowling with Bryce's family. Everyone looks forward to it and it is always so much fun. Mac loved bowling with his boy cousins and Oak just flitted around like it was a party.

My kids are obsessed with their cousin baby C!

My sweet sister in law never holds babies! So when I saw her holding baby C I just had to get a picture. She should be having her very own baby in about a month. We are very excited for her to be born!

My handsome hubs!

They got photo bombed! This cracks me up!

And our traditional grandkid pic. We have been taking this picture since the five big kids in the back were smaller then the kids in the front.

Oh and I bowled a TURKEY and got the second highest score out of everyone in the family. No I am not really that good, it was just luck.

In my husbands family it is tradition to hold their Christmas festivities on Christmas Eve. I actually really like this so that we can always spend Christmas day with my parents. We always go bowling like I already posted about then we come back to the house, act out the nativity, eat, clean up then Santa leaves his gifts for the kids on the porch after that. 

Oak was a sheep. Half way through the program she stood up and said she couldn't be the sheep anymore because her thumb hurt. It was hilarious.

The two cute sheep.

The angels reading the Nativity program.

My cute shepherd.

Mary with baby Jesus.

Snuggles with daddy.

Cousin G gave the boy cousins homemade harry potter wands. So fun!

The line up for Santa gifts.

Mac got what he wanted, a remote control car.

And Oak got her Merida bow and arrows AND a dress.

Then there was the Christmas Eve meltdown. It was doozy! And it all started with clothes and she was just really tired. 

It was a fun night. And the kids got some great stuff. 

We got up early Christmas morning and drove to my parents house. When we got there we opened presents and had a yummy turkey dinner. Somehow I didn't take many pictures. 

I really wanted to spend most of December concentrating on helping others so I finally got around to doing something I have wanted to do for awhile. My kids are always wanting to give to the homeless people who are standing on the corner with their signs. We ususally don't have anything but we decided we would make "blessing bags". They are ziplock bags with some non perishable food and toiletries. The kids really enjoyed putting them together. And right after we got them done we had the major snow/freezing storm and no one was out to give them to. But after the storm was over we were finally able to hand a couple out and we also handed out 3 of them on Christmas eve. The kids would get so excited to be able to give them away. We have decided to keep doing this all year round and when we run out of the bags we will make more.

When we were at my parents house for a few days during the snow storm we helped them put their Christmas tree up. The kids loved it and Mac loved helping Grandpa put together the train that goes around it. 

It was so sweet to watch my kids hang ornaments that I remember hanging on the tree when I was a little girl. 

On Mac's birthday we went and got our tree since it was the only day we could do it with daddy. We went to a new tree farm and it was fun that there was still snow on the ground. They had the most beautiful Noble Firs for only $20.

The only thing I didn't like about our tree is the flimsy branches. I don't think you can tell from the picture but all the ones with ornaments are drooping and ornaments kept on falling off because they would slide right down the flimsy branch. 

The kids really wanted to go see Santa. Especially Oak! I was curious how Oak would react because Oak can be very cautious with people she doesn't know. And when we got up to Santa she wouldn't go near him but she would tell him what she wanted. And the only way she would get near him for a picture was if Mac was in between them and Mac had to hold her hand. I love how the picture turned out and it was the first time I have ever bought a Santa picture. 

We also got two names off the giving tree at the mall but I never got any pictures of that. We found two kids about the same age as our kids and I took them shopping to pick out stuff. The kids loved this. 

A quick story about Oak and the giving tree and her Santa gift. One night close to Christmas I needed to drop off the giving tree presents and I needed to take Oak with me. Since we were by Toys R Us I decided to stop there to see if they had the last two things I needed for gifts for my kids. I couldn't find the thing I needed for Mac's present but I found exactly what I needed for part of Oak's Santa gift. It was a Merida dress (which I couldn't find at any other store) to go with the Merida bow and arrows she wanted. Before I said anything she had spotted the dress and was just in awe of it. So I was in a bit of a predicament since Oak was with me and it was the LAST one. I texted Hubs about it and he texted back "Don't you dare leave the store without it! Tell her it is for someone else." I thought it was so cute that Hubs said that because he is usually the type to just say "Oh well!" So since we were dropping off the giving tree presents after we left the store I decided to tell her we were going to get it for a girl from the giving tree. She thought that it was the best idea ever and was so excited for the little girl and just kept on saying that she would love it. She wasn't upset at all that it wasn't for her. It was too adorable. So we bought it and when we got back to the car I tucked it away in a bag that was already in the car when she wasn't looking.