Christmas & Christmas Eve

We actually adjusted our calendar to enable us to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas a day early, since we would be out of town on Christmas (and I have a strong preference for celebrating Christmas at home).  Our Christmas Eve was really nice.  I had a follow-up appointment after my nose surgery, but other than that we had a lot of time at home to just hang out.  I was feeling much better after my appointment so I did some baking, made Wassail, and arranged a couple of plates of treats to take to neighbors on their Christmas Eve.  We had our traditional Bethlehem dinner, which included a lamb roast this time, and Cat suggested we watch the Christmas episode of "The Chosen," which was very good.  The kids gave their presents to each other, which was fun and sweet, and Luke gave me the gift he's been working on at school all year: a calendar with a different handprint picture for each month.  It definitely made me cry.

There was a bit of a struggle getting everyone settled for bed, especially since the girls wanted to sleep in the same room and watch a movie but the boys wanted something special to do too.  In the end, I set up a computer for the boys to watch the newest Grinch movie in their room while the girls watched a show in Cat's room.  Everyone got to bed later than they should have, and the two oldest kids had the hardest time sleeping that night.

(Luke looking on as Eliza opens the hair bands he bought her.)

"All I got was food!" - Jack's response to Cat giving him Mike & Ikes
and Cap'n Crunch.  I don't think he was complaining though.

Christmas morning started at about 7:45, and it was so fun!  The kids loved their gifts from Santa (thank goodness he could come a day early!) and from us, plus cool Disney mugs and special hot chocolate from Uncle Andy's family.

When Christmas gift-opening was finished, we had a yummy sourdough waffle, bacon, and eggs breakfast, and we all started using our gifts: playing games, Cat teaching Jack about his new drawing set, me using the new phone camera lens Ben got me, and Ben cutting things with one of his new knives.  I laid down and took a nap in the middle of all of it, then got busy finishing up the packing for our trip the next day.  We took a few minutes for a short and very cold bike ride, then Ben made a yummy Christmas dinner of pulled pork, roasted potatoes and brussels sprouts, and rolls.  That night we watched the family Christmas concert my niece put together, and it was so lovely!  Then we put the kids to bed almost on time, because we had to be up very early the next morning to start a trip to Florida.