Dave's family tradition is that they go to a movie every year on Christmas Eve. This year, since Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday, we moved it up a day to the 23rd. We saw Ferdinand, which was very cute.
Ella is even holding a bull that Dave brought back from a business trip to Spain for Lacey when she was a baby.
Then, we came back home and made Christmas cookies.
The next morning was Christmas Eve, so we got up and went to Church.
Here my kids are with the Harpers. Karen (the four "big kids" mom) and I have been good friends for a long time. She watched my kids on T/Th ever since Lacey was born right up until Ella was born (which coincided with the time that we moved farther from her house and Larry/Rita retired and took over) and her kids (prior to them all graduating HS and going off to college - boo!!) have always been our "go to" baby-sitters. Needless to say, we have years and years of history! And we always laugh at the fact that our kids are EXACTLY the same. We both have girl, boy, girl, girl. They are the exact ages apart from each other. And they even look alike! It's crazy! We have the exact same life; I'm just 15 or so years behind.
And we finally thought to get a picture with them all being in town at the same time!
And then we came home and took family selfies before we changed out of our "nice clothes."
And then we went over to Nana and Papa's for dinner.
Then we drove around with our cousin's to see the lights.
This is our very favorite tree. We drive by it every year. You get a sense of how big it is with Lacey standing next to it. It's this huge massive tree in somebody's front yard. We talked to him and he said that it is his gift to the community. Nearly every branch of the whole tree is stranded with lights! He said when he was 25, he moved into this house as a single guy. Somebody told him he needed to buy a Christmas tree. So we went to the store and bought a little tree. He planted it and all these years later, it has turned into this tree!
After seeing the lights, we came home and watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas
This picture was taken the following day, but after Mr. Kruger's Christmas and after we said goodnight to grandparents and cousins, the kids gathered around the tree and opened their Christmas PJ's and their "Ashmore gift." Over 40 years ago, my mother was a school teacher. She became wonderful friends with a woman she worked with and her daughter, Maricarmen. To this day, they keep in touch. Maricarmen is an amazingly talented seamstress and is crafty and creative to boot! My entire childhood, she sent us gifts for Christmas, most of them hand made. And it became a Christmas Eve tradition to open our "Ashmore gift" before going to bed. Amazingly, Maricarmen continues to send Christmas gifts to our kids and now that tradition continues. She made personalized pillow cases for each of my kids! So sweet. So, they slept their sugar-plum filled heads on their new pillow cases on Christmas eve.
Then, we got the kids to bed and gave Santa the go ahead to drop off his gifts.
The kids all climbed in our bed ~7am. We staved them off until about 7:45, but then we couldn't hold them off any longer. Then, they lined up from youngest to oldest, as we always do, and waited with baited breath until we gave them the go ahead to walk down the stairs.
Here's the "posed picture."
And here's how they were really feeling!
Then walked down the stairs to the stockings. After stockings, we surrounded the tree and began opening gifts. Riley insisted we all sit on individual blankets. We started with Lacey and took turns watching each other open gifts and taking a couple breaks for breakfast and such to make it last as long as possible!
Tanner was super excited about this - his Webelos uniform.
Another hit!
Airsoft shotgun - it was at the top of his list!
Thanks Hammy and Papa Mitchell!
The best part of taking the kids out to get small gifts for each other - the post-gift-giving hugs!
His "biggie"
We all loved watching Salt play in the tree. He's going to be one sad kitty when that tree comes down! We got Salt one year ago today....
A Nerlie!!! A Christmas miracle!
Tom Cruise says Hello.
Tanner's loot
Lacey's loot
Riley and Ella's loot
The only pic we got of all of us together in our Christmas PJs
My boys
Thanks Hammy and Papa Mitchell!
Growing up, my parents typically had a "surprise" gift at the end of the day. We all thought Christmas was over and we were winding down for the day and they would announce we had one last gift...... one year it was a Ping Pong table. One year it was Bulls tickets. Stuff like that. We've started doing that in our family too. Last year, it was our kitten, Salt. This year...... it was telling the kids to unwrap this present on our window.
(This picture was taken the following morning - thus the daylight- since I videoed them and forgot to take an "after" pic ;))
After opening this gift, we handed them another gift to open, which was a puzzle of Denmark (Ella is holding). Admittedly, it went over the younger two kids heads, but the older two are super excited!!
This was not on our radar at all and is not a "typical" Christmas gift by any stretch of the imagination but Dave came across a deal a couple months ago announcing that "kids fly free" to Denmark, as long as the kids are ages 11 and under (which all four of our kids are). So, we decided, if all 6 of us can fly to Copenhagen with only having to buy two tickets, we should do it! So, we're busting out the Hans Christen Anderson books and counting down the days until our trip in May!!
I missed being with my parents and siblings today. But I love all the traditions I started with them and have loved continuing them with my own family.
Merry Christmas to All. And to All a Goodnight.
