Our Christmas 08

We had a lovely and quiet Christmas this year. On Christmas eve we had a dinner of soup and rolls (we did the big dinner on Christmas) and got the kids all dressed in their matching jammies. Then we read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and the Christmas story from Luke and Wise Men story from Matthew. As I read from the scriptures Adrian and the kids put the flannel nativity scene together at the bottom of our advent calendar. Then the kids got to open up their Christmas eve presents which is usually jammies, but this year was slippers. Then we read more stories upstairs and off the bed the kiddos went. Adrian did some daddy stuff (i.e. assembling) and I finished baking and cooking a few things that I could do early for Christmas dinner. Then together we watched the "Winter" episode of Vicar of Dibley - I love that show so much!

On Christmas morning the kids woke up bright and early (I really don't know exactly when, I'm unresponsive for a good while in the mornings) and we finally went downstairs around 7am... The kids had pushed all the buttons on the alarm clock in our room hoping to make the alarm go off and wake Adrian and I up properly, but as a result they reset the time and we have no idea when we actually dragged ourselves out of bed. If it was before 7 I'm glad I don't know.

The kids spied their loot from the stairway and were in a kind of shocked silence - it was eerie.:) Then the mass unwrapping began and the oohs and ahhs started. Nina loved the big wooden doll house she got and Ben was totally excited about all the Star Wars toys. Sophie mostly got games for her DS and that made her very happy. All the gifts from our extended family were awesome as well - thanks everyone!! After all the unwrapping we moved to the family room where the stockings were and the kids were very excited about all the little toys and candy inside them. Then began the candy munching... It was a very fun morning and so neat to see the joy on the kids faces. I love Christmas!

After the present opening Adrian made everyone a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon and I headed upstairs for a long Christmas morning nap while the kids played with their toys... Like I said, I love Christmas!! For lunch we had our traditional picnic by the Christmas tree of cheese, crackers, summer sausage, and oranges (I love this tradition so much!) and after that we all got ready and headed to a matinee of Bolt. It was great for a kids movie - I was totally expecting to be a little bored, but the characters were actually really funny and I laughed through the whole thing. We have gotten to a point in our family were everyone is so happy at the movies - we used to have to chase Nina all over the place, but now she sits and watches the whole thing as long as you have a nice supply of popcorn for her. It was great!

After the movie the kids and Adrian did more playing and I made our Christmas dinner. I think this is the first time I went all out for just our little family. I made shepherds pie, Adrian's favorite pasta salad, my sister Julie's jello salad, carrots, rolls and a chocolate pie like dessert. There was a ton of food, but I enjoyed cooking it (lot of alone time listening to my ipod:)) and all the leftovers are great actually - I haven't had to really cook since.:) Everyone had their favorites - Ben and Nina love the jello salad, Adrian and Sophie love the pasta salad and I absolutely love this recipe for carrots - I could eat the whole serving bowl of carrots by myself. We were all stuffed, but it's Christmas right?? The rest of the night was spent playing with toys and then after the kids went to bed Adrian and I stayed up and watched The Office Christmas Special (the BBC one) and it was SO funny.

So our Christmas was quiet and relaxy, but it was also great fun and full of fond memories.